How do we know our decoding of equine emotions is actually accurate? Several experts with considerable involvement with horses assigned emotions to photos of horses and they were 97% agreeable. Their judgments were combined to form a ratio used to match the pictures with 4 basic emotions of a horse; submission, excitation, anger, and relaxation. Participants were chosen mainly through introductory psychology classes at a university and through a local horse club. About 115 students were chosen to participate. There were 43 men and 72 women of a variety of experience levels ranging from novice, intermediate, and experts. Russel defines these levels as; Novice who were participants with less than one month of horse-related experience, which
