Thursday Video: Opera for Racehorses?

Heather Main isn’t just a racehorse trainer — she’s also a trained opera singer. Turn up your volume for this one.

Heather Main’s life story alone could be the subject of a fascinating film or story: she grew up in Alabama, where she showed Quarter horses and was the local rodeo queen, but was always intrigued by horse racing. Despite constantly being told at home to quit singing at the dinner table, Main attended Trinity College of Music in London, in a ten-year training process to become a professional opera singer.

Falling in love with the countryside as well as finally getting involved with horse racing as she had wished all her life, Heather Main became a horse trainer in Oxfordshire. But those years of opera training still come in handy: Main sings for her horses each afternoon after training, and if some recent wins are any indicator, it may actually benefit her horses quite a bit!

It’s not quite as simple as this video might make it appear — Main has stated that she has no way to prove that the singing actually helps, but she does believe that the singing relaxes her horses and helps them recover from their training faster. If music helps animals relax, we can see where a little bit of a capella opera, sung by Main in her lovely voice, would have beneficial effects for a training Thoroughbred!

Learn more about Heather Main and watch another video via BBC.

Thanks to Lynn H. for the tip! Go riding.