Horses Using Symbols

Blessi in his custom made camel hair coat

Researchers in Norway trained horses (including one Icelandic) to indicate their preferences as to before the experiment).

having their blankets on or off by touching a symbol. All the horses learned the task in just a few days. Researchers tested understanding by comparing preferences to daily temperatures, putting on extra heavy blanket, checking degree of sweat. Warmbloods learned the task faster than coldbloods (but researchers noted some warmbloods had been exposed to positive reinforcement

"Positive reinforcement training has been shown to increase horses’ general interest in humans (Sankey et al., 2010) and their motivation to participate in training (Innes and McBride, 2008). Actually, such a change in behaviour was observed among our horses. When horses realized that they were able to communicate with the trainers, i.e. to signal their wishes regarding blanketing, many became very eager in the training or testing situation. Some even tried to attract the attention of the trainers prior to the test situation, by vocalizing and running towards the trainers, and follow their movements. On a number of such occasions the horses were taken out and allowed to make a choice before its regular turn, and signalled that they wanted the blanket to be removed. It turned out that the horses were sweaty underneath the blanket."

http://www.appliedanimalbehaviour.com/article/S0168-1591%2816%2930219-2/fulltext?rss=yes