Dubbed naughtiest horse and best actor this video of a horse who lays down when people attempt to ride him is making the rounds. Popular commentary about the video suggests that the horse is playing dead, and acting in order to get out of work. If youve been here a while, you will have heard me bust the myth before that horses can act, plot, or scheme to get out of work. If you havent heard that bit of myth busting yet, please stand by. Here goes: Horses simply DO NOT have the cognitive capacity to act, plot and scheme in this manner. They. Just. Don’t. They are no more able to plot and scheme than we are able to fly by flapping our arms. Acting, plotting, and scheming are not cognitively possible for them - they lack the brain power to do so. Still dont believe me? Well, whether you believe me or not its still true; they cant do it. But I think I know why some people still cling to this belief, even when faced with the above facts, and heres the reason: Horses are intelligent in ways that are very specific to them as a species – just as we are – and our brains have evolved for different purposes, Plotting, planning, and scheming are all easily accomplished by our human brains; because of this cognitive ability, humans often project their abilities onto other species, and assume the other species can do the same. “Heck, if I can act my way out of work, that horse must be able to do so as well!”, they incorrectly assume. Let’s use our brains for good, horse people, and not for evil. Lets learn all we can about the cognitive abilities of other species, and use that knowledge to try and help us understand them better. Projecting our unique abilities onto the horse never seems to work out well for them, so lets just stop. Off my soapbox. :) PS - If you want to share this link, it might be best to cut and paste my comments when you share it, lest the myth of the acting horse continue.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 22:24:12 +0000