In a new study, researchers confirmed not only that horses remember caretakers they hadn’t seen in months, but that they even recognized photos of them. | Photo: iStock

You don’t have to be a science person to know that that horse could have remembered Neeson, even years later. Especially since Neeson loved giving him yummy treats. You just have to be a horse person.

Still, science clears up the doubts about this question and gives it a firm stamp of “fact.” Yes, horses do recognize people, as we’ve seen in this article and this behaviorist commentary, for example. And they can remember things for a long time, including each other, as we’ve reported here and here.

French scientist Léa Lansade, PhD, of the French Horse and Riding Institute and the National Institute for Agricultural Research’s behavior science department, in Tours, and her team have just taken this research one step further. In a new study, they’ve confirmed not only that horses remember caretakers they hadn’t seen in months, but that they even recognized photos of them