A new study published in the Applied Animal Behavior Science journal claims that horses can communicate with humans by pointing at symbols or objects.

Dr. Cecilie Mejdell of the Norwegian Veterinary Institute led the study, which included training 23 different breeds of horses.  The aim was to develop a tool to ask if the animals preferred wearing a blanket under different weather conditions. It is common in Nordic countries for a horse to wear blankets in all weather conditions.

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The horses were trained to touch a board with their muzzle to indicate if they wanted to wear a rug, receiving carrot slices as an incentive. The horses were taught to tell the difference between various symbols on the board; a horizontal bar meant they wanted a blanket, a vertical bar meant they wanted a blanket off and a blank to indicate no change at all.

By the end of the training, the researchers reported that the horses learned how to signal if it was too cold or hot by approaching the appropriate board and asking for the rug to be taken on or off. The animals requested a blanket when it was wet, windy and cold while preferred not wearing one when the weather was sunny.

Mejdell told BBC News that in general, horses were intelligent animals and the experiment just proved that they can make a choice based on their own motivation.

Karen McComb, a professor of animal behavior and cognition at the University if Sussez said that "This [training] is a really interesting and innovative study that has conceived a very novel way of getting at what is going on in the mind of the horse."

Mejdell and her team hope that the study would supplement future research while McComb believes that the training method would be beneficial to animal welfare.