I’ve noticed that the use of pressure in horsemanship can be a subject that people feel quite passionately about. There is a spectrum of philosophies about using pressure that vary from using little/no pressure (often with a desire to make the horse feel more comfortable) to using strong pressure (often with a focus on obedience). One of the foundational principles of horsemanship that I’ve observed over the years is that we feel more at peace when we exist in balance, so my heart goes out to people who feel a bit stuck or polarized due to negative experiences with the application of pressure. As a result, I want to share my thoughts on how I understand pressure and what to do in specific moments when horses feel overwhelmed.
First of all, it’s important to understand that the horse’s preferred choice to run from pressure under stress is deeply embedded in their biology. When something startles or threatens a horse, the flight, flight or freeze response of the horse’s sympathetic nervous system (SNS) is immediate and involuntary. At this point, a horse is no longer able to think; the release of stress hormones reduces blood flow to the problem-solving centre of the brain and prepares the horse’s body to react in whatever way it needs to in order to survive. This is the point in your ride when your horse might buck, bolt, run off or freeze and tune you out. Horses have a much smaller problem-solving centre in the brain compared to humans so switching from a calm thinking state to a flight reaction happens very quickly for horses!
When we are dealing with a horse that is fearful, the first thing we need to do is return them to a state of calm where they can think. When the horse feels afraid, it is not helpful to add more pressure, fixate on completing the exercise or become angry about the horse’s lack of responsiveness. In a state of fear, your horse is not able to learn what you are asking of them but they are learning what they can expect from you when they feel scared. If your horse feels like you are not an advocate for their safety when they feel afraid, your presence starts to promote their fear and a variety of secondary problems arise. Therefore, I believe it is crucial that when a horse feels overstimulated and scared, we must pause what we are doing, back off, slow it down, and restart so that the horse’s nervous system can reset (back to a parasympathetic state). My choice to pause in these moments is not about technique – it’s about science and the knowledge that a scared brain doesn’t learn or think well, it merely reacts.