Do Horses Want What We Want?

Would you call your relationship with your horse a partnership? Being partners means you’ve “negotiated the terms of the relationship,” including your shared goals, according to a leading welfare expert. Winning medals probably doesn’t constitute a shared goal with the horse. But goals that involve living a good life—for both horse and human—qualify as a…

Understanding Equine Vision

When you’re riding a course or out hacking — your horse’s unique way of seeing the world around him becomes hugely important. It’s a driving factor in what he’ll find scary, and also how (or whether!) he’ll tackle a jump. That means that learning to understand his view, and keep it in mind while you’re…

Exercise Therapy for Horses

Stall rest is sometimes necessary for an injury to heal, especially in cases of severe tissue damage (such as tendon or ligament injuries and fractures), but other times keeping horses moving is a better approach. The key is choosing the right exercise for the type and location of the injury. We cannot just tell horses,…

Ability of Horses to Show Self-Control Shown in Study

Horses are able to exert self control to wait for a better food reward. Self-control is defined as the ability to forgo immediate satisfaction in favour of better pay-offs in the future. Researchers assessed the self-control abilities of horses in a simplified delay-of-gratification test in a farm setting.

Tool Use by Horses Confirmed

German zoologist and behaviour researcher Konstanze Krueger and her colleagues, reporting in the journal Animals, said they identified 13 cases of tool use in their study involving twelve horses and a mule.