“Horses come towards us, into our imaginary personal space, with their head or feet or body for a number of reasons. This is often a real safety problem for owners, or for people who handle the horse for them.
Horses can come too close to people..
1) Because we are new and they are curious to investigate us. Horses investigate with their eyes and nose and mouth (and for things underfoot with their feet)..
..2) Because they want to initiate play..
..3) Because we have on us something the horse wants (food) and his behaviour of coming towards us has been reinforced by the gain of that resource..
..4) Because we have the means to provide something or do something for the horse that he wants us to do and he needs to be close to us for us to do that.”
Fed Up Fred 