Why do horses yawn?

I was reading an article on thehorse.com recently about why horses yawn. There are various reasons: sometimes a yawn indicates abdominal pain; some horses will yawn to stretch their jaw muscles; and some horses will yawn "close to meal times as if they are anxiously anticipating their hay or grain."

Guess what time it is.



Look out...here comes another one.




And another one...



'Fess up. Are you yawning now, too?

The equine yawn is not to be confused with the equine laugh, technically known as the flehmen posture. Like the yawn, there are various reasons for this response: an equine might flehmen when suffering from colic – no laughing matter – or when getting a whiff of something new or different. After an equine draws in the odor, he curls his lip up to temporarily close the nasal passages and hold the particles inside, then raises his head to help the molecules linger in his vomeronasal organ. That's just a fancy way of saying "get the camera ready 'cause this is gonna get interesting."

Exhibit A: George takes a long whiff of Deets.




Exhibit B: Lyle at his first wine tasting, on the occasion of his first birthday.

This concludes today's lesson on when to take goofy pictures.