Stressors can be broad, and undefined in the horses environment - and when we say undefined, we are referring to the human capacity to detect the exact stressors in the horse environment.
However, yes, they most definitely can be broad. It has been noted however, that some sounds can be a profoundly aversive stimuli for horses. Studies have indicated that having talkback radio, or commercial pop radio stations & music playing adlib within the horse management environment profoundly increases the risk of Glandular Ulcers, and EGUS in horses.
Other stressors can be routine change, exercise, competitions, travel, leaving their paddocks mates, anticipation of concentrated feeding, and weather events.
Boehringer Ingelheim US: Equine Health has developed a music track that incites & promotes relaxation in your horses.
You can download it for free here.
Humans can hear frequencies from 20 to 20,000 Hz, yet horses hear up to 33,500 Hz. Dogs hear up to 45,000 Hz, and cats blow it out of the charts at 3 x that of humans.
The horses comfort range is from kHz to 16 kHz, with a volume range of 60-80 decibels. This track has been especially designed to remove stressors such as human voices, and beats the reel jazz or rock. Horses have been shown to prefer classical, and instrumental music. Yes, they seem to enjoy country music!
This music has been designed to encompass the Khz, the Hz, the decibels and the frequencies that are preferred by horses - as well as mimicking the beats or horse gaits of walk, trot, canter in 2/4 3/4 & 4/4 Rhythms.
A study undertaken in 2017 on 120 juvenile pure-bred racehorses at the University of Life Sciences Lublin in Poland used freuencies, and tone that this specifically composted music contains. The results indicated that the horses who were exposed to the music, showed a predominance of the rest/recovery sympathetic nervous pathway with the greatest effects after 2-3 months of being regularly exposed to the music, and they outperformed the horses in the other study. More information on the study can be found here, in this video:
...and for the academically minded - you can read the study here:
So how could you use this? Once you have limited the stressors in your horses environment as much as you can by ticking of the provision of Friends, Forage, Freedom as well as assessing & changing other known stressors - you can implement this regularly into your horses routine, in situaitons where they are likely to experience pleasurable, consistent, and predictable periods of time. The study played the frequencies found in this track for 5 hours.
Then when this has been associated to the horses environment, and a strong pleasure & relaxation response has been established you can then implement it into other situaitons that may benefit from having this previously established positive stimulus. If done well, this is likely to to help sooth, and relax you horse when experiencing veterinary procedures that can be overwhelming from smells & sounds, prior to tacking up if the horses is undergoing retraining that is beneficial for it’s cognitive affective state (mental state), in the stable environment, and perhaps even during travel if you are clever enough to rig up a sound system in your float or truck. The possibility are endless.
More can be found here…. https://www.petacoustics.com/shop/horse-calm-for-pet-tunes
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