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Animal cognition2019; 22(6); 1001-1011; doi: 10.1007/s10071-019-01291-0

Effects of size and personality on social learning and human-directed behaviour in horses (Equus caballus).

Abstract: Due to our long history of living in close association with horses, these animals are suggested to have enhanced skills in understanding and communicating with humans. Today, horses have become important to humans for sport and leisure and their understanding of human behaviour and their human-directed behaviour are therefore of great importance. In this study, we investigated 22 horses in a human contact-seeking experiment where they were presented with an unsolvable problem and a detour experiment with a human demonstrator. The unsolvable problem consisted of pieces of carrot in a closed bucket and the detour resembled the shape of V. Additionally, personality traits of the participating horses were assessed. Interestingly, the full-sized horses (N = 11) showed more human-related behaviours when presented with an unsolvable problem compared to before the carrots were made unreachable (p = 0.033), while the ponies (N = 11) did not. However, neither the full-sized horses nor the ponies were significantly more successful in the detour after human demonstrations than in control trials. When comparing the two experiments, we found the task-oriented behaviour in the detour test to positively correlate with human proximity and eye contact-seeking behaviour towards humans during the unsolvable problem in the contact-seeking test. Interestingly, again this was only true for the full-sized horses (p < 0.05) and not for the ponies. From the horse personality questionnaire results, the traits excitability and anxiousness revealed strong negative correlations with human-directed behaviour in the contact-seeking experiment (p < 0.05). Hence, size (full-sized horse/pony) and personality influenced the human-related behaviours of the horses and we suggest a future focus on these aspects to deepen our understanding of human-horse communication.
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Publication Date: 2019-07-16 PubMed ID: 31312981PubMed Central: PMC6834737DOI: 10.1007/s10071-019-01291-0Google Scholar: Lookup
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  • Journal Article

Summary

This research summary has been generated with artificial intelligence and may contain errors and omissions. Refer to the original study to confirm details provided. Submit correction.

This study investigates whether the size and personality of horses influence their ability to solve problems and their interaction with humans. The results show that full-sized horses interacted more with humans when faced with unsolvable problems, while pony size horses did not. The personality attributes of excitability and anxiousness also seemed to negatively correlate with the horses’ human-related behaviours.

Research Objective

  • The primary focus of this study was to explore whether the size (full-sized or pony) and personality of horses impact their social learning abilities and human-directed behaviour. The researchers used controlled experiments and questionnaires to measure these outcomes.

Research Design and Methods

  • A total of 22 horses participated in the study. In the first experiment, horses were presented with an unsolvable problem – pieces of carrot placed inside a closed bucket.
  • In the second phase of the experiment, a detour task was designed where the horses needed to find a way around a barrier that resembled the shape of the letter V. A human demonstrator showed the horses how to complete the task.
  • A questionnaire was also conducted to assess the personality traits of the participating horses.

Findings

  • In the unsolvable problem test, the full-sized horses showed more human-related behaviours compared to before the carrots were made unreachable, while the ponies did not show a significant change.
  • In the detour task, neither the full-sized horses nor the ponies were significantly more successful after watching the human demonstrator than in control trials without demonstrations.
  • Task-oriented behaviour in the detour test correlated positively with human proximity and eye contact-seeking behaviour during the unsolvable problem test. This correlation was only observed in the full-sized horses.
  • From the questionnaire results, the traits ‘excitability’ and ‘anxiousness’ showed strong negative correlations with human-directed behaviour in the contact-seeking experiment.

Implications

  • The study suggests that horses’ size and personality traits influence their human-related behaviours, which are crucial in understanding and improving human-horse communication. Future research focusing on these aspects should be conducted to gain deeper insights into this area.

Cite This Article

APA
Henriksson J, Sauveroche M, Roth LSV. (2019). Effects of size and personality on social learning and human-directed behaviour in horses (Equus caballus). Anim Cogn, 22(6), 1001-1011. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-019-01291-0

Publication

Animal cognition
ISSN: 1435-9456
NlmUniqueID: 9814573
Country: Germany
Language: English
Volume: 22
Issue: 6
Pages: 1001-1011

Researcher Affiliations

Henriksson, Josefine
  • IFM Biology, AVIAN Behavioural Genomics and Physiology Group, Linköping University, 581 83, Linköping, Sweden.
Sauveroche, Mathilde
  • IFM Biology, AVIAN Behavioural Genomics and Physiology Group, Linköping University, 581 83, Linköping, Sweden.
Roth, Lina S V
  • IFM Biology, AVIAN Behavioural Genomics and Physiology Group, Linköping University, 581 83, Linköping, Sweden. lina.roth@liu.se.

MeSH Terms

  • Animals
  • Behavior, Animal
  • Communication
  • Female
  • Horses / psychology
  • Male
  • Personality
  • Social Learning

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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