11/19/2025
Overwhelmed happens. Understanding goes a lot farther than punishment.
Pico came to HH due to a mysterious new habit of rearing very unexpectedly under saddle. This 6-year-old TB has one of the best horse moms around, who has advocated for him and went digging for physical causes of his behavior. Minor things have been found and addressed, yet the rearing continued. So, he came to school to figure out what’s really going on.
Now, this horse is FASCINATING. At his first haul-in evaluation session, I was certain it had to be physical because he was an A+ student and responded to everything I asked pretty seamlessly. There was definitely some bracing against halter pressure and some decreased sensitivity to the “forward” question, but he talked through it quite easily and seemed to try so hard. At the time, I thought that was the whole picture, but I later realized it wasn’t.
Then he arrived for board and training. The first few days he was great, but as he settled in, something shifted. It became apparent that he had been so good at his evaluation session because he was overwhelmed. And when this horse is overwhelmed, he goes into star, straight-A student mode and checks any and every box you throw at him… until he can’t anymore.
Late last week, I was asking him for some right flexion from the ground while standing by his hip. He was trying to bite the lead rope, bite me, etc., which for him is a form of self-soothing when he is overloaded. I was able to keep everything out of his mouth, asking him to ride the wave through the feelings instead of consoling himself with his mouth.
Then he leaned down, picked up his right leg, and put the entirety of his cannon bone in his mouth and held it there. Yes, literally put his leg in his mouth, biting down as hard as he could. When he finally released it, he instantly tried to bolt off to the left, away from me.
As soon as he hit the end of the lead rope, the dam broke and all of his frustrations came out. He reared, bucked, bolted, and kicked. The horse who “has no forward button” suddenly had all the forward we would ever need. And instead of trying to contain him or stop him, I just held the space emotionally and physically.
I encouraged him to express this frustration with his body (as long as he didn’t aim the kicking toward me).
I spoke to him calmly, encouraging him to let it out and embrace the moment.
I didn’t stop him.
I didn’t punish him.
I just held the space.
And when he finally stopped, he was so confused. He had just had a meltdown. A legitimate “I can’t handle this anymore” meltdown. He wasn’t throwing a temper tantrum. He wasn’t being bad. He was having the horse-equivalent of an anxiety attack or sensory overload episode, and he got to experience that without punishment or retribution. That is what safety feels like to a horse.
The next day, when asked the same question, he found his way to a beautifully soft answer. He self-regulated. He thought before he acted. He did so without panic, anxiety, or frustration. That is what it looks like when a horse discovers a new pathway.
The cause of his rearing under saddle lives in the following “holes” in his training:
1. Lack of nervous system and emotional regulation. When overwhelmed, he bypasses thinking and goes straight to coping behaviors.
2. A resistance to move forward when a human is within 3 feet of his body. He will go forward easily on the lunge line, but if you are close and ask with the same cue, he shuts down and refuses to move.
3. A lack of trust in humans as a source of answers and resolution. He loves people and will follow you everywhere when his halter is off. He is playful and affectionate… until the halter goes on. Then his expression shifts, his body stiffens, and “robot Pico” shows up.
All three of those issues will be solved from the ground, not his back.
The point of this very long post is that behavioral issues always have a root cause. And, in my opinion, it is almost never solved from the horse’s back. It is solved in moments like this one, where a horse finds peace, softness, and solace with a human after a session full of questions and puzzles.
A horse who learns to process, think, and experience training as a co-creative event instead of a box-checking, clock-in and clock-out task. A horse who learns that overwhelm does not equal punishment. It equals support and understanding.
I will share some videos of his groundwork tomorrow so you can see what we are doing to start filling in those holes.
