Why Are Some Horses Bad?

In many species, humans induce avoidance reactions, flight or other stress reactions, probably because of their size and rapid unpredictable movements.

Domestic animals are frequently exposed to human presence or handling during their life and this is considered to be one of the main causes of stress in these species. Human-induced stress has negative effects on productivity, reproductive capacity and welfare.

Excessive reactions towards humans can make horses difficult to handle and ride, and can sometimes lead to accidents. Thus, the possibility of detecting an animal’s level of reactivity towards humans at an early stage has practical implications.

An animal’s early experience with humans can strongly affect its later reactions towards them, and one which has never been in contact with humans will have different reactions than one which has been frequently handled (e.g. for horses).

However, animals living in the same environment and with similar human contact react to humans with a strong inter-individual variability, some being very easy to approach and handle, others presenting strong avoidance reactions.

Thus, reactivity to humans could be considered as a temperament trait, i.e. a behavioral tendency present early in life and relatively stable across various kinds of situations and over the course of time.

Results of recent studies suggest the existence of a ‘‘reactivity-towards-humans’’ trait in horses that is genetic, and may not be the result of bad experiences early in life.

In the future, it would be interesting to determine whether this trait is independent of the other temperament traits previously identified in horses (e.g. gregariousness, fearfulness, flightiness, sensory and sensitivity), or whether it is the result of an interaction between different inborn traits such as fearfulness and sociability.

From a practical point of view, it is important to identify which level of reactivity to humans is the most relevant for riding activities. For instance, an over-reactive horse which always avoids humans would obviously be difficult and even dangerous to handle and ride.

On the other hand, an under-reactive animal may respect humans less. However, these hypotheses require further investigation by the scientific community.

Here is an informative website that has considerable information on miniature horse personality and traits, many of which can also be applied to normal sized horses.
http://miniaturehorses-cruzmountain.com