A new foal is a source of great excitement and hope for many breeders. They imagine that maybe this will be the horse to someday achieve their loftiest goals.

While it’s invigorating to have such motivating dreams about a new baby, scientists want to know if it’s actually possible to predict a horse’s potential, from an early age, to become a good learner. Recently, a group of Danish researchers looked into a series of tests that might be able to reveal learning ability in foals.

“There’s no real gold standard for testing learning ability in foals at this time, but I would like to see that happen,” said Line Peerstrup Ahrendt, PhD, researcher in the department of animal science at Aarhus University, in Denmark. Ahrendt presented her study at the 2014 International Society for Equitation Science conference, held Aug. 6-9 in Bredsten, Denmark

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