This article first appeared in the August 2020 digital edition of Equestrian Life. To see what’s in the current issue, click here.
Is licking an chewing a sign of submission or stress?
Submission or stress? Something to chew on
By Dr Kerry Mack
I want to continue our exploration of what we might learn from science, and look at chewing behaviour. Practitioners of natural horsemanship, and others, have taught us that the horse will lick and chew as a sign of submission and relaxation. Is there any truth to this?
Experienced horsemen and women have observed wild horse herds and noticed that licking and chewing and lowering of the head were apparently communicating submission to other horses. This has been promoted widely in natural horsemanship circles. For example, Monty Roberts teaches that when working with a horse in the round yard, doing his Join-Up technique, the trainer moves the horse around watching for him to show signs of submission, such as licking and chewing, and putting his head down. When the trainer sees these signs, he releases the pressure by changing his posture and stopping pushing the horse, and the horse “joins up” and comes in to the trainer.
I have used this method and find it has some usefulness. Of course, there has been some criticism about chasing a domesticated horse away when actually they want to be with you anyway. Warwick Schiller came to Australia recently. He teaches that licking and chewing is a sign that the horse has moved from the adrenaline-charged Sympathetic Nervous System (so-called “Fight and Flight” reactions, associated with stress and arousal) and into the Parasympathetic Nervous System (“Rest and Digest” or “Feed and Breed” associated with relaxation)…
Read the full article in the August 2020 issue of Equestrian Life magazine here.
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