Have you ever had the feeling that your horse is silently telling you to bring out the treat jar for him? He very well may have done that, based on the findings that researchers in Japan learned during a study that was published last month in the journal Animal Cognition.
Using eight horses from Kobe University’s equestrian club, researchers performed an experiment to find out how horses would solve a problem that required the help of their human caretakers. Sciencedaily.com explains how the experiment took place. First, the researchers placed carrots in a bucket inaccessible to the horses. Then, a human caretaker would arrive. The researchers observed that the horses displayed certain behaviors that could be interpreted as asking the human for help: Standing near the human, looking at them, touching and even pushing them. They did these things more frequently than in a control group where no carrots were hidden.
For the second phase of the experiment, researchers looked for differences in the way horses interacted with caretakers who were present for the carrot-hiding compared with those who had not been around to see it happen. The horses sent more signals to the humans who had not been present, which suggests that the horses do make a judgement on how much they believe their caretaker knows, and alter their behavior accordingly.
As with many research studies done with horses, the sample size is small and the findings are preliminary. Follow-up studies would be required to learn more about the cognitive abilities in horses and how they communicate—or attempt to communicate—with humans. However, there is a logic to horses’ ability and willingness to communicate with humans. During the domestication process, individuals that were more inclined to interact and bond with humans may have been more likely to be kept and selectively bred, and that could have created a predisposition for communication with humans to modern equine genetics.
Whatever the root of horses’ willingness to communicate is, this research is a reminder to listen to the signals your horse is sending you, even if he’s just trying to say, “Hey, there are carrots in that bucket.”
Ringhofer, M. & Yamamoto, S. Domestic horses send signals to humans when they face with an unsolvable task Animal Cognition (2016). doi:10.1007/s10071-016-1056-4
Leslie Potter is a writer and photographer based in Lexington, Kentucky. www.lesliepotterphoto.com
Leslie Potter is a graduate of William Woods University where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Equestrian Science with a concentration in saddle seat riding and a minor in Journalism/Mass Communications. She is currently a writer and photographer in Lexington, Ky.Potter worked as a barn manager and riding instructor and was a freelance reporter and photographer for the Horsemen's Yankee Pedlar and Saddle Horse Report before moving to Lexington to join Horse Illustrated as Web Editor from 2008 to 2019. Her current equestrian pursuits include being a grown-up lesson kid at an eventing barn and trail riding with her senior Morgan gelding, Snoopy.
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