Why do drivers say horses are "intelligent"?

[wizardofoz]

Racehorses have no idea why they are on the track. This is what many of the trainers also say about their top horses but we all know the reason they are able to win.......and.... ..in "AIN'T" their brains!

[Miguel_Sanchez]

You have obviously never been around horses in general or a good horse.  The really good ones have a brain and know when to turn it on and turn it off.  Your telling me when someone had a camera it was dumb luck that secratariat would look and pose?  He knew when the lights were on.

[JIDGE]

Racehorses have no idea why they are on the track. This is what many of the trainers also say about their top horses but we all know the reason they are able to win.......and.... ..in "AIN'T" their brains!

Disagree. Many racehorses know they are on the track to compete and they show their desire in a race. Just like people they have different intelligence levels. Some know their competitive nature instinctually; some learn though experience, and then there are some that don't catch on at all. You can call it intelligence, or whatever you want, but the good ones know where the wire is.

[rainman2]

You have obviously never been around horses in general or a good horse.  The really good ones have a brain and know when to turn it on and turn it off.  Your telling me when someone had a camera it was dumb luck that secratariat would look and pose?  He knew when the lights were on.

Agreed.  I owned a horse and was in town for the week he won.  My trainer told me he would do 'The Secretariat' and I didn't believe him.  After getting back to barn after the ride home from the track, he woke up the barn at about 1245 am and told everyone there that he won!  I should have listened and made a video of it!

Also, the smart horses actually learn to lay down and get off their feet too!

[halfinhalfout]

years ago I won with classy but sore old horse 4 weeks in a row, the next week a Meadowlands shipper came and beat us by a whisker, coming back past the winners circle my horse suddenly turned left and went in to get his picture taken...horses are not dumb

[Grandstand Handicapper]

Horses can absolutely be intelligent, in many, many ways. Any driver who is a horseman can tell. They know. Even if they never trained for a living, had their own stable, etc., they know.

[49mile]

Racehorses have no idea why they are on the track. This is what many of the trainers also say about their top horses but we all know the reason they are able to win.......and.... ..in "AIN'T" their brains!

I've had good horses and bad horses.  Good horses are good because they are smarter.  They know how to rest properly, a good horse will lay down and rest, a dumb horse stands all day.  A good horse know how to relax, in a race, or in the barn... a bad horse doesn't.

There are smart and dumb horses, not many good horses are dumb.

[halfinhalfout]

smart horses know as they win their way up the class ladder that sooner or later they will be in the rarified air of a really tough neighborhood.  They are acutely aware of where they are in the herd caste system.

[richesskid]

I had a super smart horse. Between races, HE wouldn't train. We let him go as fast or slow as he wanted . We laughed because it took forever to get his laps in, but he was a sore old war horse. On race day though that old boy flipped a switch n kicked ass. He knew enough to baby himself and save it for the race

[Mohawk mac]

Horses are very smart.  They don't bet on people.