Horses participating in a new experiment revealed an unexpected level of smarts by appearing to strategically ignore game rules to reap the most treat

Horses Show Unexpected Intelligence With Strategic Thinking in Game Play

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2024-08-14 12:00:07

Horses participating in a new experiment revealed an unexpected level of smarts by appearing to strategically ignore game rules to reap the most treats for the least amount of effort.

"Horses are not natural geniuses," says Carrie Ijichi, an equine scientist at Nottingham Trent University in England. "They are thought of as mediocre, but this study shows they're not average and are in fact more cognitively advanced than we give them credit for."

Surprisingly few studies have been carried out on horse learning, with some research hinting at the capacity for understanding the basic consequences of their decisions.

Pondering whether the large herbivores err towards living in the moment or have an inkling of what's to come, Nottingham Trent University ethologist Louise Evans and colleagues have just demonstrated what many horse lovers may already suspect: horses can and do plan ahead.

The researchers put 20 horses to the test. The horses were offered a treat for touching a target in the form of a piece of card.