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by Ditte Young
Updated on February 6, 2024
Estimated reading time: 10 minutesย
Horses are intelligent animals. They experience and feel many of those same things we do โ including anxiety. However, when human beings have a panic attack or are simply afraid of a problem, we can convince ourselves that a situation isn’t dangerous through methods such as cognitive therapy or metacognitive therapy. A horseโs brain hasnโt developed that ability.ย
In this article, I will cover some of the most common symptoms of horse anxiety and what typically causes anxiety in horses. I’ll also walk you through how to calm an anxious horse.
The horse may shake or tremble from the ground or during riding. You can see in its eyes that it has locked its vision on something or someone or is frozen and can’t move. You can tell the skin cramps, like when we get goosebumps or shakes because weโre cold.
Many horses can weave their heads from side to side and seem to sway in the wind. Some tip-toe and take one step to the right and one step to the left, constantly moving from side to side. It seems they are in a trance or desperately trying to stimulate themselves to calm down their nervous system.ย Other horses start to stall walk, and walk around in their box or the stable in a circle. Both stress-related reactions can be explained by changes in their everyday life or anxiety in horses.
A horse can roll its eyes. You can see the whites in their eyes; it feels like they are looking up, almost passing out if they could. The physical posture is typically tense, and the horse can shake, tremble, or cramp while rolling its eyes. This is a typical sign of anxiety.
Backing: Horses who are afraid of something are trying to go back first. They remove themselves from any potential danger, such as a corner in the riding arena or a specific place in the stable. They can also refuse to move forward or refuse to jump if they experience anxiety or something to be afraid of.
Horses try to flee from a situation with potential danger. If the rider doesn’t make this possible, the energy can go only up. Horses rear to strike with their front legs to fight a potential danger, or they try to remove their rider from their back since they feel prohibited from running in the direction they want.
Spooking: When a horse spooks, it suddenly throws itself to one side, refusing to take any step forward. It happens very fast, so the rider must hold on tight and breathe if this occurs since the horse will try to run to flee from the object that startled it.
You might also be interested in: โHow to stop a horse from rearing.โ
Horses are herbivores, and in the wild they are herd animals. When a predator threatens the herd, there is safety in numbers. Being herbivores, however, also makes horses more prone to flight than fight when they get scared.
They typically need a leader in the herd, and depending on their horse personality profiles, they quickly figure out the hierarchy themselves. You can read more about horse personality profiles here: โWhat personality type is my horse?โ
Since they haven’t developed a neocortex in the brain, horses can’t manipulate, oversee the future, or calm themselves down in a dangerous situation.
This happens instantly in their nervous system, depending on their personality profile. Once they have experienced a dangerous situation, it seems locked in their nervous system and will always be remembered as dangerous. Even though they can’t predict what will happen in the future, their nervous system instantly reacts to a similar situation or the same situation that once made them frightened.
To give you an example. If your horse once has experienced one bad incident with a veterinarian, it will always be scared of veterinarians even though it is not the same person.
You might also be interested in: โHow to stop a horse from biting.โ
The first thing you can do to calm an anxious horse is to remember that you know better than your horse. You have your voice to use while explaining what the surroundings are like and what you might meet here. If you have already noticed a red umbrella, you can mentally prepare your horse and say with your words that it is there. The most important thing is to be calm while saying: “red umbrella.” This simple practice will improve your connection and trust bond with your horse, being the constant leader with the overview of any situation.
The next important thing is to be sure that there aren’t any health issues with your horse that cause pain or discomfort with a rider in the saddle. If you doubt whether or not your horse is in pain, you can learn how to tell if your horse is in pain in this blogpost. Itโs essential to make sure that the root of your horseโs anxiety isnโt any undiagnosed physical condition.ย
The better you know your horse, the more reliable you both are to one another. I recommend observing your horse in the herd and in the paddock or box and see if you can find a pattern in its behavior in various situations. I also recommend finding your horseโs personality profile to make it easier to know what will motivate it to connect with you. This information might be essential when your horse experiences anxiety.
Below, I have included five tips for what you can do to help calm an anxious horse.
All creatures, humans and animals, prefer structure and a routine in their lives and environment. They experience being calm when they can predict what will happen. The more barn, riding, training, and play routines you have, the better.
Brush your horse the same way each day. Put the saddle on the same way every time you want to ride. Provide food to your horse at the same hour during the morning, day, and night as consistently as possible. If you use versatility during training, do it as structured as possible. That could be training dressage each Monday and Sunday and showjumping each Tuesday and the forest each Sunday. Your horse will quickly see the pattern and trust you even more with the routines.
Every movement you make in the saddle is a signal to your horse. If you experience nervous horse behavior, you must sit calmly in the saddle.
Your horse reacts to something it finds dangerous or traumatizing. It will be a disturbance if you move in the saddle and can cause an immediate fight or flight reaction from your horse. The reactions can cause rearing, backing, and stomping of the hoofs while breathing heavily through the nostrils or running. Breathe slowly and calm down your horse. You can gently try to pull your horse in another direction.
It is in your horse’s nature to move constantly. When you experience anxious horse behavior, you must give your horse the freedom to move. Making him stay in a dangerous situation will only re-traumatize your horse.
You might already experience this during training. If your horse refuses to walk indeed, many riders often ride in a big vote and then try one more time. They know the horse will forget your situation after a while, creating a new “now.” Signaling to your horse that you have control over the situation and are moving both of you out of the problem will quickly calm your horse down.
It is essential to keep your trust-building exercises intact, especially in situations with horse anxiety. When your horse knows what you would want it to do in various situations from the ground, your horse will also tend to listen more carefully when you are sitting on it and when in a situation that your horse perceives as dangerous.
You can acclimate your horse to new situations by never awakening its nervous system. Many horses have once experienced something or a situation that felt dangerous to them. It can be situations such as being pulled away from their mother as foals, the first vet check, driving in a trailer, being pushed too hard in training, etc.
To calm down your anxious horse, you must never push its limits. When introducing an object or situation that once was dangerous to your horse, you must create a new “now” and a new way through the problem.
You can sense if your anxious horse shows any signs of discomfort, and if it does, then stop the exercise immediately. Try again the following days, and each time your horse shows you that it is enough, you stop again. In that way, you never activate the nervous system or trauma. Letting your horse see that “What you say is what you do” thickens your trust bond.
This training method can take months and even years. However, I would much rather have you train your horse in balance rather than force your horse into more anxiety.
Horses have body language, i.e., calming signals and energetic language, which you can read if you train well. This nonverbal communication allows you to read the mindset of your horse. It will also make you capable of sensing the degree of pain and discomfort, how it experiences anxiety, and so much more.
Many skeptical people don’t think that this is possible. However, I have never met a horse owner or rider who didn’t sense their horse’s mood when they came to the stable. When we connect with another soul, two and four-legged, we sense one another. Our energies, our body language, and our tone of voice make an impact on one another. If your anxious horse does something to flee, it will also impact you, which calls upon your reaction.
This nonverbal communication is called “telepathy.”
Animals can send information, energy, vibrations, etc., from their energy field, and we pick them up. Other horses in the herd pick up on them as well. This is also why the herdโs leader is the leader, and the passive horses are passive. They sense each other. If they had to fight for their place in the hierarchy, we would see many injuries in the herd, which we don’t. They don’t have to fight physically. They can send out their vibration and energies to each other instead.
You might also be interested in: โHow to calm a nervous horse.โ
Animal communicators pick up on some of these, or all three methods, myself included, and create a language out of it. They make sentences as if they almost gave the animals a voice.
I, Ditte Young, have been an equine sports coach, animal communicator, horse whisperer, therapist, and clairvoyant for 25 years. I was the first person in my country to develop a technique enabling anybody to practice animal telepathy. Many people think they have to be born with the gift. They don’t. We all have access to telepathical and energetical abilities. Iโve made various online animal communicator courses for those interested in learning more.
If you want to prevent behavioral issues and calm an anxious horse, my online course โHorsesโ Personality Profilesโ will help you do that. In this course, you will get to know your horseโs personality profile and gain a new, more profound understanding of how your horse understands you, responds to you, and reads your signals. All my online animal communicator courses about horses will help you know precisely what your horse is trying to tell you and what you can do to calm an anxious horse.
Are you looking to gain a deeper understanding of animal telepathy and learn how to master it? With my Animal Telepathy Mastery class, I have created an online class where I teach you the methods I have developed throughout the last 25 years.
I hope to see you in my class.
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