Leading a large, anxious, excitable flight animal that outweighs you by 800-1,000 pounds can be a nerve rattling situation. It can also become dangerous if you don’t know how to calm your horse down when he acts up while keeping yourself safe.

Many of our human reactions are based on innate predator behaviour, which, of course, can increase stress for our horses that are prey animals. One of these reactions is the need to stop the horse from moving when he’s upset. Next time you’re with your horse, notice how often you tell him to “stop” or “stand.”

Because horses are flight animals, their ‘go to’ reaction when they’re nervous is to put distance between themselves and perceived danger. If they can’t move, their stress is amplified. Doing anything that interferes with the anxious horse’s ability to move – like asking him to stand still – only makes matters worse.

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