Horses recognise other horses using a combination of senses
such as sight, sound, and smell. They can also recognise their human carers. But how do they
do it? Can they recognise a photograph of someone they know? And if so, can
they remember someone they last saw months ago?
Research at the French National Research Institute for
Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRA) investigated whether horses could
differentiate between photographs of familiar and unfamiliar faces.
The study, led by Lea Lanslade, found that mares could
recognise a photograph of their keeper that they had last seen six months
previously. A full report of the work is published in Science Reports.
Eleven three-year-old female Welsh breed horses, born and
raised on INRA premises, were enrolled in the study. They were kept in a group
at pasture. During bad weather conditions they lived in a large stall with
straw bedding. They had free access to hay and water.
Horses were trained to choose between a familiar face and a unknown
face shown on a computer screen (by receiving a reward when they touched the
familiar face with their nose).
Once they had been trained, the mares were asked to choose
between photographs of the keepers (past or present) and random unknown faces. The
study was conducted only on female horses and the photographs presented were
also only of women.
What the researchers found was that horses touched the faces
of keepers significantly more than would be expected by chance, whether it was
their current keeper or one they had not seen for six months.
The team conclude that the horses in the study were able to
identify faces and did not appear to have any difficulty recognising a
photograph of a person they knew.
Indeed, they point out that horses appear to have a good
memory for faces, as they could recognise a photograph of someone they had not
seen for six months.
For more details, see:
Female horses spontaneously identify a photograph of their keeper, last
seen six months previously.
Lansade L1, Colson V, Parias C, Trösch M, Reigner F, Calandreau L.
Sci Rep. (2020) 10:6302.
1 comment:
Anecdotally, I went back to a racing stable I had worked at 10+ years after leaving, I went to see my favourite horse(very retired) who was there for summer, she remembered me, evidence for this is the fact she was grumpy cow but was not grumpy with me, anyway the trainer asked me to de-burr her mane as she clearly remembered me and let me do it where others were given a hard time.
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