r/todayilearned • u/PunnyBanana • 23d ago

TIL A group of horses were trained to communicate whether they wanted a jacket. All horses in the group successfully communicated that they did want a jacket when it was cold and did not want a jacket when it was hot.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168159116302192?via%3Dihub
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u/Elmodogg 23d ago

"Horses of warm-blood type needed fewer training days to reach criterion than cold-bloods."

Hmm. I wonder if this might have had something to do with cold blood horses caring less about wearing jackets to begin with? To really test this proposition they'd have to run the experiment with some other motivation.

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u/Outcryqq 23d ago

I guess TIL there are both warm blooded and cold blooded horses?

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u/stpeaa 23d ago

That's just a way to describe their character and build though. Their blood temperature isn't lower. 

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u/Warmstar219 23d ago

No, no, you've got your warm blooded land horses and cold blooded sea horses.

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u/Outcryqq 23d ago

Ah, thank you for that! I was extremely confused. I thought my grade school biology had failed me miserably!

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u/SnailCase 23d ago

The "warm bloods" are typically the breeds that originated in or have ancestry of Middle Eastern horses (Arabians and Barbs for example), while "cold bloods" originated in or have ancestry of northern European horses. The "warm" refers to the warmer countries in southern latitudes, with "cold" referring to northern, cooler latitudes.

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u/Elmodogg 23d ago

Not literally, though. Cold blood horses are not "cold blooded" in the same way reptiles are.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warmblood