Horses Can Now Read And Communicate With Humans Through Symbols

Well, not all horses, and maybe "read" is a broad term, but a group of horses in Norway have been taught to recognize symbols to communicate with humans. A feat that is as good as reading (described as "to look at words or symbols and understand what they mean" in the Cambridge dictionary), when it comes to horses, a species that is not considered to rank that high on the intelligent scale.

The horses in question were trained to point their muzzle at simple symbols on a board that would communicate the answers to questions like whether they wanted a rug or not denote if they were feeling cold, and interestingly the symbols pointed to by the animals matched the weather outside. The answers, or rather the symbols were chosen, by the horses, suggested they were not pointed out randomly.

"I think our study adds to the knowledge on horse cognition - about what horses are able to learn and how they think," said Cecille Mejdell, lead researcher from the Norwegian Veterinary Institute. "Horses are often considered to be not very intelligent but this shows that using the right methods they can actually communicate and express their opinions and they can take choices that seem sensible to us even."

The researching team trained a group of 23 horses, belonging to various breeds, to communicate by tempting them with carrots. The first step in the training process was to encourage the horses to trot up to the board and touch it with their muzzles. The next step was to teach them to differentiate between the three symbols the boards comprised of, a horizontal bar to show they needed a blanket, a vertical bar to indicate they did not want a blanket, and a blank symbol if they did not want any change in their present rug situation.

Eventually, the horses were able to relate each symbol with its meaning, and actually, walk up to the board and put out their opinion regarding a choice of rugs, which basically showed whether they felt too hot or too cold. The training period included 10 to 15-minute sessions for two weeks, by the end of which each of the 23 horses was able to master the technique.

The researchers feel that horse owners, in general, can also train their animals in the same way to understand what their horse wants. Animal welfare is another area where the training could come in handing, as per the experts.