FACT. HORSES CAN COUNT !!

[POLLDARK]

Recent research at Essex University showed that horses are capable of counting. There is a growing body of research that is showing domesticated animals are in fact more intelligent than was thought to be the case. Wow ! No more cheating on the number of carrots now then.

 

[Janah]

I've always thought that animals are more intelligent than most people give them credit for.

 

[fburton]

More on that story here:

http://www.livesofanimals.org/category/intelligence/

Quote:

Dr Claudia Uller and Jennifer Lewis carried out experiments using 57 untrained horses belonging to local private owners and a local riding school. Before the tests, the horses were allowed to nibble a small piece of real apple in to get them interested in the activity. In the experiments, real apples were replaced with fake apples so that the horses would not be influenced by their sense of smell.

In each test, the horses watched plastic apples being dropped out of sight into buckets. In the first test, two plastic apples were placed in one bucket and three in another. The buckets were held up at head level so that horses could choose one. Eleven out of thirteen horses selected the bucket containing three apples, which suggests that the horses understood which bucket had the larger number of apples in it.

The second experiment followed the same pattern, but this time one bucket contained two small apples and the other contained a single large apple with double the surface area. Again the horses chose the bucket with the greater the number of apples – ten out of the twelve horses tested chose the bucket holding the two apples.

The horses were able to keep a tally of how many apples were going into each bucket, and hold this information in their heads before deciding which bucket to investigate. This tendency to opt for containers holding larger numbers of food items has also been seen in non-human primates such as rhesus macaques and lemurs. Baby chicks of only 3 or 4 days old can add and subtract too. Human babies develop this ability at about ten months of age.

Although horses may not be able to count in the same way that humans do, this study demonstrates that they do understand the concept of ‘greater or fewer’, and that horses are certainly more intelligent than people may have previously thought.

 

[NeilM]

Nothing new there; our two know the exact number of treats / polo's that the other has had, and either stand and wait for theirs, or give me dirty looks if one gets more than the other

As for intelligence: I know plenty of horses who are far brighter than their riders

 

[fburton]

I think the role of smell shouldn't be discounted in real-life situations, and it may not all be down to visual cues. More tasty things will give off more nice odour which I am sure horses are able to discriminate, their olfactory sense being so much better than ours. Of course, the experiment described above got round that by using plastic apples so the visual aspect is clearly important too.

 

[Hen]

Too right they can count. Especially the reining horses - 2 large fast circles, 4 spins, keeping them from counting and anticipating manoeuvres and stops is Very Hard Work!!

 

[Spotsrock]

Count! My mare's so clever she could do algebra. Little monkey learns courses faster than I do! Lol

 

[MerrySherryRider]

Not only can they count, they can also tell the time. Mine are most put out if I'm 10 minutes late. If I arrive 10 minutes early, they'll still be in the further field grazing.

 

[MissMincePie&Brandy]

I'll always chose the largest piece of cake too

 

[Jesstickle]

Too right they can count. Especially the reining horses - 2 large fast circles, 4 spins, keeping them from counting and anticipating manoeuvres and stops is Very Hard Work!!

Our race horses certainly knew how many laps of the exercise track was normal. Try and trot two instead of one or canter four instead of three and you had great fun trying to keep them going!

 

[Tammytoo]

My tb mare can definitely count! When I'm lunging I keep count of the number of times she goes round on each rein to make sure we don't get lopsided. Usually it's 10 times before we change direction. I found that she soon cottoned on to this and would try and stop and turn after 10! If I insist she keeps going I get some very dirty looks!

 

[FanyDuChamp]

Nothing new there; our two know the exact number of treats / polo's that the other has had, and either stand and wait for theirs, or give me dirty looks if one gets more than the other

As for intelligence: I know plenty of horses who are far brighter than their riders

I agree, Captain watches carefully for how many carrots/apples Fany gets rewarded with and woe betide you if you give him one less! He is extremely intelligent, the most intelligent horse I have ever known. I think generally they are cleverer than some people give them credit for!
FDC

 

[MissMincePie&Brandy]

I agree, Captain watches carefully for how many carrots/apples Fany gets rewarded with and woe betide you if you give him one less! He is extremely intelligent, the most intelligent horse I have ever known. I think generally they are cleverer than some people give them credit for!
FDC

Mine (same breed as Captain) is ultra intelligent too. He's too clever for his own good actually.
He has learned how to fiddle with and undo those 'horse proof', auto bolts on his stable door.
And he can learn dressage tests that have been practised extensively. (Not so well that he could literally go round on his own ) but he tends to anticipate the next movement of a test he knows well, and he even knows where we turn, but the downside of this is he'll sometimes change transition a stride too early before he's asked.

 

[sherbet]

Casue they can how else do I manage a clear round with my eyes closed!

 

[Nevergrewup]

It took just three days of box rest for my boy to realise that we were doing four in hand circuits of the school on each rein. I was daydreaming a bit and had started circuit five when I got a pointed nudge...

 

[JanetGeorge]

This is not news! Sheep can count too - discovered this many years ago when a young ewe had quads! 4 was far too many for a yearling ewe and I tried to take two away for the 'lamb bank' (to foster onto other ewes!) Ewe went absolutely beserk and started digging up her pen looking for the missing two - she'd push one into a corner, 2nd into the corner - and then wildly start looking for the others - she KNEW there should be 4! So I gave her one back - it got shoved in the corner with the first 2 - and she kept looking! I relented - and gave her back the 4th - at which point she settled down happily and I spent the next 8 weeks giving bottles to the little pets to make sure they all got enough!