(Note: I like to re-post this every couple of years as a reminder.)
Up until very recently, knowledge and appreciation of the equine mind has been noticeably lacking. Sure, we’ve learned rudimentary things about horses through the years, but only enough to breed and maintain pliability. Now, though, scientific curiosity is leading some to dig deeper. Biologist Dr. Evelyn Hanggi, co-founder of the Equine Research Foundation, is among the leading experts on equine intelligence. From her 2005 paper “The Thinking Horse: Cognition and Perception Reviewed”:
“A review of the scientific literature, as well as practical experience, shows that horses excel at simpler forms of learning such as classical and operant conditioning…. Furthermore, horses have shown ease in stimulus generalization and discrimination learning. Most recently and unexpected by many, horses have solved advanced cognitive challenges involving categorization learning and some degree of concept formation.” In short, she says, “Horses, both feral and domesticated, are faced with varied conditions that require an assortment of learning and perceptual capabilities.”
The small-brained horse, Dr. Hanggi points out, is an unkind myth: A horse’s brain is not the size of a walnut (400-700 grams compared to 15); in fact, this “complex organ” has many folds and “more folds, more brainpower.” It is equally untrue that their “flight instinct” (“spook-and-bolt”) is a sign of low intelligence. Dr. Hanggi (Horse Illustrated, 2001): “Horses spook not because they are stupid but because they are smart enough to have survived a few million years.”
Although horses do seem to have a propensity to hurt themselves on doors and fences – seen as “dumb” animal behavior by some – it’s because they are supposed to live on wide-open ranges, not “in small, dark enclosures with sharp edges.” This cruel confinement – for most racehorses, over 23 hours a day – causes mental anguish, as evidenced by “cribbing, weaving, head bobbing, pacing, and self-mutilation.”
Horses can sort geometric shapes into specific classes and have demonstrated an ability to conceptualize. By virtue of an “exceptional memory,” they can “generalize about things they have never seen before.” Oh, and they can count. In short, Dr. Hanggi says, “[H]orses possess some learning abilities akin to those of the more accepted animal intellectuals, i.e., dolphins, sea lions and chimpanzees – the result being a far cry from simple conditioning.”
But when questioning the morality of horseracing, the relative intelligence of the horse is inconsequential. 18th Century English philosopher Jeremy Bentham:
“The day may come, when the rest of the animal creation may acquire those rights which never could have been withholden from them but by the hand of tyranny. The French have already discovered that the blackness of the skin is no reason why a human being should be abandoned without redress to the caprice of a tormentor. It may come one day to be recognised, that the number of the legs, the villosity of the skin, or the termination of the [tailbone], are reasons equally insufficient for abandoning a sensitive being to the same fate.
“What else is it that should trace the insuperable line? Is it the faculty of reason, or, perhaps, the faculty of discourse? But a full-grown horse or dog is beyond comparison a more rational, as well as a more conversable animal, than an infant of a day, or a week, or even a month, old. But suppose the case were otherwise, what would it avail? the question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?”
Excellent, Rebecca; thank you for sharing. Just a simple reminder to all: Animal testing/research is horrifically cruel, no matter the species, no matter the study. It, along with horseracing and the rest, must be utterly abolished.
Rebecca,the only stupid animals are the humans in racing! When we worked at the track if a horse was raced every 10 days which was common when we started in the 1970`s, the horses absolutely began to anticipate the days & times they thought they were to run.
I vividly remember reading this many years ago, and tho it’s a bit long, please bear with me:
Twelve university students volunteered to be part of an animal intelligence study using rats. They would be responsible for caring for the rats and administering the different tests. Six of those students were told their rats had shown exceptional intelligence in the early testing, and the other six were told their rats had displayed below average intelligence. During the testing, the students were closely observed, and the ones who were told their rats were exceptionally intelligent treated their rats much more gently and gave overall better care, while giving positive reinforcement during the testing, while the other students were prone to rough handling and minimal interaction. At the end of tests, it was revealed to the students that the rats who were said to be above average intelligence were actually the below average ones, yet they scored very high on the tests, and the highly intelligent rats scored very low. The difference was the handling. It’s been proven that believing the intelligence of an animal has a direct effect on how you treat them, and one need only to look at how horses are treated on the track to see what those “loving connections” actually think of their disposable charges. I remember a trainer was being interviewed in front of a stall before a race, and the reporter asked him if the horse who was standing in the stall knew he would be racing that day. The trainer laughed and said, “Nah, he’s stupid.”
There it is, summed up in three words.
Indeed! Horses are very smart! At times as they watch us open something like a garage door or the sliding barn door to our storage room they will then open it themselves while were asleep. Our horses are like children. If they`re too quiet they`re up to something! So as not to have to go to all the way across our yard to feed hay in early am, we keep some in our garage. Our garage doors have no handles on the outside. If we forget to lock the roll up doors from inside the horses almost always open them & happily & quietly stuffing themselves with the hay. They can open the roll up doors faster than we can with hands! They have strong noses & necks.