{"id":12195,"date":"2021-03-03T10:47:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-03T14:47:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2021-10-31T16:28:27","modified_gmt":"2021-10-31T20:28:27","slug":"how-to-calm-an-anxious-horse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/equestrianbootsandbridles.com\/how-to-calm-an-anxious-horse\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Calm an Anxious Horse"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Just like humans, horses can build up anxiety. Horses are built to live in a state of “rest-and-digest” where they’re parasympathetic nervous system is more activated than they’re sympathetic nervous system. If these sound like foreign words to you, don’t worry – they did to me too! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Essentially, the sympathetic nervous system gets activated to tell your body: DANGER, RUN OR FIGHT! <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the state we are in when we feel anxious about something. Our mouth goes dry, our hearts beat faster, we get all this nervous energy that we don’t know what to do with, we start sweating, etc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The parasympathetic nervous system gets activated to tell your body: socialize, relax, eat, sleep, rest and digest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In order to calm down your horse when they get anxious, you’ve got to intervene physically or mentally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n