Calming Signals: Another word for Dominant
Anna Blake
June 21
There is a wild stallion on the ridge fighting all comers for his harem of mares. We think aggression and violence maintain order in the band. Hence, we train using fear-based methods to prove we are the real alpha. It might work on the Disney channel, but it’s total fiction. Herds of horses are cooperative, knowing there is safety in numbers and having behaviors that support survival. The word harem should choke in your throat.
Researchers have debunked the concept of horses having a dominance hierarchy for decades, but we just won’t let it go. We want to ignore research and ethology and common sense because we grew up with the old story. We like to exaggerate the similarities between horses and humans and minimize the overwhelming differences. It’s all fine and dandy until someone gets hurt.
Sometimes when I’m teaching Calming Signals, it almost feels like people listen as if I’m a fortune teller. I ask questions and they’re shocked at how I could know that about their horse. Posing other behaviors that might confirm my suspicions, people think I’m hiding in their barn watching them. Like I have cracked a code or heard secret gossip. I’m listening with my eyes is all. Certainly not psychic.
It still happens. When people introduce their horse, they tell me he’s at the bottom of the pecking order, as if that’s good. That their mare is the alpha mare, as if a superficial name might justify her behaviors. They tell me their gelding is right in the middle of the herd as if he has no individuality but is socially acceptable. We don’t do it with bad intentions at all. We just like things to be in tidy compartments.
We like to think the world is linear, that we can put numbers in order, and end up understanding mysteries. We think herd position defines them, but the social structure of the herd has more nuance than that. The horse’s calming signals, their language, must not be dismissed without listening and understanding.
Science says only one genus of animals has a dominance hierarchy and it shouldn’t be hard to guess who. Humans and other primates. Do we define other animals by our traits, so they make sense to us? Anthropomorphize them? We’ve been using words like alpha stallion, boss mare, or worse, as well as subservient terms, for so long that the habit is hard to change. We love to see our animals as versions of ourselves, but do those jokes cause damage?
There is something like a hierarchy in your barn, but it might be the opposite of what you think. Say there is a loud noise in the woods, eating stops, and all heads lift. Usually, there is one horse in the pen that everyone looks at to see if the environment is safe. If that horse begins to move away or goes back to grazing, the rest of the herd follows. But it’s because of that horse’s judgment and experience, and not aggression or dominance.
That’s how my Grandfather Horse got his name. The spooky buck-fart youngster changed a little bit every year until he became the herd’s heart and anchor. Not the loudest voice, not a warrior spirit, not through an election by the herd. He won his position by attrition and by being old. The other word for that is wisdom.
Herds are always in flux as members mature or die or get moved to another barn, but more than that, herds are cooperative. Survival requires it. Herd animals instinctively know there is safety in numbers, and that loners are easy prey. They need each other, they don’t want to hurt each other. Individuals share leadership. If we oversimplify their relationships and trivialize their calming signals, we lose our understanding of them.
Why does using words that relate to hierarchy or pecking order matter so much? I have a list!
Because a horse’s herd position has never saved them from neglect, rough handling, or overuse. Horses don’t benefit from our story.
Because for much too long we have justified the use of fear and violence in training by continuing the false domination narrative.
Because too often we think the horse with the most anxiety, pushing others around, is the leader when they are asking for help.
Because we mistake food aggression for leadership when the horse may have ulcers or other pain that we can’t easily diagnose.
Because we think it’s normal that some herd members get bullied, but it still damages those horses mentally, as well as physically.
Because the one with separation anxiety isn’t being spoiled or stubborn. They’re herd members. It’s their instinct to stay together.
Because the one who paces or paws in a stall has anxiety about the scarcity of resources. (Horses require friends, forage, and freedom.)
Because it can seem easier to demean other horse owners than to change our own lifelong training habits.
Because if horses aren’t dominant or submissive, we must rethink everything we think we know about them.
Sometimes our insecurities make us want to think horses are less than us. Sometimes we feel self-worth and public acclaim for saving them. Both positions, dominators or saviors, place us above the horse in our habit of hierarchy. Meanwhile, horses understand collaboration. They don’t want to be slaves or have slaves. How would things change if we strived to be their equals?
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