Optical illusion showing seven horses has people baffled as most can only see five

People are galloping to social media in bafflement over a horse optical illusion.

A painting by artist Bev Doolittle named 'Pintos' has been taking the internet by storm, causing a heated debate over just how many horses are in the image - similar to the controversy surrounding whether that dress was gold and white or or blue and black - what a throwback.

If you're still feeling queasy after a heavy New Year's Eve, then look away now:

The image shows a group of chestnut horses in the backdrop of southwest America according to Love This Pic.

Painting the image in the mid-late 1970s, Doolittle used 'line, colour and pattern' as the 'main tools' to create 'optical illusions' and 'hidden pictures'.

Art Discovery explains: " The LINES of snow in the rocks blend with the lines of white on the horses in Pintos. The SHAPES of color on the horses are the same as the rocks behind them.

"By using the same LINES, COLOR, SHAPES and PATTERN on the horses as in the background, Bev Doolittle hides the Pintos in the picture and we have to look hard to find them."

The painting has since been uploaded onto the National Institute of Environmental Health Science's Kids Environment Kids Health website.

One of the institute's expert scientists resolved the image contains a total of seven horses - despite Doolittle herself saying there are five.

Kids Environment Kids Health reveals: "We've heard there are supposed to be 7 horses (including some partial horses, like a horse head and rear) shown in the picture.

"If you do not see seven, perhaps this humorous note from one of our best scientists (and puzzle experts) will help: 'I guess it helps to know we are looking for seven.

"In that case, I see one on the left looking out, and in the middle four faces are clustered close together - in that group the brown nose of one (second from left) covers the right side of the face of the one crouched lowest. To the right is a small horse standing sideways, and above it is the rear of the seventh. Unless I am hallucinating.'

However, don't fret too much if you can't quite see seven horses.

The institute reassures if you 'still don't see more than five or six horses (at least in part)' that you fall within the majority.

Most people - including Doolittle - have said they can only see five horses and Doolittle did create the painting herself after all.

Viewers of the mind-boggling illusion have scurried to Twitter in confusion over how many horses they can identify in the image.

One said: "The horse optical illusion! The artist says there are only 5 horses, experts say there are seven.

"Because I'm woke, I see an infinite number of horses— horses being an arbitrary social construct and me redefining horse. /s Anyway, kidding aside, I only see five. Do you see more?"

"Five. Count the legs. I got to 19. So unless there’s a couple legless horses laying about, the answer is five. Gotta love the 'experts' who wanna tell the person who drew it they don’t know what they’re talking about," another wrote.

One clever cookie commented: "I see four horses and one colt because a colt becomes a horse after the age of four...which is why no horse has ever won the Kentucky Derby; it's a race for three year olds."

A final resolved: "...experts on WHAT? Unless those last two horses are invisible, pink, and also unicorns, I ain't see s**t.

"Five horses."

LADbible has contacted Bev Doolittle.