We have all ridden horses when they have spied an object that puts them on red alert. It’s very human of horses to have a fear of things they don’t understand or that are unfamiliar. Most things that scare our horses are not a real danger. This is when it becomes our job to help them learn the difference between real danger and perceived danger. Often their reaction to a scary object is more dangerous than the scary object itself. 

But insisting a horse that it should not be scared and bolt off in a blind panic is not a training strategy that works in the long term. Teaching obedience through forcibly creating submission is not the way to go. ;

When a horse encounters something scary they approach from what they perceive is a safe distance. They look and focus. They smell. They assume a posture. They may circle or approach at an angle. They proceed forward with caution. At each step, they assess the danger before deciding on the next move. They may back away before closing in again. If nothing gives them a reason to increase their sense of danger, they incrementally begin to feel more secure and confident that the scary object is only a snail going too fast across their path.

That’s how a horse might deal with a scary object. But how can we help them and build their confidence in us to help them with scary objects?

Every horse is different and every situation is different, but I am going to discuss some basic principles that we should always consider.

When a horse encounters a scary object, there is a distance from the object that the horse feels safe. It might be 1m or it might be 1km or anything in between. As we reduce the gap between the horse and the object, the fear grows. As the distance closes, at some point along the line there is a tipping point where to go any closer overwhelms the horse with fear. This is the point where the horse stops thinking and either freezes or panics. This is the point where more harm than good is done to a horse’s confidence. This is the point we must ALWAYS avoid.

To make sure we don’t cross the tipping point from worry to panic, we must know where it is.

The tipping point is the distance from the scary object where we no longer can have a conversation with our horse. It’s the spot where the horse is so overwhelmed that anything we say or do is blocked out by its emotions. For example, at 100m from a scary object we might be able to ask our horse to stop, hindquarter yield, walk over a log, ask for 1 step forward and 1 step back, etc. But at 50m from the object, the horse may be so flooded with worry and focused on the object that nothing we ask of it is being heard. It feels like nobody is home and we are talking to ourselves. That means we have crossed the tipping point.

When we reach the tipping point, we have pushed the horse too far and we need to back off into a space that diminishes the fear response. We need to find the place where the horse feels safe enough that its mind has room to listen to us instead of being flooded by its emotions and has no room for our ideas.

With this in mind, it’s important to remember that when riding a horse we should be in a constant two-way conversation with it - even on a trail ride when our horse is quiet and relaxed. If we are riding down the trail and not talking to our horse, we won’t know if it is mentally available to listen to us when it spies that scary snail that is crawling too fast. We won’t know if we have crossed the tipping point until it is too late.

We should be asking our horse questions. Can it step the shoulder to the left? Can it leg yield 2 steps to the right? Can it stand 2 seconds then move the front right 1 step back? Can you walk away 10 steps and circle back? Any question that causes the horse to be quietly attentive to us, while still appreciating that it is dealing with the scary object is helpful. 

When we have our horse’s attention the work should be quiet and patient. But when the scary object blocks out our ability to be heard by our horse, we must do whatever it takes to be more important than the scary object. Then we become quiet and tranquil in whatever we ask.

This is because we need to be the centre of calm and tranquility. We need to be the place the horse feels secure. Anything we ask our horse to do while dealing with the scary object needs to be quiet and patient. We should not ask anything of our horse that would add to its emotional trouble such as snappy transitions. We should ask enough that requires a horse to focus on us, but not so much that we add to his trouble.

I want to emphasize that by asking our horse to keep some part of its mind focused on us, we don’t want to make it feel in trouble for looking at the scary object. It’s allowed to look at what it thinks might kill it. It’s allowed to feel threatened and worried. Don’t insist on a focus and softness it is not yet ready to give. The good feelings will come with patience, persistence, and listening to your horse’s constantly changing emotions.

A common mistake people make is to rush getting the horse to approach a scary object. If our horse’s response to us is getting stickier as we approach, it means we are getting closer to the tipping point. Consider backing off to give the horse more space and getting it in a better emotional spot or staying put and working quietly without getting closer. Wait until your horse is feeling softer and more confident.

We should work to keep the conversation alive with our horse to avoid crossing the threshold into a panic. We should help our horse be braver and gain more confidence in us for the next snail with road rage crosses our path.