Teach Your Horse to Love Scary Things – Body Language
Relaxed and Curious Behaviors
Body Language and Behavior: Exploring
• Relaxed body
• Soft mouth, eyes, and ears
• Sniffs ground
• Glances up at object
• Easy to look away from object
• Moves slowly to explore the environment
What to Do: Exploring
Follow your horse and let her move around the area.
Slowly and casually approach the scary object. Avoid marching directly up it; instead, take a less direct route and let your horse check out the object first.
Body Language and Behavior: Attentive
• Pays attention to object; gathers information
• Ears forward
• Eyes focused on object
• Attention is easily shifted away from the object
What to Do: Attentive
Perfect! This is the SAFE distance, and your horse shows “attention without tension.”
Slowly stop your horse and wait until she is no longer focused on the object.
Reward with a treat or scratch. Make a smooth, arching turn and casually move away from the object.
Too Aroused and Over Threshold Behaviors
Body Language and Behavior: Fixated
Moderate arousal- Tension in body and face
- Intent focus on object
- Air scents; breathes hard
- Leans body toward object
- Has a hard time shifting attention; may turn to flee
What to Do: Fixated
Caution! Your horse could go either way at this point.
Turn your horse to face sideways or away from the object. This will break the fixation and help her relax.
Use treats, scratch, and kind words of praise to create a positive association with the object, and casually move away.
Body Language and Behavior: Frozen/Fidgety
Mouth closed, lips tight and pursed- Ears may flick forward and back
- Braced; leans back or takes a few steps away
- Makes short, quick foot movements
- Won’t take treats or gobbles them
- Unable to shift attention
What to Do: Frozen/Fidgety
Too close! Move away from the object before your horse spins and bolts.
Move to the SAFE distance, and give your horse time to recover. Do something easy and fun that involves scratches and treats.
When she calms down, you can try again but don’t get so close!
Body Language and Behavior: Flight/Fight
Takes action!- Moves to end of lead; pulls away from object
- Backs quickly or swings in a wide arc away from object
- Spins to bolt
- May strike or rear if trapped
What to Do: Flight/Fight
Whoops! Your horse is in flight mode.
The best you can do is to follow her without making a fuss, and move to the SAFE distance
When she calms down, you can try again but don’t get so close!
Courtesy of Robin Foster, PhD, CAAB, CHBC ©2014 Adaptive Animals, LLC
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