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ally go in the direction it is looking so point it correctly. ❑ Hearing. Horses have a broader range of hearing than humans and can hear up to 25 000 cps; they also have acute hearing in the high and low frequencies. Horses have 16 muscles that control the ears, which they can swivel 180 degrees. When ears are laid fully back this cuts their hearing severely. Horses can protect their ears from very loud noise by laying their ears flat in order to close down the ear canal. So a horse laying its ears back in response to a loud noise may not be scared, but simply trying to protect itself. Similarly, a horse may lay its ears back when you yell at it. Or, it will lay its ears flat when angered in an effort to focus its senses on sight and smell. Horses are alert at all times except in deep sleep which they do in very short spells. Horses can respond to a training command given at a very low volume. We don ' t need to shout to be heard. Also, horses are very sensitive to the tone of voice. Use a confident tone and avoid overly emotional tones such as shrill, high pitches. ❑ Smell is well developed in the horse. Wild horses are difficult to stalk except upwind. Horses also use smell as part of their complicated social structure. Horses meet nose to nose and smell each other. They are sensitive to smells in their environment ~ dung, dirty troughs, musty feed, bad water and certain plants. Smell is very important in feed selection. Horses can identify medicine in feed even when we attempt to mask it in tasty treats. Your horse may have a seemingly irrational fear of some smells, such as strong odours associated with pigs. The horse has a vomeronasal organ( VNO) and the flehmen response is very obvious in stallions sniffing mares in heat. ❑ Touch. The equine sense of touch is an important element to the horse, although it is often overlooked. Although many people think that horses have a tough hide, they really don ' t. Their skin is tougher than human epidermis, but it is still rich with nerve endings. They can sense a fly landing on any part of their body through their coat to flick it off. If you sit on a pasture fence
HORSES
For such a large and powerful beast, a horse is very tactile in its senses. and watch a herd of horses for a few hours, you ' ll see plenty of evidence of how horses use touch to communicate with each other. Mothers reassure their babies with a brush of the muzzle; comrades scratch each other ' s itches with their teeth. Whenever a message needs to be sent from one horse to another, visual cues and touch are nearly always used. Humans can also use touch to convey messages to the horse. Riders use touch to
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