pooyan
Member
Are Horses Intelligent?
The short answer is yes.
Without a reasonable ability to learn, domesticating horses would be extremely difficult. To meet their own needs horses have developed their role in the herd hierarchy. They have also a keen sense of observation, an excellent memory and a good ability to read their immediate environment. In this sense they are the most intelligent of the equids- horses, asses (donkeys), zebras and mules.
If intelligence is measured by speed of learning then horses are exceptionally bright. They remember many situations in a single trial especially if there is an emotional component. Horses can also learn complex behaviour like new aids or movements with a small number of trials, compared with other domestic animals. They usually exhibit good judgment in terms of their own safety, and routinely gauge their riders ability and act accordingly- with devious or subtle ploys to resist weaker riders. Horses also exhibit more complex behaviours like imagination. "Oh, yeah" I hear you say. I was riding in Canada one day and the weather closed in suddenly, as it can there. The temperature dropping well below freezing within minutes and the snow was flying stinging my face as the storm front hit. After half an hour of painful trotting in the blizzard my horse suddenly stopped and refused to pass a driveway where there was a large barn. He tried desperately to turn into the drive. I hadn't ridden that road before so the horse didn't know the place. Nor did the driveway or barn look like our own. The horse must have had a generic concept of a barn and imagined the warmth and feed within!
Despite this example, there are definite limitations to their intelligence, and from a human perspective horses can appear stupid. What horses do not possess, unlike ourselves, is the ability for conceptual thought and problem-solving intelligence. We should make allowances for this and not expect it of them - since we are so empathetic and intelligent.
To understand horses you should resist the temptation to ascribe human qualities to them. Horses are neither naughty nor vicious. Horses aren't loving and caring either. They are not intelligent like man, nor are they keen to learn new skills, and they certainly don't treat problems as a challenge. They see problems as a threat and often panic when faced with new situations. Horses are simply horses. They have inborn defensive reflexes, acute senses and quick reactions to deal with their wild environment.
The horses biological niche is a herd-bound, grazing species. In their ancestral home of Central Asia and the open Eurasian steppes, horses were for a long time prey to carnivores like the big cats, wolves and also man who hunted them for millenniums. Their niche as a prey species is probably the basis of their excellent memory - sometimes the source of inexplicable behaviour.
In the wild if a horse makes a mistake and misjudges the safety of the situation the error can result in it's sudden death. This is not true of predators, who tend to be smarter and more flexible in their behaviour. If they make a mistake they may go hungry, but they learn from the experience and live to hunt again.
Horses are acutely aware of their niche, they are extremely conservative in their routine, from feeding to fighting - they dislike change. We too often take the human perspective and change our horses routine to avoid boredom. This is usually a mistake. Horses prefer to do the same things in the same way- thereby avoiding risk and jeopardising their survival. They are extremely anxious to avoid fearful situations.
One nasty moment of fear and the horse commits the fright, the place and circumstances to memory for years. A normally docile horse may suddenly jump or bolt in blind panic if this memory is triggered by passing the same spot or finding itself in similar circumstances. These fears may arise from a long ago - but not forgotten - incident in their early life or their handling.
You can use this aspect of the horses psychology to your advantage. Horses will remember for years all the good things you teach as well as the bad - so it pays to be careful and explicit when schooling.
Contact with humans obliges the horse to include us in his personal herd - in his hierarchy. Because they include us in their hierarchy horses are sensitive to nuances in our own behaviour, especially our body language. We must be aware of this and maintain our superiority at all times- by brains not brawn, since horses are much stronger. Their sense of security is fragile. We must maintain their confidence if we are to remain in a position of trust. Without this security a horse will become chronically anxious, nervous or temperamental. When a horse is distressed it is not focused on the task and it does not learn.
So the first requirement in teaching any horse is to retain calm and confidence. In the horse's natural herd and social environment they learn largely by example-by imitation and emulation. We can take advantage of this by showing them the required performance on another horse as a teacher. This gives a youngster a lead in the arena, out hacking, or over a cross-country course. The Natural Behaviour of Horses
To see how species behaviour comes about we will take an evolutionary approach to horse psychology. Fossil evidence indicates that horses first evolved as a forest-browsers on the American continent. They became grazers as the earth cooled, forest thinned and grassland predominated on the great plains. Horses migrated West into Asia and eventually to Europe via the Bering land bridge during a succession of ice ages.
The short answer is yes.
Without a reasonable ability to learn, domesticating horses would be extremely difficult. To meet their own needs horses have developed their role in the herd hierarchy. They have also a keen sense of observation, an excellent memory and a good ability to read their immediate environment. In this sense they are the most intelligent of the equids- horses, asses (donkeys), zebras and mules.
If intelligence is measured by speed of learning then horses are exceptionally bright. They remember many situations in a single trial especially if there is an emotional component. Horses can also learn complex behaviour like new aids or movements with a small number of trials, compared with other domestic animals. They usually exhibit good judgment in terms of their own safety, and routinely gauge their riders ability and act accordingly- with devious or subtle ploys to resist weaker riders. Horses also exhibit more complex behaviours like imagination. "Oh, yeah" I hear you say. I was riding in Canada one day and the weather closed in suddenly, as it can there. The temperature dropping well below freezing within minutes and the snow was flying stinging my face as the storm front hit. After half an hour of painful trotting in the blizzard my horse suddenly stopped and refused to pass a driveway where there was a large barn. He tried desperately to turn into the drive. I hadn't ridden that road before so the horse didn't know the place. Nor did the driveway or barn look like our own. The horse must have had a generic concept of a barn and imagined the warmth and feed within!
Despite this example, there are definite limitations to their intelligence, and from a human perspective horses can appear stupid. What horses do not possess, unlike ourselves, is the ability for conceptual thought and problem-solving intelligence. We should make allowances for this and not expect it of them - since we are so empathetic and intelligent.
To understand horses you should resist the temptation to ascribe human qualities to them. Horses are neither naughty nor vicious. Horses aren't loving and caring either. They are not intelligent like man, nor are they keen to learn new skills, and they certainly don't treat problems as a challenge. They see problems as a threat and often panic when faced with new situations. Horses are simply horses. They have inborn defensive reflexes, acute senses and quick reactions to deal with their wild environment.
The horses biological niche is a herd-bound, grazing species. In their ancestral home of Central Asia and the open Eurasian steppes, horses were for a long time prey to carnivores like the big cats, wolves and also man who hunted them for millenniums. Their niche as a prey species is probably the basis of their excellent memory - sometimes the source of inexplicable behaviour.
In the wild if a horse makes a mistake and misjudges the safety of the situation the error can result in it's sudden death. This is not true of predators, who tend to be smarter and more flexible in their behaviour. If they make a mistake they may go hungry, but they learn from the experience and live to hunt again.
Horses are acutely aware of their niche, they are extremely conservative in their routine, from feeding to fighting - they dislike change. We too often take the human perspective and change our horses routine to avoid boredom. This is usually a mistake. Horses prefer to do the same things in the same way- thereby avoiding risk and jeopardising their survival. They are extremely anxious to avoid fearful situations.
One nasty moment of fear and the horse commits the fright, the place and circumstances to memory for years. A normally docile horse may suddenly jump or bolt in blind panic if this memory is triggered by passing the same spot or finding itself in similar circumstances. These fears may arise from a long ago - but not forgotten - incident in their early life or their handling.
You can use this aspect of the horses psychology to your advantage. Horses will remember for years all the good things you teach as well as the bad - so it pays to be careful and explicit when schooling.
Contact with humans obliges the horse to include us in his personal herd - in his hierarchy. Because they include us in their hierarchy horses are sensitive to nuances in our own behaviour, especially our body language. We must be aware of this and maintain our superiority at all times- by brains not brawn, since horses are much stronger. Their sense of security is fragile. We must maintain their confidence if we are to remain in a position of trust. Without this security a horse will become chronically anxious, nervous or temperamental. When a horse is distressed it is not focused on the task and it does not learn.
So the first requirement in teaching any horse is to retain calm and confidence. In the horse's natural herd and social environment they learn largely by example-by imitation and emulation. We can take advantage of this by showing them the required performance on another horse as a teacher. This gives a youngster a lead in the arena, out hacking, or over a cross-country course. The Natural Behaviour of Horses
To see how species behaviour comes about we will take an evolutionary approach to horse psychology. Fossil evidence indicates that horses first evolved as a forest-browsers on the American continent. They became grazers as the earth cooled, forest thinned and grassland predominated on the great plains. Horses migrated West into Asia and eventually to Europe via the Bering land bridge during a succession of ice ages.