Horses can make 17 different facial expressions — and many of them are a lot like ours

Horses are capable of making 17 distinctive facial expressions, researchers have found, putting them second only to cats in terms of facial expressiveness. But while cats can show you how they feel with 21 different expressions, horses have something special in common with humans.

After researchers studied the expressions of 86 horses using 15 hours of video footage, they realized that although horses and humans have quite different facial structures, the two species share "similar expressions in relation to movements of lips and eyes," Jennifer Watham, one of the study's lead authors, said. "What we'll now be looking at is how these expressions relate to emotional states."

Horses' facial expressions more closely mirror humans' than even man's best friend, the dog, and our distant ancestor, the chimpanzee. These parallels between the horse and the human face suggest that either the "facial expressions of our ancestors were preserved in certain species, or that humans and horses followed similar evolutionary paths," The Daily Beast reports.

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Just like us, horses can communicate a wide range of feelings from facial expression, using moves like the "inner brow raiser," "nostril lift," and "lip pucker." Cue the jaw drop — yet another face horses can make.