Julie Goodnight offers more insights on the four primary ways horses communicate vocally.
Keep in mind, horses are capable of making a myriad of sounds, but not all of them are communicative. When scientists study behaviors, they are mostly considering the behaviors that all horses make, not just the unique “idiosyncratic” behaviors of an individual horse. All horses whinny, nicker, snort and squeal. An individual horse may learn unique behaviors that benefit him, but that would not be something we study, since it’s not inherent in all horses’ behavior.
There is always context that can cause variability. Individuals may learn to display variations. But keep in mind that there is a difference between learned and instinctive behaviors. They are born with their instinctive behaviors (nature) but they start learning voraciously as soon as they are born (nurture). The idiosyncratic behaviors (“but my horse does this not that”) would be challenging to study because every horse’s lived experience is different.
Horses practice all manner of behaviors in play: flight, fight, reproduction, herding, nurturing, etc. It’s very common to see a confined horse get turned out, run to the far end of the pen, put their head up and snort, then run back as fast as they can. Behaviorists consider this playful behavior as practice for the real thing. So you often see these communicative behaviors used in a playful setting.
When scientists study behavior, they try to understand the underlying purpose of an instinctive behavior. For instance, the nicker is more purposeful (to survival of the species) in the reproduction setting—between mare and foal and between stallion and mare. But that does not mean that every nicker is repro related—it’s just been designated as the most purposeful reason.
Although the horse's sneeze does not sound like the sneeze of a dog, cat, or human, it is definitely an intentional clearing of the airway which is what a sneeze is intended for in all species. Therefore the blowing to clear the airways of the horse is commonly referred to as a sneeze and does not have communicative value between horses.
The whinny is the most unique sound horses make and can convey all sorts of emotional nuances, from panic to bossy to romantic. Variations are learned over time in obtaining a desired result or in reaction to some lived experience. Again, behaviorists do not often study the idiosyncratic behaviors of an individual, but look more at the behaviors common to all horses.
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