Can horse's feel your heart beat?

by Elaine Polny
(Ontario, Canada)

The answer may surprise you!

Researchers at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences recently reported that an increase in a human's heart rate affects the heart rate of the horse they are leading or riding!

The university tested horses and riders to see if humans inadvertently communicate fear and anxiety to horses. For those of us who understand and use energy work it's not surprising what their findings were, yet I love it when science meets reality!

Here's how they did it and what they discovered:

Using heart rate as a fear indicator, the researcher's asked 20 people with varying levels of horse experience to walk and ride 10 horses from Point A to Point B four times. The researchers told the participants an umbrella would open as they rode or led the horse on the fourth pass. The umbrella never opened, but the heart rates in both horses and humans increased during the fourth trip between the destination points, when the human expected the umbrella to open!

Take home message:

If you are nervous when leading or riding a horse, your nervousness might increase the likelihood of the "spook" that you are anxious to avoid.

Elaine
Training Horses Naturally