Are the majority of horses curious and fearful or aggressive?

Me and my friends went to a field today full of horses, we had to cross the field to get somewhere. As we first crossed it, the horses all stared at us but they did not do anything towards us which we were pleased about. On the way back through however one came running up to us and started nudging my friend in the arm, i assume this was for food but it started getting more and more hostile towards my friend (or so we thought) so he went to the other side of the fence and me and my other friend walked on. As we were walking the horse ran up to us, being quite worried we ran into another field that they couldn't get to but about 7 other horses followed the main one, trapping the main way to getting out. We managed to get out but the main question is, were these horses being aggressive or did they just want attention? They all looked at us as we walked away from the field but did not come over after we left, I don't think they were male horses and they weren't particularly tall (5'6'' ish)

Could they just smell how scared we were?