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Feeling fearful
Posted 30th March 2021
The phrase ‘he’s just taking the mickey’ is often heard referring to horses not behaving the way the handler or …
The phrase ‘he’s just taking the mickey’ is often heard referring to horses not behaving the way the handler or rider would like them to. But what if we look a little closer at that behaviour and see that the horse is actually experiencing fear, and his unwanted behaviour is occurring as a result of feeling afraid rather than any deliberate act to annoy us? It certainly puts a different spin on how we understand what the horse is doing, and changes how we try to solve the problem. But first we need to understand what fear is and then how to recognise it.
Highly evolved
Let’s start with how horses evolved to survive. Horses are hard-wired, as a result of millions of years of evolution, to respond quickly to any perceived danger and avoid dangerous situations whenever they possibly can. In addition, horses were only domesticated approximately 6,000 years ago, yet they’ve been evolving for around 55 million years. Almost everything we ask them to do involves asking them to override their flight response. Even seemingly simple behaviours, such as lifting a hoof to pick it out, is potentially dangerous – especially when you consider that his caregiver, a human, is a predator species. Allowing a potential predator to take control of one of his legs leaves the horse, a prey animal who relies on flight to escape danger, in a vulnerable position. The life expectancy of a prey animal is increased if his reactions to avoid sources of danger are quick, giving fear a real survival value. However, for domestic horses, excessive fear can lead to reduced welfare and both mental and physical suffering.
The four Fs
Fear can cause a horse to carry out one of the four Fs – flight, fight, freeze or fiddle. The activation of fear responses is particularly worrying since they can result in serious injury to the horse or the people around them. In fact, unexpected equine fear reactions have been found to be a major cause of horse and human accidents.
Find out more about fear and behaviour in May Horse&Rider, on sale 1 April 2021.
