Yesterday I was caught off guard by something I thought I had already worked through. It wasn’t a big thing, I just got unusually angry about a situation that shouldn’t have been a big deal. I had to go back and reevaluate why I was so stressed about it. The anger and fear had snuck up on me. It had looked tangentially similar to scenarios I had been unable to escape from in the past, even with a simple and non-threatening solution to it in the present. Thankfully I was able to find a way around it, allowing me to think about the situation a different way and separate it from the past.
Maybe this sounds familiar, because we all tend to do this, especially when already in a new environment, or tired, stressed, or in pain. Suddenly all that work on a behavior or trauma response gets tossed aside in favor of an old pattern, until we can calm ourselves and come back to our senses.
Horses, too, have this response sometimes, especially if they have had an unusually frightening event happen to them, either one time or repeatedly in their past. As their partners and caretakers, we try to work them through their fear and train them in creating a new behavior and mindset. Though their training for the most part gets them through similar situations in the present, sometimes the former fearful response will pop up unexpectedly. It isn’t that the training isn’t working, it’s just that their brain routed it through the old pattern. Horses also get tired, overwhelmed, or have pain, and the fear response rises to the surface.
Will I ever reach a point where similar-feeling scenarios never tip me into my old way of reacting? I’m not sure. Will I understand better why I’m reacting that way and get back to calm sooner? Probably. I suspect it’s the same with the horses I work with. Maybe they’ll always have a certain tool I have to be careful not to use when they’re having a bad day. Maybe I’ll always have it in the back of my mind that they can spook in a place that reminds them of their past. However, maybe it will be easier and easier for them to recover from it. I hope so.
Don’t forget we have a PRIZE DRAWING going on over on the Celebrating 100 Books post until May 19th! Go to that post, like it, AND post a comment on it to enter the drawing. Best of luck!
Maeve Birch Home 