Join dolphins, pigeons, and a few other species
Scientists taught 23 riding horses of various breeds to look at a display board with three icons, representing wearing or not wearing a blanket. Horses could choose between a βno changeβ symbol or symbols for βblanket onβ or βblanket off.β Previously, their owners made this decision for them. Horses are adept at learning and following signals people give them, and it took these equines an average of 10 days to learn to approach and touch the board and to understand the meaning of the symbols. All 23 horses learned the entire task within 14 days. They were then tested in various weather conditions to see whether they could use the board to tell their trainers about their blanket preferences. The scientists report online in Applied Animal Behaviour Science that the horses did not touch the symbols randomly, but made their choices based on the weather. If it was wet, cold, and windy, they touched the βblanket onβ icon; horses that were already wearing a blanket nosed the βno changeβ image. But when the weather was sunny, the animals touched the βblanket offβ symbol; those that werenβt blanketed pressed the βno changeβ icon. The studyβs strong results show that the horses understood the consequences of their choices, say the scientists, who hope that other researchers will use their method to ask horses more questions.
i love everything about this but especially the last sentence
@leojulius13
There was a similar study where the horses were able to choose what kind of food they would be fed. Surprisingly, every horse chose raw meat, and would continue to touch the symbol for raw meat even after they had already been fed.
