Is a horse smart

It depends on who you ask and how you look at it. Personally, I think they are very smart. Horses have a very keen sense of observation and emotion and can pick up on techniques right away. Every horse can be trained to do whatever you want it to, but it takes a lot of repetition.

A horse trainer named Clinton Anderson says it simply.. "Make the right thing easy and the wrong thing hard." Horses understand that. If you want to teach your horse to stop, you tell it WHOA...if it doesn't stop, make it look like it was your idea and work them hard for it. Pretty soon, they'll start using the Thinking side of their brain and not the Reacting side of their brain which is extremely dominant in most horses.

Horses are herd and prey animals and their first instinct when something scares them or they are unsure of, is to run or rise away from it. If they are restained, they fight. They're very simple animals.

I have known horses that can unlock their stall doors, unlock every other horse's stall in the barn and then lead them outside for a grazing session. Some horses can learn hundreds of tricks, some very few. They're like people in the fact that they can be lazy or active, stubborn or willing.

I think what makes them smarter than even humans sometimes, is the amazing way that they can feel emotions. If you're nervous, a horse can pick up on it and will start to act in a similar way. If you're relaxed, so are they. This is the reason why many riders can tell their horses what to do just by the way they sit in the saddle or breathe.

I guess its an opinion. People often compare a horse to the mentality of a 2-4 year old child. A 2-4 year old is in the stage where they are figuring everything out and acting upon it. They are learning at an immense rate. Horses are like this. However, horses are very different from each other, just like dogs and people.

So, I say that they are very smart. My horse is too smart for his own good and I've met plenty of horses that have shocked me with their intelligence as well.