Having been around horses most of my life, it never occurred to me that they may or may not be able to count. During a recent workshop, we were asked if animals could count and it got me thinking about my horses.

When I was younger, I had a pony who would knock his leg three times on the door of his stable if he wanted some attention when we were in the yard. Each time he did this he would get a reward as I would go over to him and give him attention. At first, I thought he was counting but now I think back to it, was it a counting or just brought on by positive reinforcement? Skinner (1953) believes that positive reinforcement encourages a behaviour to be repeated. Could he count or was three just such a well-known beat? In horse riding, I constantly count down from 3. I put my leg on three strides before a jump. I hop three times before I get on my horse. A canter stride has 3 beats to it. I feel that it was just out of habit that he did it three times and not that he could count.

However, I do believe that horses have an understanding of mathematics. Perhaps not counting, but they are able to estimate and have some type of understanding of patterns. They are able to correct their feet to ensure that they could take the correct amount of strides to make the jump. They, also, have an understanding of shape.

There has been many articles written about horses being able to count. I found an article by Nic Fleming explaining his views that horses can count based on a study. He noted that researchers have found that horses were able to detect the bucket with the most amount of apples in it which is the same skill that a baby develops at 10 months. Psychologist Claudia Uller (2008, quoted in Anonymous, 2008) who conducted the experiment believed that horses had a “rudimental ability to count, process the information and make a decision”.

References

Fleming, N. (2008) ‘Horses can count new study says’. Telegraph. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/3338537/Horses-can-count-new-study-says.html (accessed on 08/10/2016)

Anonymous.  (2008) ‘Horses are as good as babies at counting’. Daily Mail. Available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-556329/Why-horses-good-babies-counting.html (accessed on 08/10/2016)

Skinner, B. (1953). Science and human behavior. New York: Macmillan. Available at: www.bfskinner.org/newtestsite/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/ScienceHumanBehavior.pdf (accessed on 08/10/2016)