A study was conducted at Cambridge University to see whether horses are able to count. 56 horses were used in the study and each horse was only used once in order not to be influenced by learning. A human dropped artificial apples into two buckets side by side. Apples were dropped one by one into the buckets. The apples were artificial in order to prevent the apples smelling and hence making the study biased.

The study revealed that horses nearly always choose the bucket with the most apples in it. If there were less than four apples in the buckets then the horses would randomly choose the buckets. However when there were more buckets used, horses did choose the bucket with more apples in it. The horses could not see through the buckets and so had to keep track of how many apples were thrown into them. Horses were also offered the choice of two apples or one apple (even though the single apple was much larger). This indicates that horses prefer greater numbers to volume. The author of the study is Claudia Uller, MPhil, PhD, lecturer in the faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge. She explains “Horses are smart. Not only do they have special social skills, but they also have good memory, and they can count. Even Salamanders can do it. Of course a horse is intelligent enough to count.”

Horses are smart animals and deserve to be looked after and given the best veterinary care. E&L equine insurance have comprehensive equine insurance policies to suit your needs and budget. There are four levels of cover; Essential, Intermediate Value, Intermediate and Premier. With a standard E&L equine insurance policy you will be insured for death or slaughter of your horse, public liability, theft or straying and personal accident. Additional extras on other plans include vet fee cover, dental cover, stable cover, saddlery and tack, loss of use and liability of use. Visit www.eandl.co.uk/equine to find out more information or to take out an instant policy.

Source: www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=15396&src=VW, 6th December 2009

Bookmark This:

Close Bookmark and Share This Page

Save to Browser Favorites / Bookmarks

Ask backflip blinklist BlogBookmark Bloglines BlogMarks Blogsvine BuddyMarks BUMPzee! CiteULike Connotea del.icio.us

Digg diigo DotNetKicks DropJack dzone Facebook Fark Faves Friendsite folkd.com Furl Google

Jamespot Jeqq Kaboodle kirtsy linkaGoGo LinkedIn Ma.gnolia Mister Wong Mixx MySpace Netvouz Newsvine

oneview OnlyWire PlugIM Propeller Reddit Segnalo Shoutwire Simpy Slashdot Surphace Sphinn Spurl

Squidoo StumbleUpon Technorati ThisNext Twitter Webride Windows Live Yahoo!

Email This to a Friend

  Link HTML: 

 Permalink: 

 If you like this then please subscribe to the RSS Feed.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

More »