Horses can use symbols to talk to us!

[sarahann1]

This is really quite cool. I wish I had the skills to be able to teach my horse this. http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/09/horses-can-use-symbols-talk-us

Full research article here. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168159116302192

 

[milliepops]

Ahh, but I'd like to teach mine to read the weather forecast and THEN advise me, blanket on or blanket off :lol:

 

[sarahann1]

Ahh, but I'd like to teach mine to read the weather forecast and THEN advise me, blanket on or blanket off :lol:

Haha, right enough, that'd be even more useful!

 

[SEL]

Mine would invent a symbol for more food....

 

[Dry Rot]

I've often wondered why scientists spend so much time and energy discovering things that the rest of us have known all our lives!

Consider this picture. An open gate and a field of new grass. Now, can a horse recognise that? Yes? Why? Simply because the combination of shapes of open gate and grass are things the horse recognises as meaning food.

Replace the gate and field with a symbol and the horse won't recognise it? Come on, that is simple logic and it doesn't need government funding to work it out!

 

[Equi]

Honestly I don't know how the article got published. I mean how would they know that the horse was happy to have had the rug put on or not. It's totally unfounded.

 

[GirlFriday]

Honestly I don't know how the article got published. I mean how would they know that the horse was happy to have had the rug put on or not. It's totally unfounded.

They tried in different weather and got the responses you'd expect. If you read the article behind it it is reasonably clear.

I'm moderately impressed with this because if you think it through they've essentially taught horses to read (interpret symbols) and write (point to symbol they want). Agree with poster above about open gates etc but still, teach a group of horses to read and write within a fortnight (albeit only three 'words!') is pretty good.

 

[rachk89]

I think more research is needed really as just 23 subjects is not a large amount at all and you would have to try and do it on a non reward based system otherwise the horse is looking for food not a rug. I dunno if they used treats as don't think it said but I imagine they did as that's the easiest way to train. If they can do it on a larger scale and not have treats that would be good.

 

[GirlFriday]

They got carrot slices for participation, yes. But to start with they just had to identify what was happening (rug on/ off) and only those which got that right (all of them as it happens) progressed to choosing rug on/no change/ rug off.

 

[oldie48]

The Old TB has been telling me if he wants to wear a rug or not for years, picks it up and shakes it for on, bites the front of it for off and gives me a filthy look if I try to rug him when he doesn't want it. However, he can't read the weather forecast so doesn't know that it's going to tip with rain in an hour or that the clouds are going to disappear and the sun is coming out. Now, it would be much more useful if we could get them to point at a picture of a leg and tell us where it hurts, just think of all the money we'd save on nerve blocking.

 

[spookypony]

The nay-sayers on this thread might want to actually read the full article, as they'll find that their objections are generally answered...

oldie48, yes, the implications of the research go far beyond the rug question. The results suggest strongly that horses can be taught to communicate to an extent using abstract symbols. That's actually pretty huge. Yes, many horsey people are pretty good at reading a horse's body language, but generally, this is limited at reactions to the horse's immediate situation, rather than something as complex as making a decision about rugging in anticipation of future thermal comfort. If this procedure can be extended to other sorts of situations, you run the risk of getting some pretty unambiguous answers... and if you can find a way to frame a question, you might not like the answer the horse gives you!

 

[fburton]

It's the same every time a piece of research on horse behaviour is reported... "Why do we need scientists to tell us what we've always known? What a waste of public money! The study was rubbish anyway."