Performance Stress in Horses and Riders

It’s commonly known that young horses may get jumpy and hard to handle because of the excitement encountered at a horse show. Crowds of people, loudspeaker noise, lots of other horses, and strange surroundings make it hard for a green horse to settle down and do its job. For this reason, many owners and trainers make it a point to take young horses to a few shows or events where they simply walk the horses around, either in hand or under saddle, and let them get used to the show grounds and sensory overload.

Horses are not the only ones to get a case of nerves as they reach the show location. Many riders also experience that “butterflies in the stomach” feeling as they enter the ring for their first class, even if they have shown numerous times before.

So, who gets more stressed at a show? German and Austrian researchers from the Graf Lehndorff Institute for Equine Science measured heart rates of horses and their riders as they trained at home and again as they performed identical tasks before an audience at a competition. Heart rates increased in horses and humans, but the rise was greater in the riders than in their horses. Heart rate variability was also greater in riders than in their horses. From these results, it can be concluded that riders become more stressed and anxious about performing before spectators than their horses do.