What Happens When a Horse Doesn’t Have Their Basic Needs Met?
If you haven’t checked out the blog about the nature of the horse and their basic needs, be sure to read that here! –
Small recap: Horses are prey animals and therefore safety is a huge priority for them. They are a herd animal that is designed to graze and they benefit from the freedom to move.
Forage, Friends, and Freedom. These are the 3 basic needs of the horse. When horses do not meet these needs, problems can arise with training.
Common Problems of the Horse w/o Basic Needs Met:
• Anxious energy
• Biting/mouthing
• Pawing
• Excessive movement
• Pulling, evading, trying to escape
• Buddy sour
• Bucking
• Rearing
• Kicking
• And more.
How do these correlate? Let’s look at it this way. When a horse doesn’t have their basic needs met, they will begin to behave in a manner that communicates to their riders that they are missing something. It’s up to the rider/owner to make adjustments in the horses daily life so their needs can be met.
Lack of Forage moving through the gut can lead to a slew of problems and issues which can present as saddle and girth discomfort, general anxiety, or more.
Lack of a healthy herd (Friends) can contribute to buddy sour behavior, lack of confidence, excessive movement, overly playful behavior and general lack of relaxation. Horse’s that don’t live in healthy herds also tend to have a misunderstanding of pressure and how to live peacefully amongst others.
Lack of Freedom to move can affect the health of the horses body and mind. They might have stiff joints or a high desire to move. They might begin behaving unruly through bucking, pawing, rearing, and overall anxious energy.
A horse that has their needs met is a horse that can relax and engage with the training they are participating in. They often will connect more with their riders because their basic needs are met. Fighting with horses in the arena that are hungry, in pain, buddy sour, or full of energy isn’t where the battle is won. Consider evaluating the other 23 hours a day that a horse lives without people and understand that it matters to the 1 hour a day with you.