Pony see, pony do: Study finds horses adept at learning by seeing

Equines are able to learn how to perform tasks by watching their human handlers, a new study from Germany suggests.

They in the study from the University of Nürtingen Geislingen learned how to open a feed box by watching a human do it.

The researchers set up a task that involved pressing a button to open a box containing pieces of carrot and apple. The horses were shown various techniques for pressing the button to open the box by their owners. Some owners used their head to press the button, some their hand, some their foot, and some used their head and hand together.

It is already known that horses can learn by watching a demonstrator, but the question was, would the horses follow the particular demonstrated technique, or come up with their own?

While almost all seemed to understand the connection between the pressing the button and the box opening. They learned from watching their owner. Some followed the same technique while others found their own methods by trial and error. For example, if the person used their foot to press the button, some horses would use a hoof. But others would use their head, or a mixture of head and hoof.

About the Study

The study has been published in the journal Animal Cognition.

In the control group, which received no demonstration at all, a few horses managed to solve the problem on their own. A few horses showing an ability to “think outside the box”.

“This means we have to be very careful about what we let our horses see. We don’t want them to learn how to open gates, doors, or even feed boxes. Of course, however careful we are, there’s no guarantee that a few of them won’t work it out for themselves”

 

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