Do horses learn how to reach for feed depending on the time of day?

Abstract

The aim of the study was to assess the ability of horses to learn how to open feeder boxes in a direction associated with the time of day. The study involved 10 horses. The first stage of the study consisted in learning how to complete the task. The second stage involved the test and was followed by a control stage. The results indicated the highest number of failed attempts in the leftward movement test. The mean time required by the horses to complete the task of the leftward opening (10.27 s) was twofold longer than in the rightward direction test (5.06 s). It was observed that horses did not learn to open their feeder boxes in the correct direction according to feeding time. Although the results confirm that horses learn new tasks easily, the method employed does not facilitate examination of the problem of the impact of the memory of past events on the modification of behaviour depending on the time of day.