Ensuring these lock-breakers stay safely in their enclosures requires first studying their motivations and meeting their welfare needs, said Krueger. | Photo: iStock

If you’ve ever seen videos of horses opening locked gates and doors, sometimes even to let their friends out with them, you’ve seen scientific history in the making.

Compiling hundreds of anecdotes and reliable video clips, German researchers have recently provided a scientific stamp of approval on what we’ve been watching for years: Yes, horses can figure out how to open doors.

“We can’t say it’s common, but it definitely does happen, and they definitely do seem to just figure out how to do it on their own,” said Konstanze Krueger, PhD, of the University of Regensburg, in Germany