“Until recently, horses have been estimated to have average intelligence at best,” said Evelyn B. Hanggi, MS, PhD, president and, along with Jerry Ingersoll, co-founder of the Equine Research Foundation (ERF) in Aptos, Calif., during her review of literature on equine cognition and perception at the 2005 American Association of Equine Practitioners Convention. “Even today, gaps in knowledge, myths and misconceptions, and limited research affect how horses are understood or misunderstood by the public, the horse industry, and even the scientific community. Luckily, both professionals and lay people are becoming more interested in equine learning/cognition.”

Why is it important to know how and how well horses can think and learn? “If the cognitive abilities of horses are misunderstood, underrated, or overrated, their treatment may also be inappropriate,” said Hanggi. “Equine welfare is dependent on not only physical comfort, but mental comfort as well.”

In other words, if we understand how a horse thinks and learns, we can avoid mentally abusing a horse by not expecting him to learn what he is unable to learn. Conversely, we can also provide him with proper stimulation to learn that which he is able to learn quickly and easily.

Hanggi described various types of learning and perception in horses, and she reviewed research describing each one