How intelligent are horses?

From what I know of horses, some are more intelligent than many people I know. They’re beautiful animals, inside and out – when Alex and I dream about our farm upstate, we have two horses at least in that dream.

Just like everything, some more than others. I have been around and had horses on and off my whole life.

In horse lingo certain terms are used such as ” sensible, bombproof, and babysitter” to denote a horses level of stability and brains.

I have had a horse that learned to turn on the garden hose and and one that I could trust to find his way home no matter how far we had gone in the mountains.

Intelligence in horse is the same as in all other animals and humans, based on problem solving ability, quick learning, and memory.

Horses have all of these in varying degree just like we do.

Funny, I just changed my avatar last night to some of the neigh-bors LOL
Meet, Nina & Maria and Cloud in the background.

The people I know who own horses or have experiences with them say they are fairly stupid. But, I was surprised to hear that I must say.

The ones I have know have been pretty darned smart.

I can’t think of any particular story to relate. It’s kind of like describing why you think your kids are talented. It’s not one specific thing they have done, but how they behave over time.

It’s the little (mostly willful) things they do that belie not only intelligence, but the concept of a relationship. Just like your child can sometimes be intentionally unhelpful (but not to the point of outright resistance) when you are trying to put on their shoes, horses will do things like suck in air so you cant tighten the girth properly or shift their weight in just the right way to make things inconvenient for you. If they are feeling particularly annoyed they will do subtle things like try to drag you off on every tree you pass while acting all innocent about it. They also seem to know when you are heading back to the barn as their pace will almost always quicken when you head in that direction. If you listen to them, they can and do warn you of danger as well.

Anyone who thinks animals are just dumb bruits has probably never really known any of them.

Like most social animals, horses have a great deal of what we might term social or relationship intelligence. They don’t do as well as most other domestic animals on puzzle-solving or other such tasks.

Many of them are quite intelligent, but they can be finicky, which tends to make them look stupid. Anything that starts bucking and freaking out and trampling everything when it is frightened doesn’t appear to be too smart.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard especially if you are on their back

Not answering your question directly, but… I’m not a particularly religious man. I feel very close to god, however, when I’m around one particular horse who I own. Only a higher being could have created an animal as majestic as my horse. He’s truly a gift.

I would guess somewhere between Levi Johnston and Brittney Spears.

@cockswain – Jeez, how insulting to horses.

They’re like people in that respect aren’t they? I mean, some are clever, intuitive & resourceful.
While others are stubborn, skittish & thick as pig shite. You know, just like your average workplace.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard

Granted, a horse spooking by sheer size and weight is going to be more of a danger than a bunny rabbit launching into the air. Horses will usually do their best to avoid trampling anything, but, in a moment of panic it is a collateral damage thing. lol

I have had horses that will stop in their tracks of they feel you losing your balance, and of course, the bond one has with their own animal is going to be a deciding factor, opposed to any random horse. But yes, they do command respect, simply due to the fact that they are big and very powerful animals.

One of my neigh-bors I care for when his owners are on vacation is a huge, pushing 18 hands, 4 year old Belgian draft colt. He’s a sweet guy, but, being young he is rather ‘pushy’, he commands extreme respect and cautious handling. He’s a freight train of power and every night he and his pals come galloping up the ravine below my deck back to their barn for the night, he is awesome in motion and the sound of his huge hooves pounding the ground is mind blowing!

Well, they’re smart, but not smart enough to avoid being eaten on a regular basis.

Course, it’s donkey’s that are the true clever buggers…..I ain’t going nowhere man!

@the100thmonkey

Neither are people. Uh, when the tourist runs out of marshmallows the bear has him as the main course.
I was in the Redwoods last year when a couple of stupid camera happy fools decided to approach a herd of Elk with calves and were charged by a huge bull Elk.

People are far stupider than animals. lol

I met one once that introduced himself as Mr. Ed.

Some of the world’s greatest mathematical geniuses have been horses.

They are very intelligent, but you do need to know HOW to train them, positive reinforcement will work wonders, negative reinforcement will yield negative results.

I have always loved horses, I used to raise them, train them, teach riding, & show them. It depends on the horse. Horses have attitudes & personalities the same as any other animal. Some of them are co-operative, curious, & interested in learning new things – and these can be a joy to work with. As a matter of fact, some of them are much smarter than people give them credit for & can learn things that you never intended for them to learn! However, you must always remember that horses do not see well (they do not see as we do) & if they panic at something that they think that they ‘see’, they are definitely big enough to hurt you if they do not have total confidence in you.

Well, Mr. Ed was one hell of an actor. I mean, it would’ve taken two humans to fill his shoes.

@Linda_Owl

Yes, wind is always a spooky thing, it masks and mimics the sound of potential predators. Horses are always in high gear and feelin’ skittish on windy days.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir Agreed, and here’s hoping you acheive that dream.

@Coloma Perfect Icon. Thanks for the detailed report.

@JLeslie I’m sure horses are not Einsteins. But to call the animals stupid probably says more about the speaker’s ability to discern animal intelligence than the horses brainpower.

@YoBob Thanks for the stories and confirming what I said immediately above.

@crisw That relationship skill is probably those who get close to them sense as intelligence, and why those that view them just as carrying machines see them as dumb. They have no relationship with the animal, and so miss all it would bring them.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard Depends on whether they are frieghtened by a thunder clap that missed, or a rattle snake about to strike.

@Neurotic_David Thanks. I think that’s a pretty direct answer to my question. :-)

@cockswain That low, huh?

@ucme Makes sense they would be. Thanks.

@Coloma Thanks for the word picture of the big Belgia. He’d be a frightening sight if he spooked and reared up over your head.

@ucme I read a story from a soldier from WWII. He was returning to camp over a mountain road in the pitch dark, but his donkey knew the way. Suddenly the animal stopped in its tracks. He urged it on, spurred it, the donkey simply would not budge another inch. So he dismounted and being unable to see, he pulled out his bedroll and slept through the night. The next morning when he got up he found they were just feet from an abyss where the mountain road had been bombed out after he had left camp using it.

@rebbel I was wondering if anyone would mention Mr. Ed. Talk about failing IQ tests, I used to regularly watch that comedy. Predictable period humor, but it took me ages to catch on.

@ratboy Great link. Thanks.

@DrBill Negative reinforcement works terribly with me too. :-)

@Linda_Owl Thanks for your report. It sounds as if you know them well.

@woodcutter Yeah, it wasn’t just the voice-overs. Mr. Ed moved his head and mouthed words like a champion He had to be a well-trained horse.

@Coloma Being skittish on windy days isn’t stupid when you are a prey animal and there might be predators about.