Do Horses Get Stage Fright?

We all know the horse that acts totally differently inside of the show arena than in the warm-up, and it’s usually not a good change. We accept this as part of the challenges of competing, and usually we develop methods for dealing or just decide that we are going to focus on the cross country after all. I think we can confidently say that the majority of horse “nerves” can be attributed to rider nerves, and the way that our bodies signal tense and worried business at hand. However, some new research shows that not only do horses not independently feel stress under the presence of an audience, but there is very little correlation between the stress levels of the rider and the stress levels of the horse.

Say what?!

That was my reaction too. However, according to a new study by Mareike von Lewinsky in the group of Christine Aurich at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna, we’ve been thinking about it all wrong. Along with the Ecole Nationale d’Equitation in Saumur, France, the scientists measured various indicators of stress in both riders and horses, including the level of stress hormones in saliva and the regularity of the pulse. The study was conducted both when the riders were practicing completely alone, and when they were performing in front of a thousand spectators. The idea was, of course, to measure how the results compared when riders and mounts were exposed to the presence of an audience.

In the way that we would expect, the researchers found symptoms of stress (higher cortisol levels in saliva and irregular heartbeats) in both horses and riders during the study. Riders showed significantly higher levels of stress when the audience was present, which tells us what we already know: competing in equestrian events is associated with stage fright, even for experienced riders. However, in contrast, the horses did not show clinical signs of increased stress hormones due to the audience. Their reactions were essentially independent of whether an crowd was there or not.

Therefore, these scientists are claiming that the results indicate that riders do not directly communicate heightened anxiety and stress levels directly to their horses. This was completely unexpected, as everybody assumed that the levels would be matching for each horse and rider pair. Aurich says that “we started with the assumption that the rider’s stress would affect his horse but this does not seem to be the case. Nevertheless, we should bear in mind that we were working with experienced horses and highly skilled riders: our findings cannot be generalized to inexperienced riders, who might be less able to prevent their horses from being stressed by the situation.”

So what do you think, Eventing Nation? Do you believe these scientific findings? Despite this study, I still believe that increased stress on my part creates a tense and noticeably more stressed horse, and I have also seen it in other riders. I actually don’t know how this is possible at all, because it seemed to me like common knowledge. I’m still a skeptic, but what about you?

 

 

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments