Stress in Horses

Stress in Horses
By Stephen Ashdown

Just like us, our horses get stressed. Stress seems to be an inevitable part of modern life and we can even pass on such feelings and problems to our pets and animal companions. In the same way when our animals become stressed we know it and it affects our riding and enjoyment.

But how damaging really is tension and anxiety. How can we avoid it and why is it important for animals as well as people?

Stress is a natural response of the body to something that threatens it whether that threat is mental or a physical accident or a disease. When the body senses that something bad may happen to it, cells release chemicals that start to protect the body from what ‘might happen’. This threat to the body might be a sudden change in the weather, a new horse in the field that might cause a fight, some change to management regime or maybe the loss of a companion in the same field. Some of the chemicals that the body releases in such situations are natural steroids which calm damage in the body down whether that damage occurs in the mind or the muscles. Other chemicals start to prepare the body for taking evasive action i.e. running away quickly.

So we can see that stress is actually a natural state of the body. If we or our horses did not get worried or stressed about things to some degree we would be much more likely to get into trouble in difficult or dangerous situations. The trouble comes however when stress continues for long periods of time without us being able to get away from what is causing it. Then the natural chemicals in the body that are supposed to protect the body actually start having negative effects. The body steroid hormones start weakening the immune system, body chemicals make us ‘revved up’ in order to escape the stress and cannot do so and by products of all this chemical activity called ‘free radicals’ start damaging the cells and make us grow older more quickly. It is a bit like ‘revving up’ an engine for a long period without going anywhere. Of course it is not good for the engine after a while. Recent studies show that short periods of stress are actually good for the body because the healing process of the body afterwards gives it a lift. If a person has no occasional challenge to make them think more acutely the brain degenerates and becomes less able to function well.

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