What It Means When Your Horse Is Licking Or Chewing During Training
Is licking or chewing during training a sign of stress or relaxation?
I’m going to throw my 2 cents in on this debate #yourewelcome.
Licking can indicate your horse may have reached its’ coping limits with your training.
I believe it is a sign of both.
If you’re horse is actively showing signs of relaxation than one would have to think that first it needs to be stressed, to release the stress and show exaggerated signs of relaxation. Right? So my thought is that it is actually a sign of learning and processing what they were working on.
There’s no doubt about the fact that we create stress when working our horses. We create physical stress to condition their body, mental stress to grow their intellect and emotional stress to increase resilience to their environment. If we create just the right amount of stress they grow and develop. If we create too much stress they start to protect themselves. Their body tightens up to avoid injury, they stop thinking and processing what their are learning and they shy away from challenging situations.
So while I’m not actively seeking the licking and chewing response, it is an indication to me the pressure I had on them before they started licking and chewing is probably about their limits for coping. Any more pressure and they will not be learning any more -they will be stressed. Horses can only learn and seek the right behaviour with a relaxed brain.