Can We Determine Foals’ Learning Abilities?

Researchers tried several methods by which to measure foals’ learning abilities with mixed results.
Share
Favorite
Close

No account yet? Register

ADVERTISEMENT

A new foal is a source of great excitement and hope for many breeders. They imagine that maybe this will be the horse to someday achieve their loftiest goals.

While it’s invigorating to have such motivating dreams about a new baby, scientists want to know if it’s actually possible to predict a horse’s potential, from an early age, to become a good learner. Recently, a group of Danish researchers looked into a series of tests that might be able to reveal learning ability in foals.

“There’s no real gold standard for testing learning ability in foals at this time, but I would like to see that happen,” said Line Peerstrup Ahrendt, PhD, researcher in the department of animal science at Aarhus University, in Denmark. Ahrendt presented her study at the 2014 International Society for Equitation Science conference, held Aug. 6-9 in Bredsten, Denmark.

TheHorse.com is home to thousands of free articles about horse health care. In order to access some of our exclusive free content, you must be signed into TheHorse.com.

Start your free account today!

Already have an account?
and continue reading.

Share

Written by:

Passionate about horses and science from the time she was riding her first Shetland Pony in Texas, Christa Lesté-Lasserre writes about scientific research that contributes to a better understanding of all equids. After undergrad studies in science, journalism, and literature, she received a master’s degree in creative writing. Now based in France, she aims to present the most fascinating aspect of equine science: the story it creates. Follow Lesté-Lasserre on Twitter @christalestelas.

Related Articles

Stay on top of the most recent Horse Health news with

FREE weekly newsletters from TheHorse.com

Sponsored Content

Weekly Poll

sponsored by:

How much time do you usually spend grooming your horse?
437 votes · 437 answers

Readers’ Most Popular

Sign In

Don’t have an account? Register for a FREE account here.

Need to update your account?

You need to be logged in to fill out this form

Create a free account with TheHorse.com!