Understanding Horse Behavior: Key To Better Riding

Natural selection over millennia has shaped horses' natural behaviours. Knowing these signals helps riders build confidence, improve communication, and create harmonic interactions with these amazing animals. Horses use a range of visual and aural cues. These cover big eyes and pinned ears as well as stomping and pawing. To mark excitement or terror or to coordinate herd actions, they also use whinnies, nickers, and snorts.

Aggression

Aggressive behaviour can result from learnt, sexual (hormonal), or pain-induced factors as well. It could also be an indication of poor self-esteem. Along with poor management techniques including inadequate bedding, stall walking, and insufficient exercise and stimulation, inappropriate or too harsh corrections can aggravate it. Although biting and striking are the most hazardous, aggression can be separated into locomotor or oral behaviours. To be able to react fast with vitality and produce a long-lasting effect that will not continue to increase, one must be aware of the differences between a horse being playful, irritable, or very angry. Remember too that herd horses typically show no hostility towards humans. Just a small portion of people seize the chance to scare others; most of this comes from herd problems like food or space. In these instances, the original underlying cause of the problem has to be addressed.

Stress

Behavioural problems including fear, hostility and disobedience can arise from pain and discomfort, inadequate training techniques, or prolonged stress among other things. Knowing these fundamental causes will enable riders create practical plans to make things better. To have a complete awareness of their surroundings, horses combine information acquired by their visual, aural, and olfactory senses. Whinnies, nickers, and snorts help them also interact with one another and their herds. Fearful horses show a range of body language signs, including forward movement, large eyes, flicking ears and a raised head. They might also buck, gnaw the bit, gape their mouths. For riders, these actions can be very risky since they might cause them to fall off or perhaps be trampled. Stress also manifests itself as cribbing, still walking (pacing), fence-walking and pawing. Common for horses kept in stalls, stereotypies—behavioral patterns—are known to arise as a reaction to boredom.

Discomfort

In herds, horses utilise a range of signals to indicate discomfort, including snorting or blowing—a powerful expulsion of air with a high-pitched whooshing sound—eye rolling to the point where just the whites are visible and ears flattened tightly against the skull. Along with pawing or stomping with the feet and tail-swishing, these are alerts of violent behaviour to come. Usually a horse spreads its nostrils wide to breathe during exercise, but this can indicate nervousness or pain from heat or an irritant like mosquitoes or a bridle rub. Another sign of discomfort, a tucked-up tail denotes irritation, agony or rage. Particularly in a demanding environment, a horse who licks and chews is moving from the sympathetic nervous system response ("fight or flight") to the parasympathetic nervous system response ("rest and recover"). This is how one naturally cools off. Furthermore an indicator of oral issues could be the licking and chewing.

Confidence

There is a path back whether your fear of horses has always existed or if you were a confident rider but lost confidence following an injury or family or employment took front stage. While some technical competence is needed to be a competent rider, confidence may be developed by working with your horse on a plan catered for you. Watch your horse very attentively. See him evaluating his behaviour and body language both with other horses and during turnout. Point out his responses to the faint signals of tension, anxiety, or discomfort. Early identification of nervousness or anxiety will enable you to intervene and cool the horse before the tense muscles start to stiffen, therefore inducing a fight or flight reaction that can cause injury.