Electric bikes and electric scooters are causing a stir in areas of the country where they share trails with horses. Like their electric vehicle counterparts, the bikes and scooters are so quiet that they often startle horses who come upon them on trails.
A study by the British Horse Society (BHS), in conjunction with the Electric Vehicle Association (EVA) Scotland, sought to determine how well horses could hear electric vehicles and what their reaction to these electric vehicles was.
The team used three horses to monitor how they reacted to three electric cars and to one gas-powered car. The ridden horses stood on a road with the cars approaching from behind. The noise the cars made was recorded using a microphone and the horse's reactions were recorded via video.
The scientists determined that the low-level noises made by electric vehicles were detected by horses before the car was visible and that the horses were aware of the vehicles long before the humans were.
Alan Hiscox, Director of Safety at The British Horse Society said that these findings should help alleviate rider concerns regarding how horses will react to quiet electric vehicles.
Read more at Equine Science Update.
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