horse hearing

The hearing of a horse differs from a human, although not as much as, for example, vision.

A horse can hear sounds of a wider range of frequencies than a human. And the low-frequency sounds of a horse are heard a little earlier than a dull rumble reaches our ears, for example, the distant clatter of the hooves of a herd of other horses. The limit of our hearing at high frequencies is 20 kHz, while the horse’s hearing picks up sounds at a frequency of 25 kHz. The difference is significant, but not so big when compared, for example, with the hearing of a dolphin (130 kHz) or a dog (40 kHz).

Like a human, a horse is extremely attentive to different sounds, especially unfamiliar ones, because this ability helps to notice predators when they are still far away. At the same time, horses perfectly remember rhythms and sounds. For example, they can easily distinguish between an 80 beats per minute metronome beat and a 100 beats per minute beat.

But there is a feature of the horse’s hearing that significantly distinguishes these animals from us. A horse can focus on certain sounds by turning its ears (both or just one). But when a horse is angry, it hears worse: by tensely pressing its ears, the horses pinch the external auditory meatus.