Full and half blinks decreased significantly during stressful situations. | Photo: iStock

“Horses in our study showed a reduced amount of half and full eye blinks along with an increase in eyelid flutters when exposed to certain stressful situations,” said Katrina Merkies, PhD, associate professor and equine program coordinator at the University of Guelph, in Ontario, Canada. She presented the work of her student, Amelia Garnett, BSc candidate, during the 2017 International Society for Equitation Science Symposium, held Nov. 22-26 in Wagga Wagga, Australia.

Merkies and Garnett investigated 23 horses’ blinking characteristics when exposed to three kinds of stressful situations: separation, feed restriction, and sudden scary object. In separation, they took the horse away from other horses where he could no longer see them. For feed restriction, they withheld the horse’s meal at the regular feeding time. And for the sudden scary object test, the researchers threw a ball in front of the horse while he was alone in an arena.

The scientists recorded the horses’ eye movements on video during these tests, as well as while the horses were at rest in the paddock with other horses, as a basis of comparison. To check their stress test’s accuracy with blink rate, they also recorded cardiac data with a heart monitor and evaluated the horses’ behavioral responses