Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/09/26/horses-can-communicate-with-pe.html
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The conclusions from this study seem rife with blanket statements.
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There’s nothing innovative in this research; it’s just horse sense.
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Bamboo Harvester for president!
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Learning to perform an action to get a result, isn’t communication. A rat easily learns that if it pushes a lever, it gets a food pellet. The horse learns that pushing a button gets a blanket. That’s just another learned behavior.
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Seems more Pavlovian than anything else.
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Oh, thank God. I was worried for a second that all those behaviorists submitting papers for social capital meant they were self-aware, too!
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oh I know!
one time I was walking in the park snacking on some healthy carrots as is my wont.
A cop was ambling by on his horse, and the horse tried to snatch a carrot as it ambled. Being sort of a smart ass I stepped back with my bag of carrots clutched in my hand and did a very long “neeeeiiiiiggggghhhh”.
The damn horse flipped me off.
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My old horse preferred to snatch cans of beer or coke that were left within her reach.
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A drum set for every horse!
Ooh, sorry. I misheard you.
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Nope. They’re just pushing the food pellet lever too.
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Reminded of an incident whee a horse was ‘proven’ to know math by stamping out answers.
It was found that was just learned ‘do trick get treat’ behavior too. SO as someone who took care o horses for almost twenty years?
I consider this article full of horse shit.
As for horses snatching things? Brush’s, phones, basically if you had it in hand the horses wanted it. However they knew what the hell a treat bag was so basicay always tried to grab the bag if you held it close enough while giving them treats. Horses are clever, but not as smart as this claims.
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Critters’r’smart.
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I just realized the above is a potential biz name. I claim it and will sell it to you for a good-paying job. For, Critters’r’smart, and we provide for smart critters. sniff Hello, I am VP Indubitably of Critters’r’smart, here at CRS, we provide for smart critters, and since all critters’r’smart, we provide for all critters. Bring your critter here, and we’ll provide. We provide for critters. That’s all, just critters.
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Paging @critter…
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We’re in business!
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That’s the nicest thing anyone has said to me all day, thanks!
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Oh, and please find attached the cease and desist letter from our legal department. 
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