25/06/2025
𝐋𝐞𝐭’𝐬 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐬…
Part One.
Horses can use calming signals to calm themselves, they might also use calming signals to calm someone else, like a person or another horse.
In the wild horses survive on co-operation not competition and this is where their social skills like calming signals come into play, so it’s important we pay attention to them.
The issue we have as humans is the signs of calming signals can mean multiple things, so we need to make sure we are looking at the “bigger picture” or the whole body to help us.
𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐮𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬.
It’s a difficult subject to inform people on, because calming signals can be a sign of a horse experiencing stress or a horse relieving stress.
It’s down to our intuition to make that call, for example if your working with a horse and he’s showing multiple calming signals, like shaking his head, turning his head away from you, blinking rapidly, rubbing his head on his fore leg then that’s probably a sign to back off and realise that today isn’t the day to push that horse further.
Calming signals can also be a sign of a horse “preparing himself” for stress, say there’s a new object your horse hasn’t seen 9 times out of 10 horses will go to investigate the new object because they are naturally curious, but have you noticed they often investigate the new object by looking at it side on, or they’ll make a big circle around the new object. This is the horse saying “hmm I’m interested in this, but I’m giving myself space because it could potentially be stressful”.
Another calming signal I see my own ponies do is “making yourself small” for example when the vet comes, Blue will often hide at the back of her stable in the corner. With her head lower, in hopes that if she “makes herself small” she can avoid the stressful situation, it’s also a way for them to detach from the stressful situation.
𝐇𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐝, when a horse is showing calming signals we can mimic them as a gesture of acknowledgement. For example if your horse yawns, you can yawn, if your horse signs/breathes out you can sign/breathe out.
I often see people getting offended when their horses turns its head away, when they are working with them. Humans often take this as disrespectful as if the horse isn’t paying attention, we then proceed to encourage the horse to look at us straight on so we feel they are paying attention. This is actually extremely disrespectful in their language, and turning their head is actually the respectful thing to do.
When horses freeze we often think of this as the horse is “shutting down”, but in fact this is too a calming signal and one we shouldn’t ignore. We have been taught to not allow the horse to “freeze” but it’s important we do allow him to freeze, even for a few minutes this will help him regulate his own nervous system.
Studies have shown that when horses display calming signals and we ignore them, or don’t know that they are doing them, that the horse can actually stop doing them all together even in the herd! Which you can imagine can be extremely dangerous and chaotic.
𝐖𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐦 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡, 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐦𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐡, 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝, 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐚𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦.
𝐃𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐤𝐢𝐝𝐬? 𝐎𝐫 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐤𝐢𝐝𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐚 𝐟𝐞𝐰 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬… 𝐈 𝐨𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐲𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 “𝟓-𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐭𝐞 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤” 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐦 𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤 𝐭𝐨𝐨. 𝐒𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞… 𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤!
Written By - The Fearful Rider
Art Work By - Dorota Kudyba Art
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