Read now: Horse training in a sport-friendly way

"You just have to be more strikt, your horse is messing with you. "Sentences like these can be heard at every stable. They come up, for example, when your horse stops and won't let you lead him on, when he fidgets at the farrier and doesn't give his hooves properly, or when he keeps running to fast during training on the oval track and you have no idea what you can do.

Autorin: Karolina Kardel, 360 Grad Pferd

If we assume that our horses make fun of us in training when they storm off again and again when they are supposed to be tolt slowly, we assume that horses do this deliberately and purposefully. But can horses do this at all?

To answer this question, we need to take a look at the horse's brain.

The horse brain is structured differently from our human brain. Probably the biggest difference is that the cerebellum is much more pronounced than the cerebrum.

The cerebellum is the control organ of voluntary motor activity and it plays an important role in relation to the coordination of the horse ( (vgl. Physiologie der Haustiere, Thieme Verlag).

The cerebrum controls most of the horse's activities by processing information from the sensory organs. At the same time, it is the seat of consciousness and memory, because the prefrontal cortex is also located in the cerebrum. The prefrontal cortex is responsible for aspects such as planning, social behaviour and cognitive performance and is much more developed in us humans than in our horses.

From this we can conclude: A horse is not at all capable of fooling us riders because it lacks the corresponding brain power to act with foresight and planning.

But that does not mean that horses are stupid! Rather, a horse behaves in a way that is in its nature: It strives to survive, to secure its existence and to satisfy its needs.

Transferred to the training situation, this means that a horse will always do what is asked of it - provided, of course, that it understands what is asked of it and can physically implement it. The horse has learned that nothing will happen to it if it bows to the rider's wishes. This ultimately ensures - to put it bluntly - its survival, existence and satisfaction of needs.

Stress in horse training

In recent years, a lot has happened in the field of equine behavioural research. Today, we know more and more about how stress affects the horse's body.

If a horse feels stress, for example, the flight instinct is activated. The horse itself has little influence on this instinctive behaviour because the emotions are controlled by a specific area of the brain. This area of the brain is activated as soon as a perceived danger occurs. In addition, adrenalin is released in the body, which ensures an increased readiness to flee. The stress hormones attach themselves to the hippocampus, which is more or less the horse's learning area. The result: the horse can neither think clearly nor learn, nor can it control its flight reflex.

Of course, this is a very simplified presentation and does not cover the topic of stress in its full depth. But at this point it would go too far to go into the chemical processes in the horse's body and the different types of stress. If you want to delve more into the subject yourself, we recommend the book Fear, Stress and Insecurity in the Horse by Christine Dosdall, Viviane Theby and Kathrin Wycisk.

So if a horse repeatedly starts to run away from under the saddle during training, it is very rarely because the horse is making fun of the rider because it feels like running. More often it is because the horse feels stress and the flight reflex has been activated.

Stress is more common among horses than you might think. Studies show that at least every third leisure horse suffers from stomach ulcers - as a result of stress - and every fourth horse shows depressive symptoms. (Source: barnboox)

The most common stress factors include:

• Lack of space

• Hunger

• Pain

• Wrong training

• Inappropriate equipment

• Mental and physical overload

Our task is to build up the training in such a way that our horse feels as little stress as possible. Only when he trusts us can his reaction to frightening stimuli steadily decrease.

Of course, it does not mean that a horse should never experience stress. After all, moderate stress can also increase the horse's learning performance. It only becomes problematic if the stress is too strong or longlasting, and if we also punish our horse for its behaviour because we think it is taking the piss.

It is not possible to say in general terms which factors cause a horse stress. This varies from horse to horse. Furthermore, there is no clear definition of stress. In the book Fear, Stress and Insecurity in the Horse it says: "In general, it can be said that stress is the body's reaction to a stress stimulus with the aim of surviving a situation of increased stress. "

Basically, however, it can be said: Everything that overstrains the horse physically and/or mentally and/or causes it pain creates stress.

Stress can be recognised among other things

• high muscle tone

• a head held high

• fast breathing

• a tense mouth

• a pinched tail or a beating tail

• widened eyes

• wrinkles above the eyes/eye triangle

Reflect on the training situation, reduce stress

So when our horses don't react the way we want them to in training or when we are dealing with them, we shouldn't get angry straight away. Instead, we should ask ourselves what the reason could be that our horse behaves the way it does.

Example 1: My horse is lazy

Many riders are annoyed that their horse is lazy. "That's too strenuous for him now", they often say uncomprehendingly. But it goes without saying that the exercises and lessons are strenuous for our horses. When we go to sport and train, we also find the exercises strenuous.