Your Horse is Smarter Than You Think
New Research Reveals Hidden Cognitive Abilities
Every horse owner has experienced that moment of doubt, watching their horse stare intently at an empty paddock where a companion stood just moments before, or seeming to "sulk" after a training session that didn't go quite right. Are they truly thinking about what they can't see, or processing emotions in ways we don't fully understand? Groundbreaking research from 2024 and 2025 suggests the answer is yes, and the implications for how we care for and communicate with our horses are profound.
The Research: What Did the Study Find?
Horses possess object permanence, a sophisticated cognitive ability previously underestimated. Dr Lesimple and colleagues at the University of Rennes in France tested 63 horses in controlled trials, finding that horses successfully located treats hidden from view¹. This demonstrates that horses can mentally track displaced objects - understanding that something continues to exist even when they can't see it.
Supporting this discovery, Dr Tomberg's team at the Université Catholique de Louvain found that horses' spontaneous eye blink rates change based on their attention levels, with blink inhibition proportional to their degree of attentional focus. In their 2024 study published in Scientific Reports, when horses concentrated on tasks involving hidden objects, their blinking patterns revealed active cognitive processing rather than simple visual tracking².
Meanwhile, revolutionary educational research proves we can dramatically improve our ability to read horse emotions. Dr Wells and colleagues at multiple institutions evaluated an online course called RAiSE (Recognising Affective States in Equine), designed to help owners better interpret their horses' emotional states. In their 2025 study published in Translational Animal Science, researchers found through in-depth interviews with participants that the RAiSE course successfully initiated participants' intent to change their behaviour towards their horses³.
The results were interesting: horse owners felt significantly more confident assessing equine emotions after completing the course, reporting increased awareness of body language, pain indicators, and how human behaviour influences horses. Dr Bell and colleagues previously found in their 2019 research that horse owners often fail to recognise signs of stress and discomfort in their horses⁴, but this new research shows that targeted education can bridge this critical gap.
Additional research reveals the depth of equine-human communication challenges. Dr Merkies and Trudel at the University of Guelph found in their 2024 study that when 534 horse owners watched videos of horse-human interactions, they correctly identified the horse's emotional state only 52.5% of the time - barely better than chance⁵. This reinforces how much room exists for improvement in reading our horses' signals.
The Translation - What Does This Mean for Horse Care?
These findings fundamentally challenge the traditional view of horses as reactive, instinct-driven animals. Object permanence research reveals horses as thinking, problem-solving individuals who form expectations about their world. When your horse seems anxious after a companion leaves the field, they may genuinely be wondering where their friend has gone and when they'll return.
This cognitive sophistication means horses are constantly processing and evaluating their environment in ways we're only beginning to understand. They're not just responding to immediate stimuli. Horses are thinking ahead, remembering past experiences, and forming mental maps of their world.
The communication gap between horses and humans is real, but it's entirely fixable. The fact that owners struggle to accurately read horse emotions isn't a personal failing, it's a knowledge gap that targeted education can address. When we improve our ability to recognise stress, contentment, curiosity, or discomfort in our horses, we can respond more appropriately to their needs.
This matters because misreading horse emotions has real welfare consequences. As Dr Fureix and colleagues demonstrated in their foundational research, misinterpretation of affective states can result in inadequate responses to stress, anxiety, or pain, which ultimately can negatively impact the horse's quality of life and jeopardise its welfare⁶. Every time we mistake anxiety for excitement or miss early signs of discomfort, we're missing opportunities to improve our horse's well-being.
Bottom Line: Your horse is thinking more complexly than you might realise, and your ability to understand their emotional communication directly impacts their welfare. The good news? Both can be improved with the right approach.
The Practice - How Do You Implement This?
Start by reframing how you view your horse's intelligence. When your horse hesitates at a jump they've successfully cleared before, consider that they might be remembering a previous difficult experience or evaluating current conditions differently. This isn't "being difficult" - it's cognitive processing.
Develop your emotional reading skills systematically:
Observe body language daily for 10 minutes during routine activities like grooming or feeding. Note ear position, eye expression, nostril shape, and overall posture.
Learn the subtleties of stress signals: Look for tension around the eyes, tight jaw muscles, restricted movement, or changes in breathing patterns. These often appear before obvious signs like sweating or rapid movement.
Pay attention to your horse's attention patterns. Based on Dr. Tomberg's eye-blink research, notice when your horse's focus intensifies - their blinking may decrease when they're concentrating on something important².
Create positive emotional associations by recognising and rewarding calm, curious, or engaged behaviour immediately. This builds on your horse's cognitive abilities rather than working against them.
Practice the "mental map" approach to training: Since horses can track objects out of sight, structure lessons that build on this ability. For example, when teaching trailer loading, allow your horse to investigate the trailer thoroughly first, understanding that they're mentally cataloguing the space even when they can't see inside.
Consider investing in formal education. Look for courses similar to RAiSE that focus on recognising equine emotional states. Dr. Wells' research shows that structured learning - rather than trial and error - dramatically improves your interpretive skills³.
Try This: Spend one week documenting three emotions you observe in your horse each day, noting specific body language cues. By week's end, you'll likely notice patterns you previously missed.
The Reality Check - Limitations, Considerations, and Real-World Examples
The object permanence research involved controlled laboratory conditions with treats and specific hiding locations¹. In real-world scenarios, horses face multiple distractions, weather changes, and complex social dynamics that may influence their cognitive performance. A horse who demonstrates object permanence in a quiet arena might still struggle with the same concept during a busy lesson program.
The education research, while promising, involved motivated volunteers who chose to participate in the RAiSE course³. Horse owners who are less interested in emotional communication or more focused on performance outcomes might not see the same improvements. The research also measured participants' confidence in reading emotions rather than their actual accuracy, unfortunatly feeling more capable doesn't guarantee being more correct.
Individual variation matters enormously. Some horses naturally display more obvious emotional signals, while others are subtler. Breed, age, training history, and individual personality all influence how clearly a horse communicates their internal state. A sensitive Thoroughbred might show stress through obvious physical tension, while a stoic draft horse might require much more careful observation.
The research on human accuracy in reading horse emotions (52.5% correct) highlights a sobering reality: even after education, we're still interpreting another species' internal experience⁵. Cultural differences in horse handling, individual human biases, and the inherent challenge of cross-species communication all create ongoing obstacles.
Practical limitations include time and observation skills. Many horse owners have limited time with their horses and may interact during rushed periods (quick grooming before riding, hurried feeding schedules) when detailed emotional observation is challenging. Developing these skills requires consistent, mindful practice that not everyone can maintain.
Red Flag: Don't assume every behavioural change indicates complex cognitive processing. Physical discomfort, illness, or simple environmental changes often explain apparent "emotional" responses. Always rule out physical causes first.
Real-world success stories are emerging: Trainers who have incorporated emotional awareness into their programs report horses who seem more engaged in learning and show fewer stress-related behaviours. However, these benefits typically appear over weeks or months of consistent application, not immediately.
The research opens exciting possibilities for improving horse welfare, but it requires commitment to changing how we observe, interpret, and respond to our horses - a worthwhile investment in any partnership built on mutual understanding.
Research Note: The object permanence studies focused primarily on food motivation and short-term hiding (seconds to minutes). Longer-term applications and non-food contexts require further investigation. The education research was conducted with English-speaking participants and may not translate directly to all cultural contexts of horsekeeping.
References
Lesimple, C., et al. (2025). Evidence of object permanence in domestic horses (Equus caballus): Implications for equine cognition and welfare. Animal Cognition, in press.
Tomberg, C., Petagna, M., & de Selliers de Moranville, L.A. (2024). Spontaneous eye blinks in horses (Equus caballus) are modulated by attention. Scientific Reports, 14(1), 19336. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-70141-y
Wells, S.M., et al. (2025). Enhancing equine welfare: a qualitative study on the impact of RAiSE (Recognising Affective States in Equine) as an educational tool. Translational Animal Science, txaf033. https://doi.org/10.1093/tas/txaf033
Bell, C., Rogers, S., Taylor, J., & Busby, D. (2019). Improving the recognition of equine affective states. Animals, 9(12), 1124. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani9121124
Merkies, K., & Trudel, K. (2024). How well can you tell? Success of human categorisation of horse behavioural responses depicted in media. Animal Welfare, 33, e15. https://doi.org/10.1017/awf.2024.15
Fureix, C., Menguy, H., & Hausberger, M. (2010). Partners with bad temper: reject or cure? A study of chronic pain and aggression in horses. PLoS ONE, 5(8), e12434. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0012434