08/02/2025
Your Horses Emotions are NOT TRIGGERED.
A trigger is a stimulus that elicits a reaction. When we watch our horses, this appears to be true. We do something, then the horse responds. This A-B-C approach to horsemanship is the approach most training systems are built upon.
A- Our Aids, Cues, Signals, Gestures, Body Language, Feel etc.
B- The Trigger in the Horse (Their understanding etc).
C- The Behavioural Response, Action the Horse takes.
This feels intuitive. Feels correct. For a long time, this has been science's best understanding too.
But out there, in a corral, a barn, a field, for eons, there are talented horsemen and horsewomen who keep experiencing something that is not ABC. Something divergent.
"Sometimes 1+1= 47 with horses. Sometimes the trigger is not the trigger but something else."
Not until we began to properly research the neurology of emotion did we begin to understand how much of a flawed understanding of Emotion the Trigger concept is.
This stuff can get very convoluted very quickly, so allow me to offer a NERDS SYNOPSIS for horse people on what IS happening, if emotions are not in fact, triggered.
A- Before any aids, cues, signals or stimulus occur, your horses brain is filled with memories of every experience they ever had. They remember. Their brain has already prepared a menu of responses, in anticipation of what they predict will happen next.
B- As the human begins to think, feel or begin to offer a cue, aid, signal, stimulus... BUT HAS NOT OFFERED IT YET... the horse feels anticipation of what will occur. This happens faster than the speed of light, and usually unconsciously. Based on what the brain unconsciously predicts is about to happen, the brain chooses the best possible response from its menu of responses. The menu of responses is based on what worked best in the past, and what they think will best suit the anticipated next step.
C- The human cues, aids, signals, stimulates the horse.
D- The horse offers the response they had already predicted would probably best suit the situation they anticipated.
E- The horse observes if their response was in fact, well suited to the situation. If it was well suited, this REGULATES their emotions, their nervous system. This soothes. If they discover that they anticipated poorly, this UPREGULATES their emotions, their nervous system from comfort into discomfort. The technical term for this discomfort is called; Learning.
F- The brain files away for future predictions this memory. If they had a moment of Learning, they will likely predict differently next time a similar situation occurs.
If emotions and behaviours actually worked on a trigger, the brain would always feel "late to the party". If they had to apply active real time cognition to be totally unprepared for every instance of two way communication, and respond only after a "trigger" the brain would spend way too much metabolic energy. This is too expensive. And the role of the brain and the nervous system is to ECONOMISE all systems of the body to a seamless, simple flow state a being can live with as easily as possible and as efficiently as possible.
Knowing now that my horses predict my actions, and have already prepared a response, I can "read" exactly what happened to them in their past if I "simulate" something someone in their past might have done. You see, I had never whipped my horse Sanson. But the first time I held a stick in my hand, just held it, ten years ago, he gave me rope burn, bolted, jumped a fence, crossed a road and headed for the hills. Not because my intention was bad. But because the last person who held a whip near him, beat him with it. So his brain had already pre-loaded that bias, and had a prepared response for any instance he saw Human With Whip. I have now changed that pattern, by exposing him to whips and then not whipping. So now his prediction runs differently.
Not a trigger.
A prediction.
This explains spooky situations where I am riding a horse and I FEEL them asking me to trot, but they have not trotted. They are sending a pre-loaded, anticipatory signal that my animal body recognises as a future situation not yet entered into. Then I say "Yes" and the trot I predicted was there.
This fundamentally changed my riding from an action-reaction, signal-response, aid-behaviour paradigm into a Predict Me Better- Then Take Action paradigm. Allowing me to clean up responses, before we respond. Allowing me to "taste" canters we have not cantered, and believe what the horse predicts the canter will be like. Making my life safer and building trust with the horse.
It actually helps me feel empowered. To know that I am not a victim to my triggers, but in command of my predictions, and I can remind my animal body in instances where I feel troubled, that the past is actually not repeating itself, and I can predict something better this time.
I cover these cools bits of science and integrate them into gentle horsemanship and riding in my online course Homecoming 2.0; Ahead of the Curve. Designed to develop Selfless Riding in horse people who wish to be ahead of the curve of developing information in the world of science, empathy and feel. There are 70+ hours of material including practical demonstrations, theory deep dives and community calls. It was a difficult program to teach but I am very very proud of what we taught there as cutting edge material you probably won't see anywhere else.
It is available to sign up at any time on my website, and professionally hosted on the EH School.
Phillips
