The horses can still hear all the distractions. I would think that would be more distressing to hear but not be able to see things like cars or pedestrians. The horse must know things are going on around it by sound. So because they can’t see it, it doesn’t exist?
In: Biology
Even if horse blinders only reduce the *chance* the horse freaks out about something nearby, that’s still a reduction of potential injuries to a rider for the small cost of using horse blinders.
They aren’t meant to stop the horse from getting spooked by every potential stimuli…they’re meant to *reduce* the amount of stimuli the horse can detect by limiting vision. Someone on a bike might not make a bunch of noise riding around, but if they come zooming up directly beside a horse into their view suddenly it might spook them. By using blinders you limit their field of vision and therefore reduce the amount of things suddenly appearing in their vision, which is safer than not using them at all.
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