Equine Intelligence: Can Horses Recognize Shapes over Time?

Overview

Abstract: The objective of this project was to determine if horses possess the cognitive ability to identify and select a specific target object regardless of its location. The experiment tested the hypothesis: "If a horse is trained to associate a specific object with a reward, then the horse will be able to identify that object correctly more than 50% of the time, even when the object's position is changed." To conduct this experiment, a horse was first trained to associate a specific "Positive Stimulus" (a blue bucket with a square shape) with a food reward. A second "Negative Stimulus" (a blue bucket with a triangle shape and another with a circle shape) was used as a distractor and contained no reward. During the testing phase, both objects were placed in a controlled area. Over the course of 20 trials, the positions of the objects were randomized to ensure the horse was not simply memorizing a location (spatial learning). To prevent the horse from using its sense of smell, "decoy" treats were placed in a vented container beneath both of the “distraction” buckets. Results: After 300 total trials across three horses, the data showed a clear upward trend in shape recognition. On Day 1, the average success rate across all horses was 35%, which is near the 33% threshold of random chance. However, by Day 5, the average success rate increased to 56.6%. Strawberry was the most successful subject, reaching a peak accuracy of 65% (13/20 trials) on the final day. Gunner also showed significant improvement, finishing at 60% accuracy. While Speedy started below chance, he improved his accuracy by 20% over the five-day period.

Competition history

• CSEF 2026 Cognitive Science (Junior Division) · Entry J-06-04

Related projects

Closest projects by meaning, across every fair and year in the corpus.

Browse more like this

• All Behavioural and Social Sciences projects
• CSEF Behavioural and Social Sciences projects
• Every CSEF 2026 project