06/05/2026
Interacting with horses is a safety lottery, just like getting in a car or playing professional football.
There are measures you can take for harm reduction (helmet, quiet horses, controlled environments, etc) but there is always that risk. Horses are prey animals and can be unpredictable no matter what kind of manners or training you instill in them, that's OK, and don't we risk it all for the love of the game?
A huge portion of Equestrians are afraid of their horses.
I don’t say this as a judgment. I don’t say this to mock. I say this as an observation of behavior.
The recent footage from the British Bridleless Competition has brought out some commentary that aptly exposes the fear that many horse people possess when it comes to riding.
There are so many people making remarks such as:
“wait until the horse bolts on them.”
“I hope an off leash dog chases them and then what will they do without a bridle?”
“Dangerous if the horse goes out of control.”
“What if they buck?”
And these comments are made despite the numerous public examples of horses having adverse reactions and becoming out of control, even when fully tacked.
Even at top level shows, we witness occur occurrences where horses become out of control and riders fall or have accidents.
We see horses bolting away from their handles on the ground and getting loose.
If we are being honest, the vast majority of incidents that we see occur with horses who are fully tacked.
And, yes, of course, part of that is due to how common it is for people to use tack, So naturally, we will see a higher representation of riders in tack experiencing these incidents.
But, the point is this:
If bridles, bits and other tack guaranteed safety, we wouldn’t see so many accidents occurring with these pieces of equipment.
I think that this competition has exposed a very prevalent issue in the Horse industry.
And that is: The belief that safety is created from control.
From being able to enact brute force on the horse to stop their behavior.
This simply is not true.
It completely misses where dangerous behaviour stems from:
Stress.
Stressed horses are the most dangerous horses to handle.
They act much more erratically. They are far more likely to be explosive. And when they are frightened enough, the adrenaline makes it so that they can easily run through equipment, even as it causes pain. The stress numbs the pain response.
And, ironically, a lot of harsh equipment actually increases the overall baseline stress response due to the discomfort that it causes the horse.
Priming them to have bigger reactions and have a higher baseline level of stress.
Read the full post on my Substack linked in comments ⬇️
