Surround sound

A LARGE proportion of the equine athletes competing at the Tokyo Olympics this summer were wearing ear bonnets. As well as keeping insects out of the ears, these muffle the sounds of the arena and therefore improve a horse’s concentration.

But what exactly do horses hear? Research into the topic is revealing some fascinating facts.

Across most mammals, size is related to range of hearing. Larger animals tend to be able to hear lower frequency sounds better and usually cannot hear high-frequency sounds. Humans are somewhere in the middle, with a hearing range from about 20Hz at the low end to 20KHz