Naughty Or Struggling? 5 Symptoms of Anxiety and Insecurity in Horses

By Shy DeLand

Growing up as an equestrian, I learned so many valuable skills that continue to serve me years later in my career as a natural horsemanship trainer. From reading basic body language to a proper seat, I am eternally grateful for those instructors and mentors who laid such a solid framework for me to follow. At the same time, I experienced another side of horsemanship that I am convinced many of us are all too familiar with the idea of “bad” or “disrespectful” horses. As I’ve moved farther into ethical horsemanship, I find myself becoming disillusioned with that concept. Exploring the science behind equine behavior and seeing the results of applying that science in my day-to-day life has been an incredible shift in my worldview and my success in understanding these incredible creatures and their delicate nervous systems.

This education has allowed me to move into working as a trainer for a leading equine sanctuary in the Southwestern United States. I have the honor of working with horses from an incredible variety of backgrounds, including horses who hold a lot of trauma from past experiences. Something as small as haltering can be a huge trigger, and we work to fix the horse’s feelings about each trigger and help them be well-adjusted and happy before they enter a new home. There are countless success stories and even more in the making.

Every day, my goal is simple - to undo that trauma and anxiety and help each horse learn emotional fitness, or the ability to regulate their own nervous system. Every new horse I work with tests my knowledge and hones my skills and viewing them as teachers rather than students has leveled up my skill set immensely. The biggest lesson I’ve learned is this: those bad behaviors aren’t the horse trying to make your life difficult, they are the symptom of a horse who is having a hard time. Here are five “naughty” things I look for to understand what the state of a horse’s nervous system may be, and why I’ve chosen a more ethical way to find regulation.

Persistent Hypervigilance/Reactivity

In horses who present with hypervigilance or reactivity, the dysregulated nervous system can show up in both very obvious or more under the surface ways. It can look like that mare who was labeled as “feisty”, and it can also look like the “sleepy”, shut- down gelding who gets explosive once his rider asks him to go faster than a trot.

Research in equine behavior science shows that heart rate variability decreases when horses are stressed ^[5], which means reduced parasympathetic (rest and digest) tone and heightened sympathetic (fight, flight or freeze) dominance. In other words, the horse becomes further and further stuck in the fight or flight part of the nervous system in what is essentially a loop of dysregulation. Repeated activation sensitizes the limbic system, meaning the horse may begin to react to something minor as though it is a major threat.

With this information, it’s easy to see how the horses we’ve labeled as spooky are just stuck in their sympathetic nervous system.

Tension in the Body

Another behavior largely frowned upon that may be caused by a dysregulated nervous system is a horse that suddenly becomes difficult to ride. Things like a tight back and shortened stride can (if pain is ruled out) be from chronic stress. Resistance to rein contact can be caused by a horse’s aroused sympathetic nervous system. Even the comfort of a horse’s canter can be affected by a compromised emotional state ^[4].

Looking back, I remember saying “but he was perfect yesterday” and thinking my horse was out to get me, never even wondering if his tight stride and head tossing might be from severe stress. Understanding this makes something very clear; the horse who struggles going forward or gets defensive about rein contact isn’t being “dominant”. The language we use can easily blind us from seeing an animal who is struggling.

Impaired Learning

We’ve all been there. The clinicians, the Youtube videos, the books and books of theory all make it sound so easy. But when you show up to the barn to actually work with your horse, none of it is clicking. A horse’s resistance to training or a lack of ability to retain information can make you feel like you’re a terrible teacher. It can also make us think of a horse as “slow”. But more frequently than not, neither of those things are the actual root of the problem.

Fear and chronic stress overload can impair cognitive function, creating a horse that has difficulty focusing or seems to forget the last session’s work in a matter of days. The reason for this is once again a dominant sympathetic nervous system, prioritizing survival over learning. With extra cortisol and noradrenaline flooding the hippocampus, the horse is unable to learn ^[1]. Such horses frequently get labeled as lazy or stubborn, but the more I work to “un-stick” these types of horses, the more obvious it is that they aren’t refusing to learn; they can’t learn.

Separation Anxiety

Another incredibly frustrating problem is a “herdbound” horse, or a horse that has insecurity when away from the rest of the herd. Inability to focus, frequent whinnying or pawing, even bolting back to the herd are all problems that horses with separation anxiety may have. This behavior can be dangerous to the horse or the humans around them, but it goes much deeper than that.

In part, it is a normal stress response when an animal that finds safety in numbers is removed from the herd. To a prey animal, that feels like a death sentence. Going deeper, horses who exhibit more severe symptoms were likely removed from their herd or mother in a traumatic way, like premature weaning ^[2]. In other words, an already dysregulated nervous system with a huge built-in trigger. The instant I added empathy to the way I thought about herd-bound horses, I immediately felt less frustrated with what is admittedly a hard behavior to deal with.

Stereotypic Behaviors

This may be the most obvious sign of anxiety in the list, but stereotypic behaviors are somehow still being labeled as “naughty”. It may look like cribbing, pacing, destroying fences or stall walls, but it is all a cry for help from a horse with high stress hormone release in the body ^[3]. When horses practice stereotypic behaviors, they get a temporary dopamine release, so the behavior becomes addictive. While stereotypic behaviors typically originate from long-term welfare issues that you might accidentally inherit when you buy a horse, they can be addressed at least in part by providing your horse with their basic needs, and helping them regulate their nervous system. Sometimes time in a healthy environment is not enough, and they need our help to regain that emotional fitness.

So, what can be done? The good news is that much like humans, a frozen or dysregulated nervous system in your horse does not mean they will always be that way. An ethical and natural approach to your training and day to day interactions with your horse can do wonders for your relationship and their chronic stress, especially if that stress comes from a lifetime of not feeling heard by humans. Reframing how we think about difficult behaviors is a great place to start.

I like to begin by teaching my horse something simple, and rewarding every single ounce of effort they give me. For some horses that are highly educated, that can be a range of skills. For other horses, it can be something as simple as a hindquarter yield. Rather than raising pressure until my horse is forced to find the answer, I prefer opening communication and trying to find ways to help my horse be set up for success. We can use this skill to build a relationship with our animals instead of being “dominant”, which can feel to our horses like thoughtless control.

My goal is simply to create a feeling of safety in my horse. The science backs it up; when the nervous system regulates, performance increases. It is truly the best of both worlds.

The more time I spend working under my incredible human mentors and my even more incredible equine teachers, the more I am convinced that nervous system regulation is the clear answer to training horses. It is a major paradigm shift to lose the idea that our horses are constantly warring against us and instead struggling within themselves, but it is the most important realization I have ever had. The language we use matters when we want to see a horse for who they truly are and what they truly need. With dedication from those of us who love the species, I am confident we can shift the world of all things equine into something connected, harmonious, and beautiful.