7 Ways to help your horse's anxiety
Horses are very good at anxiety - and to be fair, fear and the urge to flee are why thousands of their horse ancestors survived carnivores, falling branches, fires and more…
In the modern world though, flight can mean running through wire fences, bolting with a rider who falls, injury and trauma that makes the horse more likely to be anxious next time.
Where we can, our horse training should include showing horses they can feel safe around plastic bags, wheels bins, flags, bright jumps, other horses who come too close.
Here are a few ways I try to help my horses know they will survive and that I will help them stay safe:
1. Curiosity Training
Show your horse new things while keeping everything at a low energy level that lets them stay well below their fear threshold until they become curious and check it out, then rewarding every try. It becomes natural for them to check things out, and rewarding curiosity creates a very cool horse with strong investigative urges and great self confidence.
2. Let them follow scary things
Rather than approaching them with the 'scary' item, draw it away from them so they become the ‘predator’ instead of feeling pressure. Juno’s first quad bike was scary but we followed it slowly until she sped up to check it out. The first time Trinny saw a canvas, I dragged it around the field until she followed it, then stood on it and investigated it.
3. Respect their alert
It’s ok to look at what your horse is looking at, but stay calm and centred and don’t stare at it… just let them know "Oh yeah I saw that and we’re ok." Breathe. Buck Brannaman said at the clinic we went to that you can say "You might think that log is scary, but I know more about logs than you and we're okay."
4. Offer protection
Where you can, place yourself between your horse and what they are scared of. They will feel you are protecting them, and bonus, if they do spook they won’t go over you. In general keep an eye out for things that will worry your horse and act to prevent the moment of fear reaction.
5. Be the lead mare
Where you can minimise the pressure for your horse, go ahead and the their hero. Swat the horse fly, move them away from the spooked horse in the warm up ring, pick up the plastic bag. Don't run away from challenges but do what you can to be your horse's hero.
6. Let the horse move their feet, but guide them
You want the horse to feel as free as they can - and not brace up. If you can, keep a soft rein - sometimes I let the reins out as they go over / past the scary thing to link the brave action with a soft release. If they spook, that's fine, just focus on riding forward and staying soft rather than jerking back on the rein and freezing up.
7. Give them the nutritional support they need
Ensure your horses have a great gut supplement, and balanced daily minerals and vitamins. The gut-brain axis is real and a stressed horse will get a disrupted gut microbiome very quickly - and a disrupted gut will trigger stress chemicals in the brain which... you you get it, it's a negative cycle and good gut health can break it.
For mares who get hot and bothered or spooky with change of their cycle add chaste berry, for when grass is mouldy and damp or extra flushed in spring and autumn consider a good dual action toxin binder, and if your horse has an unbalanced metabolism get them metabolic support.
And, always feed plentiful forage - horses need 2% of their body weight in fibre every day, and often pasture alone just doesn't cut it.
They have to feel ok in their bodies before they can be brave and calm!