Is it possible for a horse to put in maximum physical effort and still be emotionally comfortable and relaxed?

This is a question that is often asked in various horse forums. People are often critical of the tension carried by high-performance horses across all disciplines.

But think about it. Can an Olympic runner run their fastest time while being maximally chilled and relaxed?

From my experience, I have never seen a horse or a human perform at a high level while still being very relaxed. It may be possible, but I don’t think I have witnessed it. Look at how athletes, from high jumpers to high divers, deal with tension before an event. They don’t try to eliminate their tension but instead, try to control it.

As a horse trainer committed to horsemanship, I focus on the emotional comfort of a horse. Performance is a secondary consideration to me. It’s not that performance is unimportant. It’s just that performance is not the most important aspect of my approach to training. I am more excited by a horse offering a nice trot with close to zero anxiety than by a horse presenting high-level movement but with a lot of tension. The trainer who can teach a horse to perform a relaxed trot is the trainer I want to talk to more than the trainer who taught a horse to perform a canter to the rear while the horse barely holds it together.

But that’s just me. You may have different priorities and that’s okay.

I used to think that performance can only benefit from a horse being relaxed. But I don’t think this is strictly true anymore. Some degree of tension is needed to prepare the horse for the physical effort that will be required.

I now believe that as we work towards training movements that require greater physical effort we will create greater mental and emotional tension. It is the emotional tension that drives the physical effort. I think they probably go hand-in-hand. However, “tension” does not necessarily mean “trouble” (I’ll leave that discussion for another time).

A horse that is very relaxed and chilled won’t run its fastest times around a set of barrels. Without some tension, a cutting horse won’t be super quick to keep up with a super quick cow. A 3-day event horse won’t give its best times around a course if it is feeling laid back. A levade would look pretty ordinary from a horse that carries almost no emotional and mental tension.

So, when it comes to performance that requires a lot of physical effort, I have come to the view that it also requires a degree of mental and emotional tension.

But here is the kicker.

While I accept that high-performance movements require varying degrees of emotional and mental tension in a horse, movements that don’t require a lot of physical effort should not.

Let’s consider a couple of examples.

I had a client several years ago who competed in dressage at the Prix St George level. Yet, her horse carried a lot of anxiety regarding trailer loading and travel. It was getting worse and interfering with being able to travel to events. Finally, she succumbed and sent the horse to me for help.

In another example, there is a video floating around on the net of the dressage master, Nuno Oliveira. I understand the reason for the tension the horse carried for some of the work it was asked to perform when Nuno rode it. However, the horse also carried a lot of anxiety just to be mounted. Nuno required a groom to hold the horse and prevent it from walking away when he mounted. Why is this considered to be okay? How many times had this horse been mounted in its life, yet could not stand quietly relaxed? The tension the horse exhibited when performing lateral movements was the same tension it displayed when doing something as basic as being mounted or led.

I definitely could not do a good job of riding a Prix St George test or train a piaffe like Nuno Oliveira. But I sure could teach a horse to feel okay about loading into a trailer and I sure could have helped Nuno’s horse feel okay to stand quietly and with minimum anxiety while being mounted.

We often too easily dismiss the tension in a horse with excuses that it is highly trained to perform at an advanced level. I can accept that it is emotionally challenging to perform at a high level. But why then don’t we put in as much effort to help our horses relax when performing everyday tasks as we might do for the difficult training jobs?

Most horses should not exhibit any more elevation of emotional tension when standing to be mounted (assuming they are sound) than they do standing under a tree on a sunny day. When performing canter lead changes or jumping 1m fences, it may require a little more emotional tension to make the physical effort required for those movements. When performing a canter pirouette or jumping 2m fences even more emotional tension may be required. And when asked to canter to the rear, a lot of emotional tension may be required.

Nevertheless, the tension a horse feels when asked to chase a fast-moving cow should not exist when it is asked to stand still to be mounted or to perform a trot on a circle with a loose rein.