Elsevier

Behavioural Processes

Volume 126, May 2016, Pages 121-131
Behavioural Processes

Cognition and learning in horses (Equus caballus): What we know and why we should ask more

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2016.03.017Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Horses are an interesting species given the diverse roles they serve in society.

  • Horses show great socio-cognitive skills and learning abilities.

  • Horse performance is heavily influenced by outside factors during learning studies.

  • Horse cognition research has value in a variety of scientific and applied settings.

  • More research is greatly needed on the topic of horse behavior and cognition.

Abstract

Horses (Equus caballus) have a rich history in their relationship with humans. Across different cultures and eras they have been utilized for work, show, cultural rituals, consumption, therapy, and companionship and continue to serve in many of these roles today. As one of the most commonly trained domestic animals, understanding how horses learn and how their relationship with humans and other horses impacts their ability to learn has implications for horse welfare, training, husbandry and management. Given that unlike dogs and cats, domesticated horses have evolved from prey animals, the horse-human relationship poses interesting and unique scientific questions of theoretical value. There is still much to be learned about the cognition and behaviour of horses from a scientific perspective. This review explores current research within three related areas of horse cognition: human-horse interactions, social learning and independent learning in horses. Research on these topics is summarized and suggestions for future research are provided.

Introduction

A horse that solves correctly problems in multiplication and division by means of tapping. Persons of unimpeachable honor, who in the master's absence have received responses, and assure us that in the process they have not made even the slightest sign. Thousands of spectators, horse-fanciers, trick-trainers of first rank, and not one of them during the course of many months' observations are able to discover any kind of regular signal

That was the riddle. And its solution was found in the unintentional minimal movements of the horse's questioner (Pfungst, 1911).

On December 9th, 1904 a scientific report was published detailing how a horse, later known as ‘Clever Hans,’ fooled casual onlookers, horse experts, and scientists alike into believing that he could not only do complex mathematical problems, but tell time and demonstrate knowledge of pitch and music theory among other cognitive feats (Pfungst, 1911). Of course the horse was not aware of his trickery or of the mass media that propagated his fame. Instead Hans had learned to read human behaviour, specifically subtle unintentional movements made by a questioner (most often a nodding of the head followed by a quick upward gaze at the horses face) that reliably signaled that the correct number of hoof stomps had been reached (Pfungst, 1911). Hans’ genius was not illustrated by mathematical or musical ability but in his ability to carefully observe and learn about subtle human gestures that predicted what response would maximize his chances of obtaining a reward.

Horses are a common domestic animal often used for sport, companionship, and in a variety of working roles (Equus caballus). Domestic horses fill a unique niche in human cultures, as nearly all of them will undergo some type of extensive training during their lifetime (Hausberger et al., 2008). Given the diversity in human lifestyles, it comes as no surprise that there are a wide variety of beliefs on how horses should be trained, what they are capable of understanding, and how various training methodologies affect their welfare and relationship with humans. It is surprising, then, that comparatively little research has been done on the cognitive abilities of the horse, with nearly seven times less research done on horse cognition than on rat cognition (Cooper, 2007). The research that is available suggests that horses perform very successfully on a range of cognitive tasks including discriminative learning, memorization, and concept formation (Thomas, 1986, Murphy and Arkins, 2007, Hanggi and Ingersoll, 2009). As seen in the case of Clever Hans, horses demonstrate acute sensitivity to the actions and behaviours of other individuals, including humans (Pfungst, 1911, Hausberger et al., 2008, Lansade and Bouissou, 2008, Birke et al., 2011, Dorey et al., 2014); yet many areas of horse cognition and learning remain unexplored (Cooper, 2007, Goodwin, 2007, Murphy and Arkins, 2007).

Modern domesticated horses live in conditions that are in stark contrast to their wild ancestors and are often subject to training and management techniques that are contrary to their species-typical biological drives (Goodwin, 2007, Heitor and Vicente, 2007; McGreevy and McLean, 2007). This includes asking the horse to ignore their natural tendency to flee from situations that may be fearful for them (i.e., working with horses in novel and stressful environments such as carriage work or veterinary hospitals), and to both communicate and cooperate with another species that might otherwise be categorized as a predator: humans. Many horses, such as the racehorse, undergo a variety of management and training experiences. This often involves retraining and relearning throughout the lifetime of the horse (Goodwin et al., 2009). The exact implications of this for learning, cognitive performance and welfare are not well understood (Hausberger et al., 2008, McGreevy et al., 2009). Scientific knowledge of horses’ perceptual world and cognitive abilities could aid in the design and implementation of training programs, as well as care and management systems, increasing the overall welfare of this species (Heitor and Vicente, 2007, Goodwin et al., 2009).

Like all animal cognition research, horse cognition can be tackled from a variety of angles using a variety of methods. Horses raised for different purposes, such as a horse used in hippotherapy versus a stock horse, may be exposed to different lifetime factors that could influence their behaviour and cognition in important ways. This, as Goodwin (2007) suggests, may lead to some discrepancies in the literature and can make seamless integration of scientific information available about the ‘horse’ as a species a difficult task. As a result, a larger body of research on horse behaviour and cognition than currently exists is needed to establish the full range of cognitive abilities and capacities of horses, and to better understand the interplay between genetics, environment and lifetime experiences that inform the behaviour of distinct populations and individuals. This review explores the current state of three related areas of horse cognition that are of central relevance to those working with horses in both scientific and applied contexts: human-horse interactions, social learning and basic discriminative learning by horses. Scientific challenges, welfare and management considerations are discussed.

Section snippets

Horse-Human interactions

Given the diversity of roles horses play in society, the horse-human relationship is an important area of study from both a basic and applied perspective (Hausberger et al., 2008). Horses and humans are often closely bonded, even to the point of some humans describing their relationship with their horse as being synchronous with them, particularly in the context of riding (Birke, 2007, Maurstad et al., 2013, Smith et al., 2016). Research has backed this claim up to some extent by showing that a

Social and observational learning

Horses are herd animals, thought anecdotally to be capable of learning and copying behaviour from conspecifics (Lindberg et al., 1999, Krueger and Flauger, 2007, Ninomiya, 2007). A common training method that is typically utilized by horse trainers is one in which human handlers employ observational learning methodology to train younger horses by using older, well-trained horses (Murphy and Arkins, 2007). This practice is heavily utilized in horse training and has important implications for

Discriminative and generalized learning

The study of discriminative learning in animals not only provides insight about the basic individual learning capabilities of a species but can be used as a tool to learn about other areas of that species’ cognition, including memory and perception as well as more complex problem solving and reasoning. This knowledge is important for understanding horse behaviour and cognition from a scientific perspective and may serve as a useful tool in training and management contexts. While research on

The relationship between horse cognition, training and welfare

In addition to the pure scientific value of understanding horse behaviour and cognition, there are many practical applications for additional research in this domain. Greater knowledge about the behavioural and cognitive potential of domestic horses could shed light on the welfare status and needs of horses kept in a variety of captive settings. Likewise, understanding how a horse’s genetics, welfare, environment and experiences work together to predict performance on cognitive tasks or

Conclusion

Horse cognition research sometimes yields results that contradict commonly held beliefs about horse cognition and behaviour, and thus common horse management and training techniques (McCall, 2007; McGreevy and McLean, 2007; Murphy and Arkins, 2007). Consequently, greater empirical knowledge could improve horse welfare while simultaneously adding to a base of research that can be used to better understand the horse as a species. This would allow for more comparisons with other animals,

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