12/13/2025
We need to let horses be horses! Activation and alertness is normal, but the key is how we support them back to connection.
Similar to us, we are allowed to feel stress and fear, but when allowed time and space, we are better able to better manage and tolerate uncomfortable feelings. Whether horse or human, the goal isn’t avoidance- the goal is awareness of thresholds and the offering of support to regain calm connection. 🐴
Somewhere along the way, a belief crept into the horse world that any sign of fear, startle, or flight means the human “caused it” - that if a horse activates, it’s proof we weren’t safe enough, calm enough, confident enough, or spiritually aligned enough.
It’s a tidy story and it sounds reassuring. But it isn’t how a nervous system actually works.
Horses are not meant to live in emotional flatlines. They are meant to respond to the world. They orient. They assess. They notice change. They startle. They move.
These aren’t signs of trauma.
These are signs of a living, intelligent, prey-animal nervous system doing its job.
Activation is not failure. Activation is physiology.
So what is activation?
Here are a few common states, each completely normal:
Orienting
A pause, head up, eyes soft but focused, ears shifting.
The horse is gathering information, not panicking.
Startle
A quick jump, breath catch, or sudden movement - then a return to baseline.
Healthy, momentary arousal.
Mobilisation
The body preparing to move: weight shift, breath change, fascia tensioning.
Not fear - readiness.
Overwhelm / threshold breach
Eyes fix, movement becomes urgent or scattered, the horse loses the ability to take in information.
This is the state we want to prevent.
Our goal is not to eliminate activation.
It is to support the horse staying within their window so activation doesn’t tip into overwhelm.
Here are some everyday examples of healthy activation:
• A horse lifts his head when a bird takes off, then goes back to grazing.
• A young horse shies at a plastic bag, takes three breathy steps, then softens.
• A mare freezes for a moment when a gate clangs, then reconnects with her handler.
None of these moments indicate poor handling. They indicate a responsive, adaptive nervous system.
Where things go wrong isn’t in the activation itself - but in the absence of support around it.
The question isn’t:
“Why did he react?”
The real questions are:
• How quickly could he come back?
• Was someone there to help him dose the experience?
• Was the environment predictable enough to settle again?
• Did the human recognise the early signs before escalation?
Even when activation is human-caused - which can happen - it doesn’t mean the human is failing. It means the nervous system is giving feedback:
“This was too much, too fast, too soon.”
That’s information, not indictment.
What helps a horse return to connection?
A few simple, powerful things:
Space
A small step away, or giving the horse room to move without feeling trapped.
Soft orientation
Letting the horse look, smell, listen - not rushing the moment.
Predictability
Consistent patterns, clear signals, and an environment that doesn’t suddenly “stack.”
Regulated human presence
Not perfect calmness - just a body that isn’t adding confusion or pressure.
Choice
Allowing the horse to pause, turn, or step away without consequence.
These are the foundations of the Whole Horse Journey approach - working with the body, fascia, and autonomic states so the horse has a pathway back to safety with us, not away from us.
Activation is not the enemy. Overwhelm is.
We cannot - and should not - prevent every rise of arousal.
But we can create the conditions for:
• softer thresholds
• quicker recoveries
• safer movement
• clearer communication
• trust that deepens over time
Safety is not the absence of activation.
Safety is the presence of recovery.
A horse who can come back to connection after activation is a horse who trusts their world and the humans in it.
And that trust is not built in the moments where nothing happens.
It is built in the moments where something does -
and we help them find their way home again.
