Horses aren’t going to be planning bank heists anytime soon, but new research out of Nottingham Trent University has revealed that horses are a lot smarter than we previously understood. Turns out that they can think strategically, and can even plan ahead.
As detailed in the journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science, researchers made 20 horses play a complex, treat-based game designed to assess their ability to learn and their adaptability.
The horses were told to touch a card with their nose. If they did, they were given a treat. Then the researchers introduced a “stoplight,” which changed the rules. Now, treats were only given if the card was touched when the light was turned off. The horses, not picking up on it, continued to touch the card whenever they wanted. Then the researchers instituted a penalty—10 seconds in “timeout” if they touched the card while the light was on. The horses immediately adapted to the punishment by following the newly established rules, indicating to the researchers that the horses understood the assignment the whole time, but weren’t going to play along unless they faced consequences.
The immediacy is the real discovery here, it seems. They said that in similar tests, other animals eventually pick up the pattern, but not so quickly and usually with a lot of trial and error involved. The horses understood it right away.
It’s kind of like how cats understand when you call them by their name, but just choose to ignore you because they’re assholes. The horses understood, but they’re fiercely independent rebels who refuse to take orders from anyone… unless something bad happens in which case they will immediately comply.
Lead researcher Louise Evans thinks this means horses have way more advanced cognitive processing than we previously assumed. This demonstration of learning involves planning and predicting future outcomes, all of which is stuff people assumed was way too complicated for horses since they have a relatively simple prefrontal cortex.
The practical applications of such a discovery could change the way we train and care for horses. Maybe now unscrupulous trainers can stop being dicks to them since the horses clearly understand way more than they have been letting on, they just haven’t been approached in a way that engages the way they are wired to learn new concepts. Let’s hope this leads to a future with smarter horses and even smarter horse trainers.
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