From the author: Denial of consciousness in animals is an ideological template that is copied from textbook to textbook. Do animals have consciousness? Conversation with a horse. Traditionally in psychology textbooks there is an opinion that animals do not have consciousness. This is explained by the fact that they have no speech, and without it there can be no consciousness. In this article I want to share my experience in observing the conscious action of a horse. A little history. As a child, when I was 4-5 years old, I persuaded my parents to buy me a real horse. My parents tried to explain to me that we had nowhere to keep her and nothing to feed her. We then lived in the city of Slavyansk, Donetsk region, we had a private house with a garden and, according to my childhood ideas, there were quite enough conditions for a horse. Therefore, I did not lag behind my parents. And, in turn, he argued that grass grows in the garden, and a horse could live in one of the rooms in the house. In the end, they bought me a toy in the form of a rubber horse's head on a stick, on which I could imitate riding - skipping around the yard. That’s where the matter ended. However, my fate turned in such a way that I remembered my childhood dream as an adult. In 1990, I got a job as a forest foreman in the Drobyshevskoye forestry of the Krasnolimansky forestry enterprise. Under guard, I had a detour covering an area of ​​3.5 thousand hectares of forest in the floodplain of the Seversky Donets. The detour consisted of five rounds. According to the structure of the forest guard of that time, the forester guarded the “bypass” - the territory that he walked around on foot. And the forest master was provided with transport for the detour. But it was a turbid time, so they didn’t give me any transport. And then, in 1991, I bought myself a horse. Getting to know the horse. From the collective farm herd, I chose a young black mare. She was very beautiful and I liked her immediately. She probably liked me too. In any case, out of the entire herd of about fifty horses, she came up to me herself. I looked at her, she looked at me, and came over. I treated her to cookies, which I had in my pocket especially for this purpose. After that, I asked the groom what kind of horse it was. The groom explained that this is a mare, she is three years old, her name is Maya and she is not at all broken. Then there were organizational conversations, weighing, payment, a veterinarian’s certificate, and the search for transport for transportation. That’s how Mike ended up at my house. My first experience of communication. How I persuaded Mike to drive me. I must say that I had no experience with horses before. I rode several times once. But there was no communication there, and the horses there were broken. Therefore, the first few days I simply let Mikey out of the barn and walked next to her while she grazed. I talked to her, looked closely, observed her reactions. She seemed very independent and independent; she paid almost no attention to me, except for those moments when I took an apple, crackers or cookies out of my pocket. In general, she behaved friendly and self-confident. I approached her, stroked her, scratched her back. One day I put a bridle on her, stroked her, and explained that I wanted to climb on her. Her expression remained impassive, I would say "philosophical", she continued to chew the grass, as if she knew something about life that I did not. Taking hold of the withers, I carefully jumped onto her back and sat astride her. She stood. I continued talking to her. I don’t remember verbatim what I said, but I explained something about horse karma and the meaning of life. As a result, Mike went, and I rode her. Thus, I didn’t have to go around it. There was simply a period of mutual recognition and organization of communication. So I got official transport. The forestry department allocated me one and a half hectares of hayfields, gave me oats and fodder beetroot. Side effects of the “agreement” with the horse. Of course, this method of communication also had its side effects. It often happened that Maika didn’t want to do her job - she didn’t want to go, she resisted, started grazing if she suddenly liked the grass along the way, or tried to go in the other direction. It was not possible to force her away- she just threw me off. Thus, I fell from it many times. Therefore, I had to convince her further, in each specific case there were separate conversations. It happened when, during floods, I was driving through the forest, and the road was flooded, Mike was stubborn and did not want to get into the cold dark water for anything. Then I began to tell her that I was at work, that she was also at work, that they had allocated hay for her and were giving her oats, etc. She would stand, listen, think and go. She curls her ears, snorts, the water is cold up to her belly, there may still be snags in the water, holes - of course, she doesn’t like it all. But he shows consciousness and goes. Yes, I used the word “consciousness.” I can't use any other word here. After all, she doesn’t want to go, but I really can’t force her (she’ll just throw her off), but she goes... A case of a horse clearly understanding human speech. However, there was a case of my conversation with Mike, which completely changed my ideas about the intelligence and consciousness of animals. Drobyshevskoe forestry was a village of six houses, a wood sawing shop, garages for equipment, warehouses and an office. All this is in the forest at a distance of about 4 km from the village of Drobyshevo. Residents of the forestry never grazed or tied their cattle, but simply let them out of the barns. The cows went where they pleased and grazed. It was late autumn of 1992. There was no snow yet, however, all the grass was already dry and sticking out like red weeds. Therefore, in search of greenery, the cows began to walk through the forest (about 1 km) to the field of the Kommunist state farm and eat winter wheat. Then the director of the state farm, Verbitsky, announced that whose cow was caught in the field - either they would be taken to the state farm, or they would have to pay a large fine, or the cow would remain on the state farm. I realized that this also applied to my Mikey. One morning I let her out to graze, and after some time I discovered that she was nowhere to be seen. He took the bridle and went to look for it towards the field. I went out onto the field, and indeed, Mike was standing in the middle of the field, eating winter crops. I approached, put on the bridle, and tried to lead her away. But that wasn’t the case - I stuck my head and couldn’t budge. He jumped on her, tried to ride her, but she threw her off. I slapped her in the face. She stepped on my foot with her front hoof in retaliation. I was wearing boots, but it still hurt a lot. And she stands and smiles, like “gee-gee, what are you going to do.” He barely kicked her off his feet. I hold the reins, she can’t run away, but I can’t do anything either. Then I started explaining everything to her in plain text. Like, this state farm “Communist” is in winter, the director of the state farm, Verbitsky, said whose cow will be caught in the field... and this also applies to you, but I don’t have enough money to buy you back, and on the state farm the food is no better than you were fed on the collective farm ... After these words, Maya’s facial expression changed. From cheerful and self-confident he became puzzled and serious, it was clear that he was thinking about something. I thought and went. But the most interesting thing happened a little later. A couple of days later I let her out to graze and went for a walk with her. She walked towards the field. She reached the field and began eating wheatgrass along the edge of the field. It eats wheatgrass, but does not go to winter crops. And so it goes along the edge of the field. Next there was a road that went into a field, and Mike went along the edge of this road to eat wheatgrass. She and I went out far into the field. I see a watchman riding a bicycle towards us. He can’t see it from afar; it seems like the horse is eating winter crops. He arrived and saw a horse eating wheatgrass. He stood there for about twenty minutes in silence, waiting to see if Mike would go to winter camp. He stood silently, I stood silently, Mike silently ate wheatgrass. Then the watchman left. After that conversation, Maika no longer went to the winter harvest. If anyone says that some reflexes and instincts were at work, or that she did not understand the words, but understood some kind of intonation, I will consider such statements to be simple demagoguery and an attempt to defend the existing stereotypes of psychology due to the manifestation of corporate morality (in the terminology of Lorenz Kohlberg). Problems of determining consciousness in animals. I told Doctor of Psychological Sciences Yuri Borisovich Maksimenko about this case with the horse. I.