An elephant never forgets, the same holds true for horses, I’m Susan Allen stay tuned, on today’s American Rancher I will tell you about a horses remarkable memory. Many folks don’t give horses much credit in the brain department but the equine species does have the majority of us beat when it comes to memory. Like elephants, horses have amazing recall.  I have witnessed this first hand with a gelding of ours that had been abused.  Years latter Mighty Mouse still remembers being hurt by a really tall guy in a cowboy hat, given the fact he competes in tie-down ropings he encounters his nightmare, at virtually every rodeo so my son has worked diligently to create positive situations that help desensitize his horse to “really tall guys in cowboy hats”.  Researchers now believe that  horses remember unpleasant situations for years. Evelyn Hangg, PHd, co-director of the Equine Research Foundation located in Aptos California recently completed a study that resulted in  a couple of surprises. One; horses can recognize images on LCD screens and two; they could remember specific objects and tasks they were taught  ten years earlier. Now before I get emails from you telling me she must have been testing your favorite breed, (obviously the most intelligent) her research was completed on the same three horses over the years so Dr. Hangii believes wider scale studies would be needed   to determine if certain breeds,  even different  sexes have better recall than others. This new  research confirms that horses have excellent memories, a fact we all would do well to “remember” when working with  them.