Note: The following is adapted from a news release published on Aug. 12, 2024, by Nottingham Trent University in Nottingham, England.

In a recent study at Nottingham Trent University, horses cleverly adapted their approach to a game in order to get the most treats for the least effort. This has led researchers to posit that horses are a lot smarter than previously believed.

The task

Equine scientists at the university wanted to understand more about the way in which horses learn, as this knowledge can be used help train to them more humanely and improve their welfare. The team developed a task whereby a horse touched a piece of card with its nose in order to get a treat–but then gradually began to make it more challenging.

As part of the next stage horses would not get a treat if they touched the card while a light was on but would get it if they touched it while it was off.

All horses struggled to perform this task, the study suggested, indiscriminately touching the card regardless of the light being on or off, while still being frequently rewarded for all of their correct responses.

Doing it correctly

In the final stage, however, the researchers introduced a penalty for touching the card when the “stop” light was on, giving a 10-second time-out during which they were unable to play the game or receive a reward.

What the team found was a sudden and highly significant reduction in errors amongst all the horses involved, as they began to play the game correctly, only touching the card at the right point in order to receive their treat.

The researchers argue that, rather than failing to understand the game as it originally appeared, it’s possible the horses had understood the game the whole time but had found a way to play which meant they did not have to pay much attention.

Goal-directed thinking

They believe this shows a higher level of cognitive processing than was previously thought possible, as they were able to instantly switch strategies and behave in a different way as soon as there was a risk of something being taken away from them.

This approach requires the horse to think into the future, the researchers say, and is very goal directed, with horses required to focus on what they want to achieve and the steps they need to take to do this.

This, they argue, is something that has previously been considered beyond a horse’s cognitive capacity.

“At first we found that horses would just keep touching the card over and over, as they probably realized they would still get a frequent reward with minimal mental effort,” said lead researcher Carrie Ijichi, MSc, PhD.

“There was no cost for indiscriminate hitting; sometimes it paid off, sometimes it didn’t. When we introduced a cost for their errors, however, they could instantly understand and play the game properly.

‘They’re not average’

“Horses are not natural geniuses; they are thought of as mediocre, but this study shows they’re not average and are in fact more cognitively advanced than we give them credit for,” Ijichi continued.

“We now think that horses may be able to use a form of learning called ‘model-based learning’ which was thought to be too complex for them. This will now help us to understand their behavior and capabilities much better.

“It’s fascinating because they have a very underdeveloped pre-frontal cortex, which is what we typically credit with producing that type of thinking in humans. This means they must be using another area of the brain to achieve a similar result. And this teaches us that we shouldn’t make assumptions about animal intelligence or sentience based on whether they are ‘built’ just like us.”

Did they know the rules all along?

Researcher Louise Evans, based in Nottingham Trent University’s School of Animal, Rural and Environmental Sciences, said: “We were expecting horses’ performance to improve when we introduced the time-out, but were surprised by how immediate and significant the improvement was.

“Animals usually need several repetitions of a task to gradually acquire new knowledge, whereas our horses immediately improved when we introduced a cost for errors. This suggests that the horses knew all along what the rules of the game were.”

The study is published in the journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science.