Identifying & Rectify the Emotional Stability of Your Horse

You need to breath… and so does your horse!

Holding your breath isn’t a cessation of breathing but a tension that comes about due to fear or stress that constricts the muscles around the rib cage, making breathing naturally and deeply difficult.

Noticing your horse is holding its breath is your first indication that it is not at ease with you and its environment. For this type of horse generally, if something changes in their environment, such as a loud noise, a tree branch falling, a bird fly into the air close by, it will likely switch them into flight mode.

The flight response or stress response is a complicated sequence of hormones that are triggered for self preservation from an environmental threat which, in the wild, would be a predator. Different areas of the brain work together to perceive the threat (amygdala) and to recognise and alert of potential threats from previous learnt experiences (hippocampus). Healthy development of certain parts of the brain (prefrontal cortex) help to quiet the part of the brain that is alerting the body of a potential threat.

Studies are coming to the forefront that show that chronic ongoing stress and fear at an early age affects the development of the prefrontal cortex that buffers the stress response and has long term repercussions of the architecture of the brain as an adult.

This to me highlights the responsibility we need to show for the safe and calm learning environment when breaking a horse for their long term mental stability and ability to calmly process stimuli safely. The use of fear based, bullying tactics should be left behind as we continue to develop our horse training skills.

So what has been determined to help process stimuli calmly and safely?

Social support and breathing.

 One study was done on children where a stressful stimuli was put in front of them in the form of angry faces. (From previous studies we know that horses can interpret mood and emotion from our body language and facial expression). When the mother was present there was less activation of the part of the brain that perceived the threat and more activation of the area of the brain which controls our emotional responses to stress (prefrontal cortex) so we don’t get too stressed out. This is called social buffering.

This relationship between the two areas of the brain doesn’t become well established until maturity and adulthood. This has the potential to affect the horses emotional and mental stability when weaned too young and can train in a pathway of reaction to stimuli before we even look at introducing training.

This also highlights the importance of showing up in our horses life especially if they are younger (and when I’m saying younger I mean under 10) as consistent support that they trust because we are offering that “social buffering” for them. Taking away the intensity of the threat so that they can process their environment more calmly.

This social buffering also occurs in relationships with our partners and what could also be called a “bond”.  If we are or our horse is in a group we/they know and a familiar environment, we/they cope with stress much better than if they experienced the same stress alone. This is crucial to note when we are in the “getting to know you” phase of a new horse, settling them in to their new environment and routine and getting to know their new paddock mates. Its generally not until a couple of months later that the true personality of the horse starts to come out and they start testing boundaries as they get comfortable with you and their new environment.

This social buffering I notice time and again with my students that have taken time to spend with their horses. One of our first recommendations when getting a new horse is to spend time just handling and being around them without trying to ride them. The affect this has on their level of alertness and tension is huge!

It doesn’t happen overnight. Think of any relationship you’ve ever had - it takes years to forge. Ideally we are trying to avoid tripping up that cascade of hormones and neural pathways into a flight state by making our horses feel safe because they are with us. Then when they let go of their stress and tension they can breathe deeply again and we know they feel safe and confident in us and their environment.

When I was competing I would train my horses to breath with me. I would sit and take deep breaths until they took a deep breath and then I would pat them to reinforce the behaviour. I would get it so that we could enter the arena and halt salute and while I was at the halt I would take a deep breath and so would my horse. We could then slow our respiratory rate and heart rate and focus our heightened energy and nerves into our performance together making for a smoother test with less errors and better flow.

I also use this with horses I don’t know, often getting it on the ground first and when I’m backing horses. Helping and showing a horse how to process their emotions, their frustration, anxiety and tension is about 70% of getting horses to work with us in partnership.

Social Buffering

Some exercise to improve your bond and create social buffering

• Our walk, halt, back up exercises.

• Sitting in the paddock with them while they graze.

• Guiding them confidently through situations that make them nervous.

• Spending time grooming them.

• Feeding them.

• Patting them.

• Using encouraging and positive tones, body language and facial expressions.

Becoming aware of when they hold their breath and develop tension is key. So spending time just watching them and noticing how they look when they are relaxed and how they hold themselves during a perceived threat. Where this gets tricky is when they’ve learnt to shut down. (Read about what a horse that is shut down is like here).

Breathing exercises to practice around your horse.

• Breathe in and as you breathe out force the air slowly between your teeth, this engages your diaphragm and encourages you to breath deeply.

• Breathe in for 7, hold for 5 and out for 5. This is also a good exercise if you’re nervous as it resets your respiratory rate.

• Breathe in for 10 and out for 10

When you are doing these exercises ask them to stand beside you and not eat. When they take a deep breath give them a pat and let them eat. If you’ve been doing it for a while and they haven’t taken a deep breath take them for a walk and try again.

We can rarely begin to comprehend and understand what our horses have experienced in their life. Often by the time I see them they are damaged and broken by their experiences with people.

When we don’t know the history of our horses

My students ask me why does my horse ...? And mostly I can’t say exactly why, I can’t read their mind and see what they’ve experienced that has shaped their coping mechanism that way.

The best I can say is that there is hope; we can recondition their responses to stimuli. But it does take time and patience and as always prevention is better than cure. This is the main reason I prefer to take the time with horses to training their trainability, to help them cope with their big emotions and to create a positive and encouraging learning environment with clear, will established boundaries.

Has Your Horse Shut Down?

What is a horse that has shut down?

A horse that has shut down has developed this behaviour as a coping mechanism for stress.

When a shut down horse explodes it can be seriously unexpected and dangerous.

In stubborn horses it can be seen as stubbornness but it also shows up in the more flighty horses where their brain disconnects from their body and is shut off to their experience. This kind of horse copes, copes, copes and then explodes and the rider is left asking where the heck did that come from?

A horse that has shut down emotionally is the end result of desensitisation gone wrong. They have been taught to react to nothing, rather than feeling, because feeling would include fear and anxiety and they are not allowed to react. Instead, they have just shut off emotionally.

While desensitising is important for our horses, relationship built on trust has more of an impact than any amount of desensitisation. If my horse is unsure of something I want it to be curious and investigate it, not just shut off to it. Being shut off to it is “safer” than the mad, hairy bolt away from it but eventually something will trigger your horse to react and it will be years of pent up anxiety behind it – and probably a thousand times more dangerous.

Some of these horses may also be shut down due to pain. If a horse is sore and made to work no matter what, the best way to go on for some of them is to just shut down. (Click here to read about the sacroiliac pain the quiet lameness)

Again we eventually get to the point where the pain is too much to bare and then they react (these horses are the most often to be called dangerous and unrideable because the novice rider, trainer or instructor didn’t see it coming and labels the horse as “unpredictable”).

We don’t want our horses internalising their pain or their emotions and just cope with being ridden. Firstly because that’s not a partnership and secondly they can only internalise so long before it all blows up in our face.

Our best chance for getting a good working relationship with our horse is to open up a two way conversation where our horse can tell us if its uncomfortable or unhappy (in ways other than bucking, rearing, bolting, biting, kicking) and with being there for them when they do feel stress and pressure. (Read here for getting our horses to relax and breath with us).

Developing a Bond with your Horse

Are you trying to improve your relationship with your horse but don’t know where to start?

A bond with a horse is as intricate and fickle as a relationship with any other person in your life. There are many aspects to take into consideration. You need to take responsibility for your role in the relationship and not allow your emotions and hang ups to dictate your behaviour.

A certain amount of education is required to be able to read the horses’ body language and communicate effectively with yours. As a beginner around horses you are in grade 1, learning the alphabet and how to construct a sentence so the horse understands what you are saying. As you develop your skills you start to read what the horse means when it stomps its feet, swishes its tail, tosses its head and flickers its ears. This is how horses communicate. They use their body language similar to sign language because they cannot verbalise their thoughts.

It is our job to interpret what these signs mean and give the appropriate responses. The horse will watch us and how we respond to their behaviour. They are much better at picking up these signals than we can ever hope to be. The clever ones will even test our consistency in our own behaviour.

“Ginger is a 16 month old filly I recently introduced myself to. She had just started testing her boundaries and establishing her independence. When people approached her she would snake her head and swing her hindquarters to you. Not knowing this was inappropriate behaviour, the owners hadn’t picked up on in it and weren’t correcting it. These were the first 2 things I wanted to address. I wanted to be able to invite her in to me but also send her away if need be and create some space between us. When I approached her, or even if she approached me out of curiosity she’d snake her head at me. During our first lesson together we were just getting to know each other and test boundaries. I wanted to see how deeply this behaviour was established and she wanted me to leave her alone so she could go back to the other horses. Once she established that I wanted her to come in to me, she started testing the cue that I was giving her to ask her in. She would deliberately turn her head away from me and run around me acting out and then turn in to me, testing how I responded to each thing she did. I had to be careful to read her body and position myself safely around her, make sure the timing and the application of my cues were perfect but more importantly there was the release of pressure and positive reinforcement at the appropriate times. She walked out of this lesson quietly, confidently and calmly at my side. She had worked me through my paces and was happy for me to take the lead.”

A bond is dynamic, and continues to evolve over a lifetime

 If we don’t acknowledge these signals the horse starts to feel confused, frustrated and misunderstood. The horses’ signals get louder, as if shouting, and can escalate to inappropriate behaviour such as biting or kicking.

There are many reasons why a relationship can turn sour.

• There’s no connection between you and the horse

• The horse feels misunderstand or unappreciated

• The horse doesn’t enjoy the time it spends with you

• The horse has no respect for you

• The horse lacks education.

Educated horses are a catch 22. Green horses still exhibit more horsey behaviour because they haven’t had the years of handling to understand what is expected of them. They only know how to behave like a horse, however they can be more interested learning process. An educated horse that has decided it is smarter and more cunning than its owner can be more dangerous than a green broken horse. It knows the tricks of the trade, understands how to bluff its way out of work and can manipulate the rider’s behaviour to get what it wants, which in most cases is to finish riding and get turned out and fed.

As with any relationship there’s a fine line between establishing clear boundaries and behavioural expectations and being able to relax and be yourself around them:

• You need to listen to their communication and make them feel like you are trying to understand.

• You need to prove yourself as a good leader if you want them to take direction from you.

• You need to spend time with them where there is no expectations and enjoy each others presence.

• You need to share yourself with your horse, let it feel you as you feel it, be happy in its presence and in the moment, feel love, gratitude and appreciation for them and allow them to show it in return.

A bond isn’t something that’s developed in a day, a week, a month or even a year. It is dynamic and continues to evolve over a lifetime. Each experience, each training session, each feed, each groom, each show, each trail, each moment of utter defeat and every epiphany shapes and develops the bond between you and your horse. What you have today won’t be the same in a month, in a year, in 3 years. You need to experience the depths of your existence and who you are as a person with your horse as your guide if you are truly looking for a meaningful bond.  

PS Stay tuned for our upcoming blog: Developing a Bond with Your Horse - 17 Easy Daily Exercises