Of course horses can recognize some human emotions. Most humans, even ones who handle horses, can't read horse emotions well.
Horses are quite expressive, but their body language is alien. Horse facial expressions exist, but involve very quick eye movements, something discovered only about twenty years ago. Most of the bigger horse expressions are in ears, lips, tail, and carriage.
If horses don't get feedback from their humans indicating some understanding on the human side, they often stop trying to communicate. To learn how horses communicate, watch them in an open field for long periods. There are frequent subtle dominance displays. Not kicking, or even ears pinned back; often it's just slightly narrowed eyes and an eye-flick, and one horse will yield space to another. If a horse does that to you, putting hands on hips and giving the horse a hard stare says that you got the message and aren't backing down. Most horses get this. It's a compromise between horse body language and human body language; a pidgin, if you will. Horses recognize eye contact. You're much less likely to be bitten, even by a hostile horse, if you're looking at the horse's eye and they're looking at you.
It's quite possible to "speak horse" that way. "Talking with Horses", by Henry Blake, is useful.
Whether or not a horse understands human to human expressions depends on how much experience they have with humans. It's a second language for horses, after all. Horses that live in herd situations deal mostly with other horses, and may not be that attuned to humans. Ones in stall situations tend to be more people-oriented, by necessity. The parent article was about horses that deal with lots of different people, so they're likely to have figured out human expressions.
Horses are quite expressive, but their body language is alien. Horse facial expressions exist, but involve very quick eye movements, something discovered only about twenty years ago. Most of the bigger horse expressions are in ears, lips, tail, and carriage.
If horses don't get feedback from their humans indicating some understanding on the human side, they often stop trying to communicate. To learn how horses communicate, watch them in an open field for long periods. There are frequent subtle dominance displays. Not kicking, or even ears pinned back; often it's just slightly narrowed eyes and an eye-flick, and one horse will yield space to another. If a horse does that to you, putting hands on hips and giving the horse a hard stare says that you got the message and aren't backing down. Most horses get this. It's a compromise between horse body language and human body language; a pidgin, if you will. Horses recognize eye contact. You're much less likely to be bitten, even by a hostile horse, if you're looking at the horse's eye and they're looking at you.
It's quite possible to "speak horse" that way. "Talking with Horses", by Henry Blake, is useful.
Whether or not a horse understands human to human expressions depends on how much experience they have with humans. It's a second language for horses, after all. Horses that live in herd situations deal mostly with other horses, and may not be that attuned to humans. Ones in stall situations tend to be more people-oriented, by necessity. The parent article was about horses that deal with lots of different people, so they're likely to have figured out human expressions.