“I’d love some help. My horse is really anxious and reactive – he never calms down or wants to connect. What should I do?”
Why is your horse anxious?
In order to help our horses we need to understand some have a simple understanding of horse behaviour. Horses have 4 options when faced with fear, stress or worry. Fight. Flight. Freeze and Fawn.
1. Fight. The ‘Fight’ response is fairly self explanatory, when faced with a predator or an aggressor, the horse chooses his ‘fight’ response. He meets aggression with aggression. He is reactive and protective of his body. This is most commonly seen when horses: bite, kick, strike, rear, buck and bronc.
2. Flight. The ‘Flight’ response should be something you’re also familiar with, and one we see all the time in horses. Our horse’s are physically designed to run away quickly, with long powerful legs to carry them out of danger as fast as possible. A horse who is stuck in a flight response will spook, shy, bolt and barge through the rider and the handler. These horses, whilst still dangerous, are often insecure in their environment and react badly to any change in their surroundings.
3. Freeze. The ‘Freeze’ response is something you may have experienced yourself: those critical moments when you’re terrified but you can’t seem to move. You’re frozen in place. This is also very common in horses, but is very quickly followed either by a fight or flight response. For some horse’s this ‘freeze’ response can be momentary: head held high, feet planted ready to flee, and sharp exhales of breath ‘snorting’ at the perceived danger. For other horses, they can be in a near constant state of ‘freeze’ as they try to disassociate with the negative experience either happening to them or around them. They are often described as shut down, although they can have explosive outbursts, which many people blame the horse for ‘reacting out of nowhere’. However, their preceding behaviour was clearly highlighting a lack of confidence and/or anxiety.
4. Fawn. The final response ‘Fawn’ is far less spoken about. Put simply, it is where the horse is incredibly compliant in order to not upset or anger the aggressor. Are they ‘obedient’? Yes. Are they confident, willing, engaged or happy? No, far from it.
How can we help our horse’s change?
Once we understand which mode our horses are in (and they can switch form one to another in a matter of minutes, and then back again) then we can start to work around our horses in ways which help them refocus their attention on the thing that matters: us
And no, that’s not an egocentric point of view. It is actually all about safety. I want my horse’s attention on me so that they don’t bulldoze over the top of me. I want my horse aware that I’m there so they don’t spook over the top of me. This doesn’t mean I need my horse to be a robot, and solely focused on me, but it does mean that I want my horse to have awareness that I’m around him. I want him to be able to come back from any one of those behavioural responses with focus to me, so we can get on with the work at hand.
But HOW do you create the change?
I can’t give you a magic potion that will solve all your issues, but I can tell you my secret ingredient to creating horse’s who are not only engaged, willing and confident, but they’re also the horses people wished they had 10 more of in their own paddocks.
Groundwork
I know, you’ve heard it before – the TikTok Trainers and the old Masters keep telling you that groundwork is the key, but you’ve tried it, and it’s either so boring, you’d rather watch paint dry, it puts both you and your horse to sleep, or it’s incredibly aggressive and punishment is used as a method to control the horse. Or maybe you’ve heard people sing the praises of groundwork, but it seems like their horses are just so pushy, poorly behaved and barge right over the top of anyone who tries to work with them. You know what? You’re right, all that is rubbish and I would be pretty skeptical too.
But here’s the thing, if you’re solely focused on what the work looks like, you’re neglecting how the work makes your horse feel. And if he feels good, willing, engaged and happy, then he’s going to value your input. He’s going to value you. And when you need to make a change, correct or ask hard things of your horse, he has the skills and the trust in you and your communication to support a successful partnership.
Think of effective groundwork like this: It’s like yoga for horses.
Sure, you can do the physical stretches on their own, and that’s good for the body.. But if you don’t learn how to switch off, forget about your to-do list, and actually start to practise the meditation, breath work and mindfulness that goes with the physical movements and stretches, then you’ll never see the full benefits.
Effective foundational groundwork establishes you as a trusted, confident leader, one your horse wants to follow, wants to engage with and wants to try for. You don’t need hundreds of exercises to achieve this. In fact, you only need a few exercises, but you need to do them well: connecting the mind to the body and the body to the mind.
