Why does my horse keep yawning?

Yawning, it’s something we all do regularly, sometimes more often than others. But what about our horses? Although horses yawn, it is not something they tend to do as frequently as humans. What does it mean when horses yawn and should we be worried if we notice them yawning more often than before?

Why do humans yawn?

In humans, yawning is typically associated with periods of relaxation (or even boredom), or when there is a change in activity level, for example before sleeping or upon waking. One hypothesis suggests that we yawn to cool the brain to improve concentration and cerebral function. In support of this, it has been shown that people yawn more when the ambient temperature is greater than 37C (body temperature). Furthermore, stress may be involved in triggering a yawn, perhaps due to an increased body temperature associated with anxiety. Rarely, certain illnesses may contribute to an increase in yawning behaviour in people, with migraines and multiple sclerosis being implicated.

Yawning is well known to be contagious in humans, something many of us will have experienced. It is also known to be so in chimps, budgies, pigs, wolves, dogs and lions. One theory to explain this behaviour is that yawning may alert others within a social group of animals that live cooperatively to the fact that an individual is tired. This in turn increases