Horses Use Symbols to Communicate Preferences

Horse Blanket On or Off?

Wish your horse could tell you if they want a horse blanket on or off on a cold, but sunny day, so they don’t end up a sweaty mess? A study finds horses can use symbols to communicate their preferences with their human counterparts.

The study published in Applied Animal Behaviour Science explores the training of 23 horses in Norway to use three neutral symbols so the animals can communicate their blanketing preferences with their handlers.

The study cut-off was day 14. All of the horses met the training deadline. The majority succeeded by day 11.

Warmbloods took less training days to reach the criteria than the coldbloods.

Tests were conducted under different weather conditions. Results show the horses’ choices were not random, but dependent on the weather. Horses chose to stay without a blanket in nice weather, and they chose to have a blanket on when the weather was wet, windy and cold.[irp]

Researchers state the horses used their new insight to communicate their preferences regarding blanketing to stay comfortable.