We all know that a dog or a cat can recognize its owner by the sound of his or her voice. However, what would be interesting to find out is whether a horse can do the same thing – and, as a matter of fact, there are studies out there that show that your loveable four-legged furry friend can indeed know you from the sound of your voice! Studies have been performed on the matter in England and researchers discovered that horses can indeed discriminate one speaker from another and match a face to the voice!
Now, the way the research was performed is by using a loudspeaker with a recording of the voices of both one person the horse knows and one stranger. Speakers were placed on either side of the room. Then, they would wait to see where the horse looked, and how long its face would be turned towards one direction. This was how they would determine if the horse recognised the person who called its name.
The result is that the horses would generally turn their heads much more quickly when the person who spoke was a familiar one, and they would also look in that direction for much longer at a time. The opposite was true when the stranger tried to say its name. And, the test was also done by asking two familiar people to call its name. One was always invariably the owner of the horse and it usually reacted more to the sound of its owner.
The research is still going on, but finding this out is very interesting. Owning a horse can be rewarding and satisfying – not just cats and dogs! Therefore, it is worth speaking often to your horse because it can definitely become familiar with your voice!