Published February 10, 2015 | By www.phillipicenter.com
Does your horse come running when he hears your voice, but ignores others when they call him? You may already know that your horse has the ability to recognize your voice, but did you know that they also know what you look like?
According to a study that was conducted by a group of researchers from the University of Sussex, horses use a sophisticated cognitive system to identify their human handlers.
Horses remember things in a variety of ways. Remembering you and your voice is one way.
Horses have the ability to combine visual and auditory information; thus, allowing them to recognize their non-equine companion. They use the same process of recognition that humans use. They recognize their human friends through their voices and they unconsciously create a mental image of the person who spoke so that they recognize the person once they see him or her.
Researchers carried out their study on horses that were accustomed to different handlers.
During the said study, researchers played recordings of their handler’s voice through a hidden speaker, with the handler and a stranger standing in front of him. The horse responded by turning to his handler. The exercise was repeated, but this time, they broadcasted a stranger’s voice through the speaker. No reaction was noted from the horse upon hearing the unfamiliar voice.
In the second experiment, researchers tested if horses can distinguish between the voices of two people that are familiar to them. In this exercise, horses proved that they have the ability to match a human’s voice upon seeing him or her. This is a clear indication that horses use multiple senses or multi-modal memory to recognize humans.
These results show that horses use this recognition strategy naturally; thus, allowing them to identify and recognize different people they come across with, in their day-to-day lives.