Study: Horse Owners Best Predictors of Equine Motivation

Wouldn't it be great if researchers could decipher a way to predict which horses are going to be motivated to learn new things? TheHorse.com has reported that a group of equitation scientists from the Czech Republic tried, but according to their study results, the best predictor of whether a horse is motivated to learn is someone who knows the animal.

"In our study, only the assessment of a horse's good learning ability by a person having a long-lasting relationship with the horse could significantly predict if it would complete the task (in the study)," said Miroslava Pokornà, PhD candidate and researcher in the department of ethology at the Institute of Animal Science in Prague. Pokornà completed her research under the supervision of Jitka Bartošová, PhD, and presented the findings at the 8th International Society for Equitation Science conference, held July 18-20 in Edinburgh, Scotland.

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