Equine Science Talk, a YouTube show produced by equine behavioral scientists to highlight research advances, is looking for videos of unusual behaviors in horses.
“As every horse owner knows, horses do the darndest things,” explains ays Konstance Krueger, PhD, a professor at Nürtingen-Geislingen University of Applied Science in Nürtingen, Germany. “Whether it’s opening the gate, breaking into the feed-room, or finding ways to steal their friends’ food, horses certainly appear to find their own, often very creative, ways to solve their day-to-day problems.
Following the publication of a study on innovative behavior, Krueger and her colleagues are producing an informative, science-based video for the YouTube channel on the topic.
Click here to view the YouTube Channel
The researchers are asking for submissions of videos of “innovative” behavior in horses. This is behavior, explains Krueger, that horses do not normally show in their natural environment.
“It could be opening doors, gates or fences, scratching themselves with ‘unusual’ techniques, novel feeding behavior, cooperating with humans in unusual ways, kicking apple trees to get apples, in fact, any behavior which appears to be ‘unusual’ and creative….If [EQUUS readers] could provide us with a video of innovative behavior in your horse, we would be very grateful and would love to integrate [them] in our YouTube video.”
For more information on how to submit videos, please contact Krueger at Please contact us at [email protected]
Submitted clips will be used to produce a video featuring the following studies:
Esch, L., Wöhr, C., Erhard, M., & Krueger, K. (2019). Horses’ (Equus Caballus) laterality, stress hormones, and task related behavior in innovative problem-solving. Animals, 9(5), 265. doi: 10.3390/ani9050265
Krueger, K., Esch, L., & Byrne, R. (2019). Animal behaviour in a human world: A crowdsourcing study on horses that open door and gate mechanisms. Plos One, 14(6), e0218954. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0218954
Krueger, K., Esch, L., & Byrne, R. (2021). Need or opportunity? A study of innovations in equids. Plos One, 16(9), e0257730. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0257730
