For the small farm and pet business owner, Farm and Pet Copywriter will occasionally post a sample of work pertinent to your audience. Here is a sample blog post for the small farm business owner to show how you can keep your customers engaged. Would you like content like this for your site? Please contact me so we can talk!
If you have horses, you know that even the quietest, most “bombproof” horse can still spook at something, whether he’s under saddle or just walking along with you. And the spook isn’t just a small jump. It can send your horse flying across the paddock and over to the other side of the world.
When it’s over, both you and your horse are breathless, shaky, and nervous, and are now scared of your own shadows. Your day is now ruined, and it makes a bad memory for the next time you try to do whatever you were doing again.
If you were riding and went flying off, you might now be injured on top of it, possibly badly. And your horse might be injured as well.
Not a good situation in any case.
What causes the spook? And how can you make it better for both of you?
Anatomy of a Spook
Horses are prey animals, different from predator animals. Their eyes are on the sides of their heads rather than in front. This means that they can see almost 360 degrees around them, except for small areas directly in front or behind them. They turn their heads constantly to make up for this, so they are always aware of any threat around them.
And for a prey animal, even a big one like a horse, everything is out to eat them.
Their brains, like ours, consist of several parts. These include the prefrontal cortex (for planning and rational decision making), the hippocampus (for memory formation), the amygdala (for emotional processing and fear generation) and the nucleus accumbens (which triggers movement).
The nucleus accumbens is connected to both the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala, which means movement can be made rationally or emotionally. Research has shown that the pathway from the amygdala is a fraction of a second faster than the one from the prefrontal cortex. Which means that if the horse is acting from fear, its reaction is faster than if it’s acting from a rational decision. Even if the horse wants to think about it first, the amygdala beats that rational side.
The senses of vision, hearing, smell and touch are also hard-wired to the amygdala for immediate processing. And the amygdala of the horse is much larger proportionally than that of other animals.
This all means that the horse has the fastest reaction time of any animal. Which makes sense because a predator scoring a horse for dinner has provided for its family for several days, rather than scoring a one-meal rabbit or chicken. The bigger the (dinner) prize, the faster that dinner has to react to avoid being on the menu.
Horses have been domesticated for centuries, yet that amygdala and all its wiring are still intact and functioning as they always have. So how do you deal with an animal that could accidentally crush you while fleeing from a plastic bag blowing in the breeze?
Helping Your Horse Overcome Instinct
There are several ways to slow that reaction enough that the prefrontal cortex overrules the amygdala. These include:
- Look for physical issues first. A bad-fitting saddle that pinches, or ulcers or a bad foot which causes pain, can trigger that amygdala. The horse may feel that an unforeseen predator already has a hold of her. Ensure that she is comfortable and pain-free before all else.
- Build a relationship of trust between you and your horse. Horses live in herds and have a leader whom they look to whenever a decision needs to be made. If he accepts and trusts you as his leader, he will look to you before darting off on his own.
- Expose her to as many different things as possible and show her that they are nothing to fear. This is called desensitization. Anything and everything is fair game – ropes, boards, tarps, plastic bags, children’s toys, anything that moves or makes a noise. The more things you teach your horse that are not threats, the more she will inspect and rationalize before jumping off that cliff.
- Do things on both sides of your horse. While the theory that both sides of the horse’s brain are unconnected and do not share information has been debunked, it’s still true that objects look different from different points of view. The horse may not realize that the mailbox it walks past on its left with no issue is the same object when passed on the right.
- Stay calm yourself. If you are spooky, your horse will read that. And if she considers you her leader and you are spooked by something, she will take that as confirmation that she should spook as well.
In conclusion, the more you work with your horse calmly, respectfully, and as his leader, the more you will instill in him a sense of trust and reassurance that will help him turn to you when a spooky situation occurs.
Note that this won’t stop every spook as this is an instinctual preservation mechanism.
However the more times and situations you are able to help her overcome these reactions, the more times she will take a breath, so to speak, instead of just heading to the hills. And that makes for a safer horse for both of you!
Would you like content like this for your site? Please contact me so we can talk!