Is My Horse Telepathic?
- Sep 15
- 4 min read
If you’re lucky, you will have had a horse that seemed to anticipate what you wanted before you asked for it. If you’re super lucky, or you’ve spent enough money, or worked years for it, you might have one that does that for everybody. These are usually referred to as 'educated'.
Whether you’re skeptical or spiritually inclined, many owners tell me that they feel their horse is telepathic.
While mainstream science remains cautious about claims of telepathy, there’s no denying the depth of horse-human communication. Horses are masters of subtle cues, emotional attunement, and non-verbal feedback. What some call telepathy may also be a sophisticated dance of body language, intention, and trust.
In the early 1900s in Elberfeld, Germany, businessman and animal enthusiast Karl Krall trained several horses—most famously Muhamed, Zarif, and Berto—to perform feats that seemed to defy belief:
Reading and spelling using hoof taps
Extracting cube roots of numbers written on a blackboard
Communicating spontaneously, even tattling on grooms or other horses
Krall used a tapping system: the left hoof for tens, the right for units. So if the answer was 65, the horse would tap six times with the left hoof and five with the right.
The 'Clever Hans Effect'
Clever Hans was a horse in early 20th-century Germany who captivated audiences with what seemed like astonishing intelligence—he could “solve” math problems, tell time, and even understand German. Or so it appeared.
Hans would tap his hoof to answer questions posed by his trainer, Wilhelm von Osten. Crowds were amazed, and even scientists were intrigued. But in 1907, psychologist Oskar Pfungst conducted a series of experiments.
Pfungst varied who asked the questions:
Sometimes the questioner knew the answer.
Sometimes they didn’t.
Sometimes the horse couldn’t see the questioner.
Findings:
Hans only answered correctly when the questioner knew the answer.
If the questioner didn’t know—or if Hans couldn’t see them—his accuracy plummeted.
Pfungst concluded Hans was responding to involuntary cues: tiny shifts in posture, facial tension, or breathing that signaled when to stop tapping.
This led to the now-famous Clever Hans Effect, a term still used in psychology and animal training to describe how subtle, unconscious cues can influence behavior. It’s why double-blind studies and cue-free environments are essential in behavioural research. It’s now a cornerstone concept in behavioral science and experimental design
Whether or not horses are telepathic, it can often feel like they are.
For around 3000 years humans have used horses as a tool for transport, carrying, and providing the ‘horse power’ to run machinery. In that time we have selectively bred for anticipating our requests and compliance, as well as physical characteristics.
For example, delivery horses are/were often ‘route-trained’, which meant they knew where to go, when to stop and for how long.
I recently listened to a podcast where Theo Von was talking to an Amish boy. Theo was talking about drink-driving being a hazard in modern life. The boy said, “Oh, we don’t need to worry about that. The horse will just take you home.” Theo Von nodded and said “the original Tesla”.
What Does This Mean for Horse Owners Today?
It doesn’t really matter whether your horse is reading your mind or reading cues - micro or otherwise, the energy you put out will influence their behaviour. This also applies to negative thoughts.
How many times have you seen someone feeling quite sure that their horse would not get on the float, and what do you know? It didn’t.
An 'educated' horse:
Responsive to cues: The horse understands and reacts appropriately to aids—whether from the rider’s seat, legs, reins, or voice.
Emotionally settled: It’s not just trained, but mentally comfortable with its work. It’s less reactive, more adaptable, and able to tolerate rider mistakes without escalating.
Consistent across contexts: The horse can perform reliably in different environments—arena, trail, competition—without losing its composure.
Clear communication: It understands the “language” of training and can engage in a two-way conversation with the rider or handler.
Willingness and softness: An educated horse offers its movements rather than being forced into them. It’s not just obedient—it’s cooperative.
How do you achieve 'education'?
Repetitive, consistent clear cues with positive outcomes for the horse, incrementally building on skills, adding challenges over time that set the horse up for success and confidence.
It’s a very good habit to approach your horse with clear intentions, with some idea how much time you have allocated for that task, and an ideal way your horse can achieve that outcome. Just these elements alone may contribute to why a trainer can have more success with your horse than you do. A trainer will have a clear goal in mind for the time they have allowed, and can break that outcome into achievable steps.
If your thinking is not clear then your cues will be unclear also. You might find it useful to send a message in your mind to your horse on what you want it to do, and then your physical cues will follow.
Whether it's 'telepathy' or not, the outcome will be the same.
Further reading:
Clever Hans and his effects: Karl Krall and the origins of experimental parapsychology in Germany
Levels of communication: The talking horse experiments
Straight from the horse’s mouth? A literature review and a randomized controlled trial of intuitive animal communication
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