I was musing about words as I read an article on spooking. It asked if your horse spooked and said this is a flight response. Well how about changing the words and saying that it is a FEAR response.
As is a lot of what horses do to avoid unpleasant experiences.
Mojo ran off during his foot trimming – a FEAR response so it is up to me to make foot handling a pleasant thing not a scary one.
Horses may run to avoid the lunge whip – a FEAR response.
Horses run round a pen in “join up’ techniques – a FEAR response.
The FEAR system may just be mild anxiety or a full blown “get me out of here” response.
Horses don’t have to be trembling to be afraid, more often than not they don’t show much outward signs – it can be dangerous in the wild to show fear and weakness in the presence of predators.
So if you say you don’t train with FEAR then look carefully at what your horse is doing and why they are doing the behaviour – how it was taught and what emotional response it provokes.
Dr Helen Spence did a wonderful seminar on emotional responses and the use of pressure.
This is my write up and explains a few things better than I can, if you wish to explore this concept in more depth there are some references at the bottom of the article. These are my interpretations of course and may change as I learn more.
Positive Horsemanship. 