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HowHorsesHearby Carin Smith, DVM Your horse grazes quietly out inthe pasture, seemingly obliviousto your presence near the barn.But when you scoop a canful of grain outof the barrel, his head pops up, instantlyalert to the prospect of breakfast! Horses have an extremely good senseof hearing. Unfortunately, very little isknown about how horses hear, althoughstudies indicate that horses’ hearing hasmore similarities to ours than it has differences. The human ear can pick up sounds inthe range of 30 to 19,000 hertz; in contrast,horses’ hearing encompasses 55 to 33,500hertz. The higher the sound frequency,measured in cycles per second or Hertz,the higher pitched is the sound. We canhear sounds which are of a slightly lowerfrequency than what the horse can hear,but his ears are resonating with a medleyof noises up through a higher frequencyrange than we’ll ever experience! What determines the range of soundwhich an animal can hear? One significant finding is that the distance between an animals’ two ears correlates with the sound frequencies it’s ableto hear. Horses, humans, and cows allhave similar ear-to-ear distances, and havesimilar ranges of sound recognition. Although horses can hear sounds of a higherfrequency than humans do, they are lesssensitive to high frequencies than mostother mammals. We often have the mistaken impressionthat horses’ hearing is more acute thanours. But just because a horse reacts to asound does not mean that it heard morethan we did; horses are easily startled. Drs. Rickye and Henry Heffner at theUniversity of Toledo in Ohio did virtuallyall of the research involving horses’ hearing. Says Dr. Rickye Heffner, “Cattle aremuch more sensitive in hearing; they hearmuch softer sounds.” But although cowshave more sensitive hearing, they’re muchless reactive to those sounds than arehorses. While a sudden noise might simply arouse their curiosity, it could mean athreatening situation to a horse, hence, a“spook” type reaction. In spite of the attentive appearance ofthe horses’ ears, his ability to localizesound isn’t very precise. Compared withother animals, horses score almost thelowest in this aspect. That is, when ithears a sound, the horse knows the general direction from where it came but notits precise location. Horses share this traitwith other creatures of prey; predators, onthe other hand, can pinpoint much moreprecisely the exact location of a sound. Keep this in mind while workingaround horses. Your equine friend maynot hear you talking if your voice is at avery low frequency (low pitch). He mayspook due to a high frequency soundwhich you can’t hear, or simply due to asound which is perceived from his view asthreatening. The tone of voice you use around yourhorse tells him a great deal. An uncertaintone invites him to ignore you or disobey.A definite and steady voice tells him thatyou really mean what you say. Many noises are particularly irritatingor frightening to some horses. This maydirectly interfere with their ability to function in a given situation.32 Arizona Horse Connection February, 2026continued on page 34