Acoustic ears for fireworks?

[AWinter]

My horses generally cope okayish with fireworks, rattled but still eating. However we've only recently moved to a new place and they're not very settled. I was out with them for several hours last night as there were quite a few fireworks going off. They weren't frantic but they were spending a lot of time standing, staring and getting runny droppings. Its going to be much worse on actual bonfire night, its usually like a warzone in every direction from 5pm onwards, I'm wondering about getting some noise-reducing ear bonnets for them. Any thoughts?

Edited to add they don't stable, they have to stay out, they'd be much worse being shut inside.

 

[Exasperated]

My horses generally cope okayish with fireworks, rattled but still eating. However we've only recently moved to a new place and they're not very settled. I was out with them for several hours last night as there were quite a few fireworks going off. They weren't frantic but they were spending a lot of time standing, staring and getting runny droppings. Its going to be much worse on actual bonfire night, its usually like a warzone in every direction from 5pm onwards, I'm wondering about getting some noise-reducing ear bonnets for them. Any thoughts?

Edited to add they don't stable, they have to stay out, they'd be much worse being shut inside.

You could try it, if confident bonnets’ll stay in position whilst in the field.
FWIW, have in the past stuffed a susceptible horse’s ears with cotton wool, in addition to all the other measures, no difference at all.
But people can feel the air vibrations and ground / building vibrations from loud fireworks, so animals are always going to pick up on that unless doped or removed from the site. Fireworks are qualitatively different from thunderstorms or shoots, it isn’t just the noise that is frightening.
Good luck.

 

[AWinter]

You could try it, if confident bonnets’ll stay in position whilst in the field.
FWIW, have in the past stuffed a susceptible horse’s ears with cotton wool, in addition to all the other measures, no difference at all.
But people can feel the air vibrations and ground / building vibrations from loud fireworks, so animals are always going to pick up on that unless doped or removed from the site. Fireworks are qualitatively different from thunderstorms or shoots, it isn’t just the noise that is frightening.
Good luck.

We'll be with them all night so I'm not worried about them falling off or anything, I suppose there's no harm in trying it.

 

[FionaDenmark]

I'm curious about this too. I'm in Denmark and everyone goes all in with the fireworks on NYE. My neighbours, who are close by, set off so many last year, it was like the somme. Even I was scared by the noise, seriously! Now this year I have two horses to worry about.

 

[AWinter]

I'm curious about this too. I'm in Denmark and everyone goes all in with the fireworks on NYE. My neighbours, who are close by, set off so many last year, it was like the somme. Even I was scared by the noise, seriously! Now this year I have two horses to worry about.

Well I've just ordered some, I will report back after bonfire night

 

[Exasperated]

I'm curious about this too. I'm in Denmark and everyone goes all in with the fireworks on NYE. My neighbours, who are close by, set off so many last year, it was like the somme. Even I was scared by the noise, seriously! Now this year I have two horses to worry about.

Are they fully used to this, as in, mature horses from a similar region where this behaviour is usual?
During WWI, some horses went quite mad with shell shock and were shot by their own soldiers, others became inured to it, but the shelling was very regular, almost constant.
When it’s ’out of nowhere’, as in suddenly on New Years Eve, potentially a lot more terrifying.
If they’ve got a huge field, ideally with very sensible companions like unbothered equines, or sheep, probably safer outside.
Otherwise, inside, lights on, maybe a loud radio, and thoroughly doped before it starts, keep topping up.

 

[BurntontheoutsideTurkey]

I tried earplugs and an acoustic bonnet on my guy one year. Did not make a difference during the local 'big' display

 

[Flowerofthefen]

How will you secure the ears? Would have thought ear pomms would be more effective and safer? Bloody fireworks

 

[AWinter]

How will you secure the ears? Would have thought ear pomms would be more effective and safer? Bloody fireworks

I’ve got a couple of bitless bridle/cavessons with browbands they can wear that won’t bother them. Might see if I can fashion some sort of tie string situation. I won’t be leaving them unattended. I don’t think either of them would like me shoving anything in their ears.

 

[LEC]

stick a fly mask over the acoustic ears. It will just soften the lights as well for them and keep the acoustic eases in place.

 

[FionaDenmark]

Are they fully used to this, as in, mature horses from a similar region where this behaviour is usual?
During WWI, some horses went quite mad with shell shock and were shot by their own soldiers, others became inured to it, but the shelling was very regular, almost constant.
When it’s ’out of nowhere’, as in suddenly on New Years Eve, potentially a lot more terrifying.
If they’ve got a huge field, ideally with very sensible companions like unbothered equines, or sheep, probably safer outside.
Otherwise, inside, lights on, maybe a loud radio, and thoroughly doped before it starts, keep topping up.

She is 15 so I'm sure that she's experienced this before. She only has one companion, a shetland who isn't scared of anything. We don't have a big field unfortunately so it's too dangerous to leave them outside.
I made a post on a local FB group about it snd someone said that she played Fireworks noises from YouTube all through December in her stable. By the time NYE came the horses didn't blink an eye to the noise so I'm going to try that plus sedation.

 

[Exasperated]

She is 15 so I'm sure that she's experienced this before. She only has one companion, a shetland who isn't scared of anything. We don't have a big field unfortunately so it's too dangerous to leave them outside.
I made a post on a local FB group about it snd someone said that she played Fireworks noises from YouTube all through December in her stable. By the time NYE came the horses didn't blink an eye to the noise so I'm going to try that plus sedation.

Well, your two sound likely to be more steady than many. And would be a change from listening to Christmas carols….
I had a couple of fireworks sound effects CDs, played at increasing volume for the run-up to fireworks season in UK, but never found it much use unfortunately.
With the large ones (and some pyrotechnics are deliberately very loud and frightening), it is the same as an actual explosive device, you can physically feel the effect in the air and through the ground, genuine shock waves, which a full volume tape can’t replicate.
if you think things will be intense, I absolutely agree that stabled with sedation, thick beds, lights, company is the safest.

 

[AWinter]

stick a fly mask over the acoustic ears. It will just soften the lights as well for them and keep the acoustic eases in place.

this is such a good idea!

 

[AWinter]

Can confirm the acoustic ears did absolutely nothing for the bomb-like, building-shaking fireworks that were set off just behind our barn.

 

[FionaDenmark]

Can confirm the acoustic ears did absolutely nothing for the bomb-like, building-shaking fireworks that were set off just behind our barn.

How did the horses react?

 

[AWinter]

How did the horses react?

They initially panicked and ran for a minute but then they mostly stood, stared and had biblical diarrhoea between pacing to a different spot. They wouldn’t graze or eat hay for 3 hours, I made them 3 sloppy mashes each over that time and they ate those, although my older boy refused any feed for a period of time.

They’re also on a high dose of valerian calmer, will never know if it helped or not

 

[FionaDenmark]

They initially panicked and ran for a minute but then they mostly stood, stared and had biblical diarrhoea between pacing to a different spot. They wouldn’t graze or eat hay for 3 hours, I made them 3 sloppy mashes each over that time and they ate those, although my older boy refused any feed for a period of time.

They’re also on a high dose of valerian calmer, will never know if it helped or not

Poor babies How long did the fireworks go on for?

 

[AWinter]

Poor babies How long did the fireworks go on for?

The very close ones about 90 minutes on and off, must have been a couple of different houses in the village. Everywhere else in the distance just going off constantly from 5:30pm, it’s almost 9:30 now and they’re still going

 

[FionaDenmark]

It's really awful. Here in Denmark they only go off for one hour on NYE from midnight to 1am so at least that's something.

 

[Exasperated]

The very close ones about 90 minutes on and off, must have been a couple of different houses in the village. Everywhere else in the distance just going off constantly from 5:30pm, it’s almost 9:30 now and they’re still going

not trying to worry you, but this sort of partying often continues over the weekend. Might be worth speaking with your vet about suitable sedative. The ‘ears’ and valerian won’t have done any harm, may have ameliorated things a bit, but these are explosions, not just loud noise, horse feels this in the air and through the ground.