Hmmm...the study showed:
“When a horse’s ears are flopping down, it means the creature is relaxed.
But pinned back, and the horse is expressing anger.
When a horse is interested in something, it pricks up its ears and swivels them towards whatever has caught its attention.”
I think I figured that out within a few hours of meeting my first horse.
“Miss Wathan, a psychologist, said: ‘Although horses have very mobile ears, they can only swivel them round, point them forward, pull them up or flatten them back.”
If Miss Wathan actually spent some time with horses, she would know there are more variations than that. Which ear moves, if it is one instead of two, degree of movement, duration - all of those play in to it as well.
I guess it is nice to see that Britain, like the USA, has tax money to waste studying what people have known full well for a few thousand years...
It’s fun to watch an old western with horses and cowboys in a fight. Watch the ears. Often a rearing horse will have it’s ears pointed in the “wrong” direction. That is where the horse trainer is located off screen giving cues to the horse.
Many people get too emotional about the horse scenes in THE MISFITS. Rest assured there are trainers off screen overseeing everything.