04/09/2025
This is sage advice. Allow them to be horses and be a calm, confident leader. They will respond with a deeper trust and a more rewarding bond.
FEARING THE EMOTIONS OF THE HORSE
(Or: āHeās Just So SensitiveāāSays the Human Who Canāt Cope With Emotions, Theirs or His)
Look at this horse.
Go on.
Soak it in.
Majestic.
Explosive.
A four-legged emotional TED Talk š¤š
Head high.
Eyes wide.
Nostrils flaring like twin cannons of āIāM NOT OKAY.ā š„
Itās beautiful, isnāt it?
At least⦠until you're holding the lead rope.
Then itās suddenly less āfreedom of expressionā and more
āI didnāt sign up to die in trackpants near the float.ā š¬
You see, humans say they love horses.
And we do.
We love the idea of horses.
The curated, emotionally-muted, Instagram-filtered kind.
The kind with a heart-shaped star and a head tilt that whispers,
"Iām here to heal you, Karen." āØ
But real horses have the audacity to feel things.
In real time.
Loudly.
And physically.
And thatās when we panic.
Because it turns out most of us donāt fear horsesā
We fear our horse having emotions near us š±
Which is awkward.
Because horses are horses, not yoga instructors.
They donāt sit in stillness and ābreathe through their concerns.ā
They bolt.
They snort.
They express.
They react with their whole body, which feels less poetic when youāre standing next to a ballistic missile on hooves š£
And we then label them āsensitive.ā
As if itās a personality flaw.
As if the goal is to transform a thousand pounds of flight animal
into a scented candle šÆļø
Now hereās where it gets delightfully ironic:
We call ourselves empathetic.
āOh, Iām just so in tune with my horseās feelings,ā
we say, right before we try to crush those feelings
under a giant weighted blanket of avoidance š
We say we donāt want to ātriggerā the horse.
Which really means we donāt want to deal with the horse being triggered.
Because when they feel big feelings, we feel big feelings,
and suddenly weāre both spiralling like a bad date at a vegan cooking classāafter admitting you love steak š„©
So we try to switch off the horse.
With gadgets.
With groundwork.
With supplements.
With a small army of professionals who say things like,
āHe needs to feel seen to be connected,ā
or
āHeās remembering trauma from when he was a foal and it rained once.ā ā
We spend years diagnosing the horse
like an undergrad psych student at a family reunion š§
We treat their fear like a bug in the systemā
Instead of what it is:
the system working as designed.
And when they do get emotionalā
When they tell us clearly and honestly that theyāre confused, or scared, or uncertainā
we get annoyed.
āStop it.ā
āSettle down.ā
āDonāt be silly.ā
The equine equivalent of telling your sobbing friend to ācalm downā while handing them a chamomile tea and walking away slowly š«
But here's the twist in the comedy:
Itās the fear in usāof their emotionsāthat creates most of the chaos.
Our flinching, our overcorrection,
our nervous energy humming like a power line in a thunderstorm ā”
that turns a horseās flicker of doubt into a full-blown existential meltdown.
Thereās a sayingā
Fear is the mother of the event,
and humans? Weāre excellent midwives š¶š„
So, what actually fixes this?
Not detachment.
Not sedation.
Not pretending your horse is a misunderstood therapist with hooves and childhood trauma šļøš“
What fixes this is competence.
Skill.
The quiet confidence that comes from knowing what to do when your horse feels something.
You stop fearing their emotions when you know you can help them through it.
Because fear loses its teeth when you know what youāre doing.
When you can hold space and lead the way.
When youāve got the tools to say,
āHey buddy, I see youāand Iāve got you.ā š§°
Thatās when you stop white-knuckling the halter clip like itās a hand gr***de.
Thatās when their snort becomes information, not a trigger for a hypertensive crisis.
And thatās when both of you can start breathing again.
To work with horses is not to remove emotion,
but to recognise it.
Respond to it.
And respect it š
You donāt need to turn your horse into the Dalai Lama with a forelock.
You just need to stop acting like their emotions are a breach of contract.
Because when your horse reacts, theyāre not being difficult.
Theyāre not being disrespectful.
Theyāre not trying to ruin your day or your carefully choreographed liberty session š¬
Theyāre giving you feedback.
And if you actually want to be empatheticā
Real, adult empathy,
not āI bought a rose quartz necklace from a saddle shopā empathy š
then youāve got to let them feel.
Otherwise, you donāt have a relationship.
You have a hostage situation.
So, next time your horse gets a little āemotionalā...
Take a breath.
Loosen the reins.
And stop trying to spiritually euthanise them into calmness.
Because thatās not a horse.
Thatās a malfunctioning lawn ornament š±
And you, my friend, didnāt get into this for lawn ornaments.
You got into this for truth.
And movement.
And connection šā¤ļø
And horses, with all their feelings, give you all of it.
No charge.
No filter.
No apologies.
And if you can stop fearing thatā
If you can build the skills to support itā
Thatās when the real magic starts.
Not the fairy kind.
The earned kind.
The grounded, gritty, glorious kind āØ
IMAGEšø: Incredible photography by Lynn Jenkin
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