The Horse as a Flight Animal

Nov 5, 2011
Chris Thomas

Horses are Flight Animals - C. Thomas

Animals are generally known as fight or flight animals. The horse is a flight animal and should be handled with this in mind.

Flight animals tend to be those that have predators. Their response rather than defense when faced with such predators, is to run away or flee. This is how the horse reacts to situations that result in fear, deeming them a flight animal.

Domestication’s Effect on a Flight Animal

The behavioural action of flight by the horse may be difficult to recognise in some domestic situations. When handling horses in a confined area, such as a stall or yard, the ability for the equine to escape is somewhat limited.

This may explain why working with horses can lead to the response of kicking or biting in retaliation to something they don’t like. This can be especially evident when introducing horses to a new task, such as rugging or handling the legs for the first time. The horse’s coping mechanism for something they are uncomfortable with is to flee from the situation. Domestication at times makes that difficult or impossible for horses.

Recognising the Need to Flee

Being aware of this built in response in the horse can assist anyone when it comes to working with and managing horses. Many trainers recognise this natural reaction, using negative reinforcement to gain a response from the horse. The horse naturally works to avoid pressure and so continues to react until the pressure is released.

Many good trainers have learnt to keep pressure on the horse (as long as they and the horse aren’t in danger of being hurt) until the correct response is given. Pressure is released as soon as the horse provides the desired response.

Using such a method and being familiar with how the horse communicates through body language has become a large selling point for horse trainer Monty Roberts, who is widely known to be able to start an unbroken horse under saddle within half an hour. For the horse that is apprehensive in any situation, they grow uneasy and tend to move a lot, away from the perceived danger if at all possible. Roberts’ encourages the horse to expend energy in a round yard setting, making the environment away from him uncomfortable.

It has been put forward that horses can be lazy – they store energy for when it may be needed to flee. Working perhaps with this theory, Roberts’ pushes the horse to work – by fleeing – driving the horse forward with a length of rope that he throws behind it. Reading the horse’s body language, the pressure is taken away at a point when he feels the horse is receptive to the idea of approaching him.

By recognising the horse’s inbuilt need to flee from a predator, Monty Roberts and many other trainers work in such a way that the horse learns it is safe when with a handler, and here it will be required to do the least work. An awareness of the horse as a flight animal can make it possible to better understand their reactions and how to best work with them.