NERVOUS in company

AS WITH HUMANS who are shy, some horses aren’t very confident around other horses and can panic in situations where they feel trapped or overwhelmed by the closeness of other horses. Why does this happen?

“Working in close proximity to other horses can be difficult for many horses, whether that’s sharing an arena at home, or staying calm, confident and focused in a warm-up arena,” says behaviourist Hannah Weston of Connection Training.

Hannah explains that this can be caused by a few things:

1 Young or green horses are often wary when first taken into spaces with other horses being worked or ridden. Naturally, horses display certain behaviours when meeting new horses as they get to know each other. In a working environment, we don’t allow for this, so green horses often don’t know how to react towards the other horses, leading them to get excited or anxious.

Horses who have had insufficient socialisation, such as those who