Disclaimer: This is transcribed using AI. Expect (funny) errors.
Mindy Peterson: [00:00:00] I’m Mindy Peterson, and this is Enhance Life with Music, where we explore the practical ways music transforms everyday life – health, happiness, and beyond. Today’s topic is a unique convergence of music, of course, but with animal behavior and culture. Every year on the first Saturday in May is an event that has really become a unique, iconic cultural experience in the Kentucky Derby. This event is often called “the most exciting two minutes in sports,” and this year’s race is coming up on May 2nd. When most of us think about the Kentucky Derby, we think about thoroughbred horses, elaborate hats, roses and the thrill of the race. But the Derby isn’t just the visual spectacle, it’s also an incredibly rich soundscape. Most famously, there’s the bugle call before the race. You also have the cheering spectators, announcers hoofbeats on the track. For us as humans, those sounds are part of the excitement and the tradition. But what about the horses? How does this sound environment impact them? Today’s guest, Janet Marlow, has spent years studying how animals perceive and respond to sound. Janet is the author of a new e-book called What Horse Is Here. Understanding Equine Hearing and behavior. She’s the founder of Pet Acoustics, where she recently developed the Certified Sound Behaviorist program. Today, we’re going to explore how horses perceive the complex sound environment of an event like the Kentucky Derby, how sound can influence equine behavior and well-being, and how understanding equine hearing may change the way we watch the race this year. Janet is a rare third time guest on this podcast. As of today, she’s a musician, researcher, innovator, and renowned expert in sound and its effects on animals. Welcome back to Enhanced Life with Music, Janet.
Janet Marlow: [00:02:15] Mindy. I’m so excited to be here and it’s great to talk to you and to share with your audience because as a former classical and jazz musician, I know I’m talking to people who are musicians and composers and love music, so it’s great to be here.
Mindy Peterson: [00:02:33] Yes. I’m so excited about this overlap between horses and music. As we were talking just a little bit before I hit the record button, I know very little about horses, but I’m sure we’ll have people listening who do, including my sister who’s been a guest on this show. She’s a professional equestrian, and so there will be a lot of pros and amateurs and novices when it comes to equine Knowledge as well as musicianship, because, as you mentioned, a lot of musicians, professional and novice, are listening to this podcast and we like to talk about how music impacts and transforms our lives, whether we consider ourselves musicians or not. So starting out, can you explain to us how a horse’s sense of hearing differs from humans and what we should know about how horses perceive all of the sounds around them during an event like the Kentucky Derby?
Janet Marlow: [00:03:28] Absolutely. Well, first of all, humans can hear up to 20,000Hz, horses can hear up to 35,000Hz, so they hear a third more than humans do. So they have a very wide frequency range. And amazingly, now think of our own human ears, what it can and cannot do. A horse’s ears can rotate 180 degrees in two different directions.
Mindy Peterson: [00:04:00] At the same time that I saw that in your book, and that really caught my attention. That’s fascinating.
Janet Marlow: [00:04:06] And so this that independence is remarkable. And if you want to understand a horse, all you have to do is look at their ears and you will understand what they’re capturing in what direction. So that is already a remarkable enhancement of their being in the world of sound. And then, you know, they’re prey animals. So sound for them is the most important aspect of survival. And it also addresses their nervous system. And I think sound, the nervous system has really become very important to me in terms of comparing humans to animals, because our nervous system is responding to sound, but we’re not that aware of it all the time. But for an animal, it’s everything to them. It triggers cortisol levels. And so their cortisol level, their stress hormone goes up and then it goes down, then it goes up and then it goes down all day long, all day long. And that brings me into the Kentucky Derby. Because even though they say that it is the most exciting two minutes in sports, but for the horse, the experience begins long before that starting gate opens. And what many people don’t realize is that the Derby is not a single moment. It is a multi-day sound environment for a horse, and it’s very, very interesting. So during the early mornings and they call it the dawn at the downs, the environment is relatively quiet. So you can understand that the the breeder and the investors and the jockeys are all there giving great care to, to the horse.
Janet Marlow: [00:05:51] They should be. And so there’s a certain amount of background noise. As the week progresses, the soundscape changes and the crowds begin to build. And there’s more music and there are more announcements and there’s more movement of sound, which starts to become unpredictable for the horse. And then there’s the Kentucky Oaks Day. That’s the day before the Derby. And the horses have already experienced days of increasing auditory stimulation, and that becomes cumulative. And now we’re going to address the nervous system which does not reset overnight. It actually carries forward. So the day before the race, the horses are now getting kind of spiked up from all the activity because the sound is unpredictable around them. And the most important thing to an animal is predictability, because that gives them a sense of safety and connectedness. And that’s where survival comes into play. So now we have the day of the race, and there’s more than 150,000 spectators are filling the stand. And the sound is not just loud. It’s dynamic. And there’s surges of cheering, amplified announcements, and the physical vibration of all of that collectively. And then so for a horse, these are not just sounds, they’re sensory events. Of course, the most intense moment happens at the start of the race, that famous bugle announcement. And I also learned that in the retirement homes for these for the Kentucky Derby racehorses, if there’s somebody like watching the race on a TV or radio in while they’re in the pasture.
Mindy Peterson: [00:07:47] Yeah.
Janet Marlow: [00:07:48] And they hear that bugle sound.
Mindy Peterson: [00:07:51] Call to call to the post. Is that what it’s called?
Janet Marlow: [00:07:54] You can see all of them perking up and starting their motion, trying to get ready for, you know, it’s like a, you know, a muscle memory.
Mindy Peterson: [00:08:03] Sure.
Janet Marlow: [00:08:04] Yeah.
Mindy Peterson: [00:08:05] Well, I imagine with all the nervous system activation that’s going on and the cortisol that’s stimulated and all that, that sound probably really imprints upon them.
Janet Marlow: [00:08:15] Yes, absolutely. So the Kentucky Derby is not just a race, it’s an acoustic journey for a horse and it’s very intense for them.
Mindy Peterson: [00:08:25] What are some sounds that we as humans might overlook during this event, but are impacting the horses?
Janet Marlow: [00:08:33] Oh well. Camera clicks. Speakers. Broadcast equipment. Gates. The bits. Trailer doors. Railings. The low frequency of the crowd. There’s a reverberation and echoes off the grandstands. These are all things that never get measured or taken into to effect. So anything that’s sharp, elevated, emotionally charged voices, all of these things the horse is absorbing in their bodies.
Mindy Peterson: [00:09:07] So you mentioned emotionally charged sudden sounds. It sounds like our heart or something. Yeah. Okay. So that’s something that’s really going to impact a horse, something that’s unpredictable. I know you mentioned unpredictability.
Janet Marlow: [00:09:21] Yes.
Mindy Peterson: [00:09:22] Constant noises can provide more predictability, but they can also provide cumulative stress over time. Is that an accurate way to describe it?
Janet Marlow: [00:09:32] Absolutely. Yeah.
Mindy Peterson: [00:09:34] Okay.
Janet Marlow: [00:09:35] So sound comes before a behavior in all animals. Sound comes before behavior. So a horse, dog or cat will hear a sound and then they will focus on where that sound comes from. But it’s already affected their nervous system.
Mindy Peterson: [00:09:54] That’s before the visual. Would you say the hearing is first.
Janet Marlow: [00:09:57] And before the smell? Yeah.
Mindy Peterson: [00:09:59] Yeah. Okay. In this really high stimulation environment of the Derby, are there strategies that trainers and handlers might use to help horses stay calm and focused amidst all of this noise that maybe we don’t realize what it is that they’re doing. And once we know about it, we’ll kind of be able to spot it. And are there ways that sound is actually being used to help regulate horses in these environments, rather than just overstimulate them?
Janet Marlow: [00:10:29] Yes, and it’s such a great question. So obviously the repetition and the exposure of these horses, after all, they’re professionals at racing the horses. So they do get a certain, oh, this is what we’re going to do. And there is a certain excitement emotionally for the horses to participate in this race. But what the breeders try to do is, first of all, their tone of voice is comforting to the horse.
Mindy Peterson: [00:11:00] Because of the pitch or tone that they use, or because it’s familiar to the horse.
Janet Marlow: [00:11:04] Familiarity.
Mindy Peterson: [00:11:05] Yes. Okay.
Janet Marlow: [00:11:06] And also, horses have an incredible sense of smell. So as soon as you stand in front of a horse, they know who you are. And they also pick up on nervousness or calm your state if you walk up to a horse. And I learned this a long time ago, if you walk up to a horse and your shoulders, you’ve never met this horse. You walk on your shoulders around it and low, and you’re not standing upright energetically. The horse will completely dismiss you. They will. They will say, no, you lousy human, go away.
Mindy Peterson: [00:11:43] Because they don’t sense confidence.
Janet Marlow: [00:11:46] Correct. They perceive. Yeah, yeah, they perceive you. So they. And also they do in the early stages. What the breeders have learned to do is to try to keep the horses, you know, away from the largest sounds and the most intense noise. And I have contributed to racehorses in two ways. In 2017, the University of Lublin in Poland, their animal behaviorist department did a two year study using my music and speaker system for over 120 Arabian racehorses, and they divided them in two groups one without the music and one with my music, my speaker system. And they took blood draws from the horses with the music, and without. To measure cortisol levels And over this period of time, the music did lower the cortisol levels in these racehorses, which is amazing data. And also, over time, those horses won more races, having having been more calmed and relaxed in their nervous system with sound therapy of equine music.
Mindy Peterson: [00:13:16] When is it most important to use that sound therapy? Because I imagine when that call to port starts being played on the bugle, at that point, you don’t really want a calm horse.
Janet Marlow: [00:13:26] No, no.
Mindy Peterson: [00:13:26] But you want a horse? Probably calm what, the night before, or just in general in its life leading up to the race event or, you know, when is it best to use this sound therapy?
Janet Marlow: [00:13:39] Well, first of all, trailering is very important. I have some anecdotes of people that the horse had the music in the trailer and was much more calm arriving at the shows because the sounds of metal over a long period of time affects the hearing. And one day one person wrote to me and she said, I have forgotten to put the music on in the trailer. And when my horse arrived at the show, he was in complete sweat.
Mindy Peterson: [00:14:11] Oh, wow.
Janet Marlow: [00:14:13] So these things are very, very important. So trainers and breeders understand this and they do play the music. And then I also there’s a Jockey Club in Turkey. They have 1500 members. At that time I had CDs. Now I have Bluetooth speakers and apps, and they bought 1000 CDs and they gave them to all these breeders and trainers to use in the barn before the horses go out for the race. So you, the, the horse can call it when they’re trained to go. But if they come from a place of, um, of a baseline, it gives them better muscle health rather than that constant stress, you know?
Mindy Peterson: [00:14:59] Sure. I imagine it’s got to be a lot like charging a battery before you need to use it before you start that race. If you’re going in with a charged battery, because you’ve had that calm and that rest and that recovery, both physically, physiologically and also with their nervous system. I don’t know if emotionally is the right word to use or not, but with their nervous system, you know, if they’re they’re coming at it with that reserve built up a charged battery, then that probably helps them perform much better during the race and have a smoother, more effective recovery afterward. Would that be accurate to say?
Janet Marlow: [00:15:38] That’s well put. You are so in tune with horses. Mindy.
Mindy Peterson: [00:15:43] Oh well, I will tell my sister that and it probably helped that I just read your book. And speaking of your book, What Horse Is Here? Yes, it explores equine hearing in depth. What is the biggest misconception that you encounter about how horses hear and process sound, whether it’s related to the Kentucky Derby or not?
Janet Marlow: [00:16:04] Well, most people don’t realize the sensitivity of an animal’s is greater than a human’s because we we are very ego based as humans, and we. If we don’t perceive it, they don’t perceive it. So it’s been my job to bring this awareness to, you know, animal care professionals and pet parents and to, to realize, hey, they live in our world. And we have to understand that they are responding differently to sound than we are because we’re quite limited. And I do think that we go through a lot of physical responses to sound throughout a day, but our head takes over and says it’s not a danger. But for a horse, dog or cat, they’re saying to themselves, oh, I don’t. I’m not thinking this through. I’m just reacting this through.
Mindy Peterson: [00:17:02] Sure. I mean, I just think about somebody living in New York City. They don’t even hear, I’m sure, the sirens that are constantly going by their window. So that would probably be a perfect example of something where our human brain can easily tune things out. And horses, I’m imagining, even if they are in a setting where they’re hearing a lot of a certain sound, whether it’s a siren or something else. Yeah. They probably don’t have that ability to process it and cognitively tune it out.
Janet Marlow: [00:17:28] Yeah, they can desensitize themselves, but it’s not healthy because that’s their their world is to respond to sound because that’s how they understand their world.
Mindy Peterson: [00:17:40] So what’s one insight from the book that you think every horse owner or rider should know.
Janet Marlow: [00:17:46] That’s very, very good question. Well, I think first let’s go to the Kentucky Derby. If you’re watching it on TV or even if you’re there. But if you’re let’s say you’re watching it, just really listen to the moment the crowd swells before the race and see what the horses do, because you can start to see them getting, getting ready. It’s not just the jockey, but they themselves. You can see that there’s a physiological response. And if you can focus on their ears, if you’re if they show that enough, that is really going to be the best depiction of what they’re experiencing because of that individual ear movement. And then, you know, for, for people, you know, horses have been so important to humans through the centuries. They have been our transportation. They have gone, taken us into war. And it’s really only until the late 1800s that when car transportation actually took away the job of horses. After centuries of being companion to mankind, it’s really. And it’s so we think we don’t we don’t have horses in our lives, but they’ve been part of our lives for centuries, for centuries. When you look at when you go to museums and you see artwork from all those years ago, from the Renaissance, you know, on up their horses in every painting. It’s amazing to so their, their significance is built into our culture, no matter where we are in the world.
Mindy Peterson: [00:19:37] Sure.
Janet Marlow: [00:19:38] I just find that fascinating.
Mindy Peterson: [00:19:40] Yeah. Well, one note that I had from when I read your book is you definitely have all of this content that’s really grounded in not just observation and application, but peer reviewed research. Yes, the Pet Acoustics Equine research has appeared in the Journal of Equine Veterinary Science. So it’s highly scientific research that you’re presenting in this book. I definitely, as I mentioned earlier, took note of that ear information and how those ears rotate nearly 180 degrees and independently. So it’s like simultaneous tracking of different sources of sound without even having to move their head. In fact, if their head is restricted, that it affects their vision. Of course not the ears. So that was really interesting.
Janet Marlow: [00:20:32] And the music that I compose based on their hearing range is designed to bring them into a baseline. And it’s It’s amazing to see. The music is highly rhythmic because they. They are rhythmic creatures and they walk in two, four, three, four and four, four time. And the music is has a very short melodic phrases. So there’s a lot that goes into the music for for dogs and cats. It’s entirely different because that’s going to be they rest ten and 12 hours a day. So the music is going to have long phrases and everything is contoured according to frequency and decibels. Now that’s the principle of pet acoustics. It’s all based on my research on what are the frequency levels that animals here at, and how to avoid hyper vigilance on the high and the low end so that it keeps them calm. And the music has been biometric research and proven. And I’ve got many studies on my website and my books also range from what horses here to what cats here to what dogs here. And.
Mindy Peterson: [00:21:46] And those benefits include reduction of stress for the animal, improved tolerance for different procedures. Yes. Recovery from the procedures, potentially lowering the need for for chemical restraint is the term that used in your book during the procedures. What exactly does that mean?
Janet Marlow: [00:22:07] Well, you know, ears never shut off. So just having, you know, Pre-surgery exposure to the equine music will bring the horse into a deeper state of relaxation, which is better for the outcome of the surgery?
Mindy Peterson: [00:22:24] Okay. Well, when we’re talking about this music that’s been specifically designed through research for equines based on their frequency of hearing, their pitches that they hear and the effect that it has on them. We’re talking about your pet acoustics app that this music is available on. And then you also have specific gadgets that it’s available on, or is it just available in the app now?
Janet Marlow: [00:22:51] Oh no. We have a multitude of speakers that the music comes pre-loaded in and I address dogs, cats, horses, birds and rabbits because they are our companion animals. And I want to make sure that the pet parent is addressing the the hearing health of these animals in their homes. And it’s all all you have to do is turn it on and I’ve done the rest.
Mindy Peterson: [00:23:18] Okay, so preloaded speakers that are specific to different species, whether it’s horse or dog, cat, rabbit, bird, so forth. Your listeners can utilize the app to listen to this music and incorporate it into their animals health. Yes, part of that app too. I know you have a digital hearing screening. Is that available for horses or is that just for cats and dogs?
Janet Marlow: [00:23:45] It’s for dogs and cats. Um, eventually it will be for horses.
Mindy Peterson: [00:23:51] Okay.
Janet Marlow: [00:23:52] Which requires a different approach. But, um. Yes, I am the innovator of the world’s first digital hearing screening tool to determine if your dog or cat can indeed here. And it’s divided up into different frequencies and sounds. There’s a lot that went into it, but it’s really fun to do. And people will be amazed to see the body and ear shifts of your dog or cat doing it. Um, we’ve had over 5000 people and veterinarians do the hearing test globally. And I did a study taking 4000 dogs and cats and taking all the data and determining exactly where the cutoff point is in a dog and a cat as they age from puppy to senior, because that’s never been done before. And it determines, you know, that study is available. So it’s an audiometric study.
Mindy Peterson: [00:24:47] Okay. Of course, I loved chapter seven in your book The most Why Music Affects Horses. And I’m just going to read a quote from the book from this chapter. You say to horses, music is pattern rather than entertainment. Yes, patterns either support regulation or demand vigilance. Steady, coherent sound allows the nervous system to relax. Erratic or contrasting sound encourages alertness. Rhythm aligns with heartbeat, respiration, gait, and digestive motion. Slow, steady rhythms can reduce heart rate, deepen breathing, and ease muscle tension. So love that anyone who owns or rides horses will definitely want to get their hands on this book that recently came out. You also recently developed the Pet Acoustics Certified Sound Behaviorist Certification. Tell us about this certification program and what inspired you to create the program?
Janet Marlow: [00:25:50] Well, it is a way for me to have a lot of Jan Malo around the world. So for people to enhance their understanding of and this is good for a pet parent or for a veterinarian or for a vet tech wants to enhance their career or for musicians that love animals and want to understand how the power of music that you just described can be transposed from their understanding to animals. And then at the end of the certification, you become a you will get a degree from the program, and it will allow you to have a billable service to help a veterinary clinic or in a shelter where they have intakes and they don’t know if the animal can hear or not. And that will also help adoption. You know, for kennel managers, I mean, there’s so many places where this is not common knowledge. So you would become one of the first experts in it to be able to enhance animal welfare. That’s what it’s about.
Mindy Peterson: [00:26:57] And is this geared toward all species of animals? Is it mainly geared toward people working with cats?
Janet Marlow: [00:27:05] Dogs? Just for people working with cats and dogs, although it has, you know, transposable information for horse people as well.
Mindy Peterson: [00:27:15] Okay.
Janet Marlow: [00:27:16] The more I write books, the more I go, like the commonality just blows my mind. The commonality of how the sensitivity of hearing and the essence of it all is that once we address the hearing of an animal and understand their response to it and how we can modify it in our world because we are their caregivers. It prolongs their lives because sound can be stressed and then stress becomes illness.
Mindy Peterson: [00:27:49] So prolongs their life and also elevates the quality of life, I’m sure.
Janet Marlow: [00:27:55] Absolutely. Yes.
Mindy Peterson: [00:27:56] So great certification to consider for trainers, veterinarians, stable managers, pet parents, as you mentioned, and specifically for dogs and cats, but also transferable information to other species as well.
Janet Marlow: [00:28:12] Yes. And and they can find that on the pet acoustics website. All my studies and also the certification description is under veterinarians. And so just poke around. You’ll find it.
Mindy Peterson: [00:28:25] Excellent. And we’ll have lots of links in the show notes also to these different programs, your book, your website, all of that. Well, this has been so fun, Janet. As you know, I ask all my guests to close out our conversation with a musical ending, a coda by sharing a musical tool that you wish more people knew about. It could be a book or a blog or an app, a therapeutic tool, anything that enables you to enhance your life with music. Do you have a tool that you can tell us about today?
Janet Marlow: [00:28:54] Well, it’s just really observational because when we shape the soundscape with respect to the animal’s world, their world, not our world, their world, we honor a partnership. That’s my final thought. We honor the partnership.
Mindy Peterson: [00:29:15] And that brings it full circle to that partnership, to that you had referenced earlier in our conversation about throughout history, how the horse has been so impactful in our work and war and sports and healing and so many different ways. So I love how you brought that full circle there.
Janet Marlow: [00:29:33] Thank you.
Transcribed by Sonix.ai