REVIEW article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Animal Behavior and Welfare
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1647911
This article is part of the Research TopicAnimal Communication: Neurobiological, chemical, and physiological aspectsView all 15 articles
Horse vision through two lenses: Tinbergen's Four Questions and the Five Domains
Provisionally accepted
- 1Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
- 2Linkopings universitet Biologi (BIOLO), Linköping, Sweden
- 3The University of Sydney School of Veterinary Science, Sydney, Australia
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To improve human–horse interactions and reduce the risk of injury, it is essential to adopt an equi-centric perspective that prioritises how horses perceive their environment. This review focuses on the equine visual system, both because it is the most studied of the horse’s senses and because misunderstandings about how horses see can lead to unsafe or unsustainable handling. By applying two complementary frameworks, namely Tinbergen’s Four Questions and the Five Domains model, we examine equine vision from both a biological and a welfare-oriented perspective. We explore the anatomical and functional features of the horse’s eye, the development and evolution of visual capacities, and how these relate to behaviour, performance and welfare, while also challenging common myths. Horses possess visual adaptations that enable them to perceive fine details, detect colour, and see in dim light conditions. However, their evolutionary history as a prey species has shaped them to be highly sensitive to unfamiliar shapes and movements which we also need to be aware of. Ultimately, a deeper understanding of how horses process visual information can help correct misunderstandings, guide safer management practices, and support more ethical and effective care.
Keywords: Animal Welfare, Equine behaviour, Equine vision, Human-horse interaction, Tinbergens Questions, The Five Domains, sensory ecology, Visual Perception
Received: 16 Jun 2025; Accepted: 28 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Roth and McGreevy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Lina SV Roth, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
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