greenroof
Active Member
Why do horses wear ear muffs in dressage competitions? Watching the dressage from Olympia last night the person I was with commented, "That horse must have sticks down it's ears!" It was wearing ear muffs and seemed totally unable to move it's ears at all, they appeared stuck forward which I assume is caused by the inflexibility of the ear muffs. I have never noticed this before, but it looks completely odd and un-natural for the horse not to be moving it's ears, even after it's test while the official was examining it's mouth. After that , the few horses I watched wearing ear muffs all seemed to have very restricted ear movement. Is this designed so the horses can't put there ears back and so look happier?