Mind-bending riddle leaves people stumped – but can you work out the answer?

Prepare to have your mind truly boggled with this brain-teasing riddle that's had people across the internet tearing their hair out.

Brainteasers and puzzles aren't just a fun way to pass the time, they're actually key to giving your brain a good workout.

They can ward off cognitive decline, keeping ailments like dementia at a distance, and let's not forget the mood lift from the dopamine hit when you crack a particularly tough one.

But there's a riddle doing the rounds that's causing more exasperation than elation, stumping people far and wide. Despite the question's deceptively simple appearance, finding the answer is proving to be quite the conundrum, sparking heated debates over what on Earth it could be.

The conundrum was posted by TikTok users Caitlin and Leah in a video where Caitlin is seen performing a series of hand gestures including claps, spins, and a click which accompany the riddle's cryptic question: "How many horses jumped over the fence?"

Leah is visibly perplexed by her partner's enigmatic challenge and confesses she's totally clueless. This leads to Caitlin repeating the sequence but altering the movements. In her second demonstration, Caitlin taps her head twice before ending without the click.

She poses again: "How many?"

This time, Leah guesses with confidence, saying: "Eight, because you clapped eight times."

However, Caitlin told her partner the answer should have been two. She told Leah to "concentrate" as she performed the riddle for a third time, incorporating claps, spinning hands, and head taps before questioning: "How many this time?"

Leah guessed two in correlation to the head taps Caitlin did, but this was also incorrect. Her partner declared the number was actually four.

After several more attempts, Leah eventually gave up, leaving commenters on the post to discuss how exactly the riddle should be worked out.

The trick behind Caitlin's riddle was revealed to be deceptively straightforward: the hand motions were a red herring, and all that mattered was how many words Caitlin spoke following her actions.

When she inquired, "How many?", the solution was two. If she added any more, like "How many this time?", then the answer escalated accordingly to four - revealing it was about the count of words spoken.

One sharp observer noted: "It's how many words she says after doing all the hand movements. For example, 'how many' would be 2, and 'how many jumped over the fence' would be 6."

Echoing this sentiment, another chimed in: "It's the amount of words she says after the actions."