10/02/2023
Once we accept that every aspect of horse management and use could be traumatising them, we have the opportunity to help the horses we love so much.
What causes trauma in horses?
There’s a very simple recipe for trauma—that also happens to be *standard practice* in traditional training 😮💨
In this recipe, there are two ingredients:
1. A highly aroused state of fear 😱
2. The perceived inability to escape 🚧🐎🚧
Horses are intentionally sent into fear reactions by traditional trainers, the theory being that “you can’t tip-toe around them,” and “exposure” (causing a high state of arousal) is the only way to build confidence.
The inability to escape is also built into common training practices:
⛓️ropes
⛓️small pens
⛓️saddling before the horse is confident
⛓️ keeping pressure on the horse until getting a desired outcome
etc. can all cause a fearful horse to feel trapped.
These things are not inherently traumatizing—it’s a matter of whether the horse is ill-prepared for the stimuli (and therefor terrified) and he cannot escape.
We don’t typically see PTSD in wild horses. It’s not until they’re gathered and contained that they become traumatized, and can have triggers that last years (or a lifetime, without rehabilitation).
Why is this? 🤔
Horses in the wild are very rarely denied their fight or flight instinct. In their natural environment, they go into “freeze mode” as a last-ditch resort to dissociate from the inescapable pain of being torn apart by a predator.
And even then, if a horse escapes and comes out of freeze mode…
He physically shakes it off, relieving the intensity of the experience on a physiological level.
Horses in captivity, on the other hand…?
They’re often intentionally denied fight or flight and sent onto freeze mode *every single session,* without the freedom to move the stored energy from the body through intense movement.
It’s truly no wonder there are so many “problem” horses who have the same fear response day after day, or horses that are shut down and lifeless.
In our next post, we are going to talk about how to prevent trauma in horses ❤️🩹
Because there is a better way 🙏🏼
Was any of this information knew to you, or did you know it already? Let us know in the comments 🌱
- by MM team
Impulse Photography
