It’s a beautifully warm spring day in Wales. Lambs are gamboling in the fields overlooking the sparkling blue sea that makes up the Ceredigion coastline while horses contentedly trot around the paddocks, arenas and stables that make up Aberystwyth University’s Lluest Equine Centre, high above Cardigan Bay.
If ever there was a day where you’d consider an animal to be “happy”, it’s surely this. Gus, a ten-year-old Pura Raza Española (Spanish pure bred) who is one of the Centre’s most inquisitive, intelligent and friendly horses, certainly looks cheery enough as he’s led out of the sun into the cool stables by Alice O’Reilly, a veterinary medicine student at the university.
But what Gus is about to do has profound implications for the way we think about caring for horses. Rather than suppose – or indeed hope – that a horse is “happy” or well rested, Aberystwyth University has developed a series of tests which they say can quantify whether a horse is suffering from depression or poor sleep.
The old “why the long face” joke about horses has just taken on a whole new resonance, then – but this research is serious, rigorous, and has the potential to be a game changer for the equine world.
Yet it begins with what can only be described as a video game for horses. As O’Reilly leads Gus towards a large touchscreen – very willingly, it has to be said – two shapes pop up. They even look like PlayStation symbols, a “play” arrow and a cross. Gus picks the arrow, rubbing up against it with his nose. Alas, this time, he’s chosen incorrectly, and no treat drops from the feeding tray below.
“But that’s good,” says O’Reilly. “What we want Gus to do is realise that he chose incorrectly, and then when we lead him around again, go for the cross instead to get the treat.”
The atmosphere in the centre changes slightly. Nobody, after all, wants Gus to start showing markers of poor sleep or depression. Thankfully though, he heads straight for the cross.
“Good boy, Gus! Good boy,” encourages O’Reilly.
Not so good that he left a bit of drool on the screen too, but this choice starts giving the researchers the data they need to feel confident that Gus is alert and learning rather than tired or listless.
And then, when he proves that analysis a number of times, the programming will change so that Gus will get his choice wrong again.
When this actually happens it is faintly amusing to witness; it’s difficult not to anthropomorphise but Gus looks genuinely baffled.
It’s what Gus does next, though, which is so interesting; O’Reilly used this test in her master’s dissertation on whether disturbed sleep in horses had an effect on cognitive processing and heart rates. If Gus, for example, was to swap back to the opposite symbol next time around, with a nice, even heart rate, it’s proof enough that all is well in his mind and world.
Of course Gus does, straight away, getting a nice pat for his troubles as well as some more treats.
“What we’re trying to do is induce that kind of emotional response,” says Dr Sebastian McBride, a senior lecturer in biological science at Aberystwyth University and lead researcher on this fascinating university-funded project, which has been running for a number of years. They hope the results so far will lead to grant funding to expand its scope.
“These tests allow us to understand how horses process information, how their memory works, and identify signs of cognitive distress,” he says.
Effectively, it’s similar to how we might understand insomnia or depression in humans; if you’ve got a problem with sleep then it’s no surprise if you feel that cognitive function the next day is clouded. The hypothesis is the same with horses – if Gus kept getting the tests wrong, wasn’t learning or in fact showed resistance to doing them in the first place, then that could be a marker for an external factor that might require further investigation.
“These tests could help horse owners understand their animal’s psychological wellbeing,” confirms McBride of the depression tests in particular.
Another that Gus tries is matching a fleeting image on the top of the screen with the same fixed symbol on the bottom. He smashes it. But there are also changes to activity levels that can be measured – even a horse’s ability to experience pleasure.
Of course, not all horses are so well rounded as the beautiful Gus. So how would the data in these tests be used in the real world if red flags were coming up?
“Most obviously,” explains O’Reilly, “you’d understand the environment the horse is living in. Horses are social animals that have evolved to spend about 70 per cent of their day eating and moving. Modern domestication often restricts these natural behaviours.”
McBride in particular can see real practical benefit for the high-performance horse ecosystem in Aberystwyth University’s research. The prospect of racing stables having touch screens above every stall seems like a far-fetched vision of a technologically overloaded future, but it makes sense for owners who need to eke out the very best from a well-adjusted horse.
“Race horses often live in highly regimented environments in terms of when they’re fed, when they get out – there are all sorts of things in that sort of restricted regime that might induce a state of depression,” he considers. “And you want them to be optimal from a psychological perspective to get to a good performance; it’s as fundamentally important as it is in a human athlete.”
The inference is that by creating more psychologically supportive environments, trainers might unlock greater potential in their animals. To that end Roberts and his students are also developing enrichment stations as part of this ongoing research programme – specialised areas where performance horses could interact with novel objects, receive unexpected rewards and engage in social interactions.
“We’re just scratching the surface of understanding equine cognition and behavioural need,” he says. “Each study reveals more complexity, more intelligence than we previously recognised.”
So how long before we’re taking a much-loved horse who’s acting a bit listless to an equine vet, to get a diagnosis via a touchscreen test?
It’s a way off yet as a commercial enterprise, but it’s certainly piqued the interest of Thompson House Equestrian Centre over the border in England. It’s operated by My Life, a charity whose equine therapy programmes for people who need support to live an independent life are proving incredibly valuable.
“You can really tell when a horse is not quite right,” explains My Life’s CEO Caroline Tomlinson, “and we find a lot of that comes when there’s been a change in environment, a previously disruptive environment, or indeed a change in season. It’s been so wet and cold this winter, but you see some of our horses now almost giddy to be out in the sunshine. As we humans are too!
“Having a test like Aberystwyth’s would probably confirm what I think most horse owners would already suspect about their animals, but it’s really interesting to see the work they’re doing with cognition and stimulation,” Tomlinson adds. “It’ll influence how horses are cared for, and a content horse really rubs off in a positive way on the person who is handling it.”
As for Gus, he’s certainly rubbing off positively on anyone at Lluest Equine Centre, even when his inquisitive nature leads him to have a chew on Dr Roberts’ coat. Like the horses at Thompson House Equestrian Centre, he’s particularly adept with disabled riders; it might sound faintly ridiculous to suggest, but his intelligence and willing nature has made this research a genuinely collaborative experience between horse and human.
“Horses are much more cognitively sophisticated than people realise,” agrees Dr Roberts. “Effectively, if there’s one thing we got from the sleep deprivation tests alone it’s how quickly horses learn. And if we can from that understand more fully their fundamental needs, everyone benefits.”