Learned Helplessness or Shut Down - what's the difference?

These two terms are sometime used interchangably but it is important to recognise the difference.

Learned Helplessness

Learned helplessness is created when the horse after repeatedly trying to escape a painful or aversive stimulus cannot escape.

The horse finds a state of acceptance or tolerance for this now being its experience. They stop trying to escape. Even when an opportunity for escape is presented they no longer try. They can’t escape, they stop trying there is an acceptance.

In studies done on learned helplessness there was less of a stress/cortisol response in people when they could control the pain/aversive stimulus then when they weren’t in control of it.

Learned helplessness sees after all attempts to get away from the pain or the aversive they give up and accept the experience even when an exit is presented.

Shut Down

Shut down is an internal state of dissociation, our freeze response when threatened. This can be brought on by learned helplessness or can be experienced any time the horses perceive a threat they cannot run or fight their way out of. It is an adaptive mechanism helping us be ready to fight or run again. There is a state of dreaminess where no pain or terror is felt in humans that go in to the shut down state even though they are conscious of what is happening.

When in a shut down state, the nervous system believes we are in a life threatening situation and staying still is what is going to keep us alive. It is similar to a dissociative state where you aren’t fully experiencing the now and in your body to help you best to get through the experience.

Learned helplessness was originally described as an experiment on dogs and it is important to recognise we can unintentionally recreate environments for both states of shut down and learned helplessness in our horses.

Because… We are in control of everything that happens to them.

Where they live, how they live, who they live with, where they eat, what they eat, if they eat, if the vet needs are met. Whether you want to believe it or not, we are in the position of power for with our horses. And they cannot escape if they wanted to. They may escape the paddock or be moved to more humans, but they are always in the care of humans and at therefore at their mercy.

This means we need to be very intentional about how we use this power balance. You don’t want to use punishment for an expression of personality or pain. You want to ensure your horse feels safe with you and that you are not the threat. You want your horse to have trust and confidence in you to keep them safe from other threats. And in this way we can show up for our horse as a compassionate leader. Someone they turn to for direction and support when they don’t know what to do.

When we can comfortably give our horse direction and they can seek it from us that is when we get to see our horses true personality and willingness. Not the version of our horse that feel unsafe or threatened. Not the version of our horse that doesn’t have trust or confidence in the choice we make for them. Not a horse that we have to push, bully, coerce or manipulate into performing party tricks for us but true connection.

This is the purpose of the Holistic Horse Handling Program. How can we show up for our horses as a compassionate leader? It is in our education of our training tools and shaping plans and our ability to navigate relationships that build trust, confidence and connection. If we didn’t love the emotional aspect of this work we would ride motorbikes