Horses have disproved the previously widespread opinion about their intelligence

Much smarter than previously thought.

It is widely believed that horses are not particularly smart or clever. Even Gogol's Khlestakov wrote that the mayor is «as stupid as a gray gelding.» And then there are children's poems about a stupid horse. But now researchers claim that horses are actually smarter than previously thought.

Photo: freepik.com

Scientists' conclusions about the intelligence of horses were made during a study in which these animals showed better results than expected in a complex reward-based game.

As Sky News reports, the researchers found that when horses were denied a treat for not following the rules of the game, they were able to instantly change their strategy to get more rewards.

Scientists from Nottingham Trent University (NTU) said this showed the animals had the ability to think and plan ahead — something previously thought beyond their capabilities.

Dr Carrie Ijichi, senior lecturer in equine science at NTU, said: «Horses are not natural geniuses, they are considered average, but this study shows that they are not average and actually have more advanced cognitive abilities than we think.»

In the study, the scientists gave 20 horses a three-stage task, Sky News reports.

In the first phase, the animals touched a piece of cardboard with their noses to get a treat. But things got even more complicated when the light came on and the horses were only allowed to have a snack if they touched the card when the light was off.

The horses continued to touch the card blindly, regardless of whether the light was on or not, and were rewarded for correct responses.

In the final phase of the game, a “penalty” was imposed when touching the card when the “stop” signal was on resulted in a 10-second timeout.

But instead of randomly touching the card, the horses obeyed the rules — only moving at the right time to get their treat.

Louise Evans, a PhD candidate from NTU's School of Animal, Rural and Environmental Sciences, said: «Animals usually need several repetitions of a task to gradually learn new things, whereas our horses improved immediately when we introduced a penalty for mistakes. This suggests that the horses knew the rules of the game from the start.»

The findings were published in the journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science.