8 Tips for How to Behave Around Horses

So how should you behave around a horse? Horses are prey animals, so their natural instinct is to flee from perceived danger. Sudden sounds and unexpected sights can spook them, so it is important to make your presence known and to avoid the horse’s blind spots when approaching. Horses can also sense a person’s mood, so if you are calm and balanced, the chances of your horse being calm are much greater.

There are many rules out there about what you should and shouldn’t do around horses, such as not walk behind them, or walk up to them from behind, but in this article, we are taking a more high-level approach and looking at how we can establish better behavioral habits around the horses in our lives.

How to Behave in and Around the Barn

The barn or stable is where the horses live – it’s their home and familiar space. It is important that we help make it an environment that allows them to relax and feel safe. Achieving this extends beyond just the physical aspects of a clean and safe environment, as the atmosphere between people in the stables can also have an effect on the psychological well-being of horses.

Horses are socially intelligent beings and science show that they can recognize our emotions and even

nervous system is divided into two branches and their tension levels are constantly moving on a spectrum between sympathetic arousal and parasympathetic

When a horse is in a sympathetic state, he is tense and in flight mode to avoid perceived danger. When a horse is parasympathetic, he is calm and balanced, such as when grazing in a field or relaxing in his stall.

It is important for anyone handling a horse to be able to identify where the horse is on this spectrum and adapt their actions accordingly. For instance, you should not walk behind a horse in a sympathetic state however, you can place your hand on the horse’s bum and pass behind him if he is in a parasympathetic state.

Below is a great video from CRK Training explaining this concept in more detail.