My horse loved Tori Amos. Her Little Earthquakes record.
Or were the ulcers caused by just being in the stall and not able to forage for hours on end because they were in a barn???
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Clearly a rubbish study, given they did not include Irish/Scottish traditional music.
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That is my theory that the horses may have had ulcers anyway.
He does put out a leaflet if you want to contact him and ask him.
It doesnāt make sense that horses would like any constant noise interfering with their ability to scan the environment for safety, aurally or visually. In fact it makes more sense that it would cause them stress. I know the first thing I do when I go I to a barn is turn off the music/radio. Itās rarely playing anything I like, and music distracts me from what Iām thinking, assessing, listening for.
I find attempts to make horses into human like companions (anthropomorphosizing)ignorant at best and dangerous in regards to safety and training. In this case adding stress to a horses environment for the sake of human emotional neediness is stupid and self gratifying.
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I boarded at a farm that played NPR most of the time. The owner likes to say she had the best-educated horses around.
One day they had a Celtic band on.
My horse (who had been sleeping in the cross ties) woke up immediately and stood to attention, and listened with great focus and all evidence of enjoyment to the whole performance. Didnāt want to leave the cross ties before it was over.
He was born in Ireland. Took a little trip back to the homeland there.
Iāve played it for him since but never gotten quite that reaction. It was really remarkable. I wonder if he has a connection with that particular song.
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I was working in the barn lot with my gentleman friend one day and had my phone in my pocket playing music while his critters supervised. His donkey was particularly interested and listened from a respectful distance until a Sturgill Simpson song came on. She got suddenly alert and came over, pressed get head against my phone pocket and started making her happy donk keening noise.
I did several tests of different music and she seemed to share my taste, but it turns out sheās mostly just a diehard Sturgill fan, lol
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I think horses would prefer to watch shows about small animals if theyāre stuck inside. I remember at boarding barns where horses show a lot of interest in the chickens pecking around, goats playing, and the barn cat drama, lol.
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I think there was a study somewhere that came to that conclusion. Not being able to hear what was going on outside the barn caused more stress.
One of my previous barns played music loudly on July 4th to cover the noise of fireworks.
Iād prefer classical music myself, but I wonder how theyād respond to spa-like music.
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I play classical music in the barn during the day. The horses are out most of the day. So they listen with breakfast and dinner. I turn it off at night. They seem to like it and I notice they are relaxed.
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I agree. In nature they do not have constant music (unless civilization has encroached upon their territory to the extent that there is always music coming from human houses where for always before there was just birdsong, running water, and the wind in trees.
I am a musician. I love music. Having it playing constantly in my living quarters would soon drive me raving mad.
Why subject horses to artificial noise? All the time? No escape?
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Iām with you and the horses. I like just hearing the horses and surroundings when i am at the barn.
I have a whole car I can listen to music in, to and on the way home from the barn.
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I have heard horses like to move to music whilst riding. So some horses tend to move in the rhythm of the music. I always like to ride to music and had the feeling my horse enjoyed it, too.
Constant music in the barn, even at night. No. wouldnāt do that. Playing music whilst grooming or mucking out wonāt do any harm I guess. And of course music can help a horse to relax. Used in certain cirumstances.
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My maternal grandmother often remembered as a kid that her father would hitch up their buggy horse and go listen to the bands playing at the park.
Their mare had been a circus horse retired to civilian life. This mare liked hearing the music and always nodded her head in time with the music.
One day her father sold this mare. When he told my grandmother and her mother they both burst into tears and went on crying, crying, crying because they loved the mare so much. Well her father had to buy this mare back to stop all the crying in his house. Luckily he was able to buy her back.
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One of my memorable experiences with music involved my OTTB.
In the first barn I had her the farrier had to park in front of the barn, walk through a hallway to get in the barn to shoe the horses.
My TB mare was always fine, occasionally a little impatient but not a big deal. She was the same for the first few months at my new place - it was winter so we kept things closed up while working.
The first time the farrier came to the new place in warmer weather he left the radio on in his truck, it wasnāt loud, but you could just hear it in the barn. The TB lost it mentally, dancing around and being completely uncooperative. We were both baffled until I finally keyed in on the radio and suggested he turn it off and once it was off she settled in a few minutes. I donāt normally play music with the horses in the barn and I donāt know what her experience was before I got her, but the radio being definitely had her upset for some reason.
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Peeked at the original study: they used Green Day for rock? Obviously not a well done study. 
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Ugh. Bad flashback to a horse show many years ago when the Hispanic guy in the next aisle insisted on blasting his music at such a high volume that you literally could not hear the horse show PA system over it. As in, you couldnāt tell when your next class was starting because you could not hear the announcer.
And the guy was playing Just. One. Song. On repeat. For the whole week. It was horrible.
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My mare loved āspaā music. Iād play it while grooming/tacking up. I just got a new gelding, so Iāll have to see where his tastes lie.
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The place I used to board was owned by uhā¦people who were very enamored with our former president. The only time they turned the radio on in the barn was to listen to political talk radio. Irate people squawking loudly is not my idea of relaxing. The BO was always anxious and convinced the world was about to end. I swear she made the horses anxious too.
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Excuse meā¦ excuse meā¦ I think more details are required here. This is COTH.
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Pics are required.
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