This time I am talking a little about how both we and our horses react to incidents where our lives could possibly be in danger and the responses of Panic and Self preservation

As we all know, horses are descended from prey animals and react with a flight or fight response. The former being the chosen action and fighting really is a last resort if the horse has no means of escape from the situation. Although horses are not hunted today, their built-in survival instinct is still very strong and they can react dramatically to any situation they feel puts them in danger of injury or death.

In fact, every being will react the same in the face of what they perceive to be a life or death situation. Horses compared to us, however, do seem to have a hair trigger…….or do they?

Unfortunately, the way we behave in times of overwhelming fear and stress probably bears no resemblance to the way we normally conduct ourselves.

If you look at the way people react in disasters such as ships sinking, explosions at football grounds etc you will see people automatically doing anything to survive. A normally gentle, kind person may resort to pushing his fellow man out of his way in order for him to make good his escape. This is irrespective of whether that action would cause the other person severe injury or even death. How many people have died from crush injuries during times when vast numbers of people are trying to evacuate an area? These people are not thinking about what they are doing, they are just doing it.

If a rational, cognitive human being can lose all sense of normality and react instinctively at these times why are we so surprised when our horses do?

There are of course some people who, in these life threatening situations, act with utmost bravery and disregard for their own safety to help save the lives of others. These are people who are able to remain calm and think constructively about the situation they are in and how best to deal with it. They might not actually feel calm, but they try to project confidence and calm to other people to keep the situation under control.

This is the sort of person you need to be in order to give your horse the confidence to deal with scary situations. Remaining quiet, calm and confident will help you and your horse to re-focus and start to concentrate on what you are doing. If you yourself start to lose it and use frantic large jerky movements and shout then your horse will do much the same.

Think of firefighters who run into burning buildings, that could come crashing down on them, in order to save other people. Our natural instinct is to stay away, self preservation, but their confidence in their ability and the fact that they can rely on their colleagues enables them to suppress that and continue to do their job.

Ultimately you want your horse to be the equivalent of a firefighter. This will only be achieved by making sure his training is thorough enough to give him the confidence to carry out what you require and assure him that he can rely on you to watch his back.

I came across a saying which sort of fits the situation, (but is actually in relation to children), which I will share with you.

‘When little people (or horses) are overwhelmed by BIG emotions, it is our job to share our calm, not to join their chaos.’