Horse Psychology 101

Part 3: The horse's cognitive abilities

- Lara-Tabitha Snyman

It is an unfortunate fact that most people, including equestrians, do not seem to expect much in the way of intelligence from a horse. I, for one, do not understand why this is the case, but one possible explanation may be the ‘use’ of horses as working animals. In the role of the working animal, the horse has seemingly been underrated as a pure ‘recipient of orders’ for decades. I would propose, however, that it is in fact time to dedicate some thought and investigation into the possibilities inherent in the wonderful minds of horses.

TESTING OF INTELLIGENCE

For many years, the same mistakes have been made over and over again in assessing horse ‘intelligence’. People have failed to appreciate that, as a unique species, the horse needs a unique form of testing. Testing for the horse needs to use an exercise that he finds relevant; needs to have a reward that is sufficiently ‘profitable’ to motivate the horse; and needs to provide a framework in which to operate that allows for relaxed focus and concentration. Once the test conditions are established, in order to acquire precise test results from behaviour research, rather than mere speculations, we need to use scientific methods for observing the relevant behaviour during the relevant exercises.