Be careful what you gossip about if you’re passing a stables – the stalls have ears.
Scientists have found that horses eavesdrop on human conversations, then store up the titbits they’ve gathered.
In a novel experiment, nosey nags tended to change their feeding habits after watching two people discussing eating a carrot.
The research by St Andrews University suggests that horses may understand far more than we give them credit for.
The study – published in the journal Animal Cognition – concludes: ‘This indicates, for the first time, that some change their feeding strategies after eavesdropping on human-human demonstrations.
‘The unintentional impact of humans on creating interspecies communication… needs to be reconsidered.’
The research is a collaboration between St Andrews equine psychology expert Kate Farmer – author of Thinking Horse and The Harmony Project – and Nürtingen-Geislingen University in Germany.
During the study, 17 horses were familiarised with a choice of two different buckets to feed from.
News that horses can understand humans will be a delight to horse lovers such as the Queen
Jessica Pryor, who runs her own ‘intelligent horsemanship’ practice in Crosshill, Ayrshire, said the study should engender more respect for the animals
Researchers noted which tub – yellow or blue – the animals favoured.
Then, to see if horses would eavesdrop, each was allowed to witness from behind a fence an interaction between two humans in a riding arena.
They watched a woman help herself to a carrot from one bucket and begin eating it. She was then either praised or scolded by a second woman known to the horses.
The researchers made sure that the telling-off happened at each animal’s favourite bucket.
After six repeats, the women left the arena and the horse was allowed in to choose which tub to feed from.
The process was repeated for eight days on the trot – after which 16 of the 17 horses were mostly feeding out of the “good” bucket.
Of those, 12 had significantly changed their habits, including five who now entirely shunned the “naughty” tub.
Animals who stabled together and lived more social lives were better able to pick up the signals.
It is already well known that horses can respond to human commands as well as following the direction of someone gazing or pointing.
And they have even been taught to pick out symbols to pass on the message that they want a rug on or off.
But this research suggests they also share the intelligence of other animals who have shown an ability to develop new habits after watching and listening to humans.
The study states: ‘Such social learning has been discussed for Japanese macaques [monkeys], which demonstrate the washing of potatoes before eating them.’
Previous eavesdropping experiments involving dogs show that they warm towards people who hand out praise or have been rewarded for good behaviour, but they still relied on those people remaining present.
Jessica Pryor, who runs her own ‘intelligent horsemanship’ practice in Crosshill, Ayrshire, said: ‘This study shows horses are capable of seeing and learning a lot more than they’ve been given credit for.
‘It should engender respect for them, more for who they are than what they are.
‘Not so long ago, horses were considered just things that did a job, then they were leisure animals that had to make their owners money.
‘But they are actually smart, social and always switched on to what’s going on round about them.
‘Here, we can see them problem solving and asking themselves whether they have the right answer to the question.’
She added: ‘We ask horses to do so many bizarre things and they trust us to be the leader.
Ms Pryor said the study shows just how intelligent horses are
1998 film The Horse Whisperer saw Robert Redford play a cowboy with an almost magical ability to communicate with and calm unruly horses
‘Thankfully, there’s a large body of people now keeping horses more naturally than they have been – they’re not supposed to be alone in a stable 23 hours a day.
‘It was interesting in the study that the horses who lived together picked up the cues more easily.
‘In a group, matriarchal mares are very good at teaching the youngsters good manners.’
The research will doubtless be of interest to Britain’s horse lovers, which includes everyone from Sir Alex Ferguson to Queen Camilla.
The research also confirms the close bond between humans and horses that equestrians have long espoused. This relationship was famously explored in Hollywood movie The Horse Whisperer, starring Robert Redford.
In the 1998 film, Redford’s cowboy character displays an almost magical ability to calm unruly horses.
It was said to be based on the real-life story of Dan ‘Buck’ Brannaman, whose training technique for difficult or troubled horses comes from the so-called ‘natural horsemanship’ movement.
Instead of ‘breaking’ horses, Brannaman communicates with them and tries to envisage the world from the horse’s point of view.
