One for all those people who worry about their horses being 'wasted'!!

ahah that was a fun read :D

"“The horses weren’t interested in our study. Either they didn’t understand the set up – that they could chose between more and less work – or they were just indifferent and thought 'whatever, let me get out of here’. They preferred to be somewhere else."

:D :D :D
 
It's no where near 1st April either! I;m sure 14 horses would be a statistically relevant sample size too

Got me thinking about research grants tho. I wonder if I could get funding to see whether I'm quicker at poo picking my field in a clockwise circle than I am when I do it in an anticlockwise circle. or Do my horses perfer drinking out of the left or right hand side of their water trough. At £10 an hour for my time for the study I suspect I could spend a lot of time on either of those ..... who do I apply to.
 
What an absolute waste of time! All this has proved is that horses are clearly much more intelligent than humans :D
 
Haha, i love it.
I have to read these types of journals for my course as im studying behavioural science, some of them do make me chuckle, but hey, if im going to be paid to play with horses doing funny experiments then im happy :)
 
Haha how funny!

I am not sure how many people think their horses would genuinely prefer to be ridden than to stand in a field with their pals, or whether it is simply because the horse is more manageable when it is regularly worked so it doesn't have excess mental energy to put into unwanted behaviours. I am sure horses have no concept of 'overall wellbeing' so all that matters to them is that right now, they can't be arsed!

I think maybe I have the same attitude to exercise, I know it would be good for me but right now I am on the sofa, oh well!
 
Chunkie said:
Did someone actually get paid for that bit of 'research'?!
Click to expand...

You'd be amazed at what 'research' goes on and it makes me laugh that people get paid to do them. I have to do behavioural studies for my course, to me, the results are just common sense most of the time!
 
“They will actually go to extra effort and work hard in order to avoid work. That is the impression we were left with after the study."


Obviously never tried the horse that won't load or "teaching" my mare to canter (ask Richard Maxwell lol he had some fun with my mare).
 
ha ha toffee - I agree if only we could explain that one hour a day of nice work is well worth the 23 other hours off / being weighted on hand and hoof life would be easy.

The researchers clearly never spent 2 hours on the drive with pony rearing and rearing when asked to walk forward, I ignored all tantrums and eventually we did our 20 min hack!
 
I loved some of the comments, e.g.

"Are scientists 'lazy' or just bored, ask the general public." :D

and

"I think the Grand National demonstrates their independent thought process quite well. Without the control of a rider they seem to scatter aimlessly in all directions with only a few game enough to run with the pack. I like to think these few show the true racing spirit but fear they actually just lack any imagination at all."
 
By way of comparison, mine are out 24/7, and happily 'volunteer' to be caught to go for a hack. We use no food or other incentives to catch, and they've been at grass all their lives with not even a memory of coming in for food. I have to conclude that they enjoy going out for a ride. However, they'd rather die than do schooling...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top