Most owners quickly learn that horses communicate through body language: the warning lift of a hoof or chomp of the teeth that says, “I don’t like that,” for instance. And now, a study from the United Kingdom is offering insight into how horses also use their faces to communicate with herdmates.

Jennifer Wathan, a PhD student, and Karen McComb, BCs, PhD, a professor of animal behavior and cognition at the University of Sussex, in England, designed a study in which horses viewed life-sized photos of two different “model” horses. The model horses were pictured with their heads turned toward food with either their eyes covered, their ears covered, or nothing covered. Researchers then studied which facial features appeared to direct the study horses’ food choices.

The team found that study horses chose the bucket that the models with uncovered faces were looking at 75% of the time. The researchers said that when the model horses’ eyes or ears were covered, the study horses’ bucket choices were random.

Wathan said that because of the side placement of the equine eye, her team was surprised to find that gaze was important. More surprising was that horses were using their ears to communicate, she said