In showjumping, there is a phenomenon that many riders find to be one of the most frustrating experiences. A horse that is stable, willing and engaged during training, and shows beautiful rhythm and good mechanics in the warm-up, seems to change its personality the moment it enters the course. It loses impulsion, starts hopping in place, closes its body, stops making decisions, and sometimes produces “checkerboard jumping”: one good jump, one weaker, then another good one, mixed with stopping in front of a fence or avoiding it. From the outside, this looks like unwillingness, laziness or classic fear of the jump. However, in reality the roots of this phenomenon lie deeper—in the horse’s nervous system, its cognitive abilities, motor competence and the way the rider responds to the first signs of impulsion loss.

Modern knowledge about equine behaviour and neurophysiology points to two main mechanisms that lead to approach problems and stops on course:

1. Emotional stress (fight/flight), associated with arousal and increased reactivity.
2. Cognitive and motor overload, a decision freeze, which is a reaction to excess information, contradictory aids or a task that exceeds the current capacity of the nervous system.

Understanding the difference between them is crucial, because each of these mechanisms requires completely different handling. What’s more, misinterpretation, e.g. treating freeze as “disobedience” or lack of courage, often deepens the problem.

Stress – when the horse wants to go forward but is “too overwhelmed”

Stress in a showjumping horse is relatively easy to recognise. The autonomic fight/flight pattern causes:

• raised neck,
• shortened, stiffened frame,
• increased alertness and reactivity to stimuli,
• quicker tempo and shorter strides,
• chaotic reactions to approach lines.

On the course, stress usually appears as excessive speed, rushing towards the jump, trying to bypass it or darting sideways. If a stop occurs, it is usually a temporary moment in a sequence leading to an escape movement.

Many horses become stressed only on the course, even when the warm-up was calm. The competition atmosphere, task pressure, the rider’s energy and the audience raise the arousal of the nervous system. Research (e.g. Rørvang 2021) shows that under stress, the ability to coordinate and process complex information deteriorates, explaining why a horse may jump well “without pressure” but struggle in competition conditions.

Freeze – when the horse doesn’t run away but “shuts down”

Far more often than stress, the cause of sudden stops on course is a reaction known as overload freeze (cognitive overload freeze). This is a form of motor and decision shutdown that does not arise from fear, but from:

• too much information,
• contradictory aids from the rider,
• unclear direction of movement,
• task difficulty,
• too rapid pace of changes,
• motivational conflict (simultaneous “go” and “stop” signals).

The horse then looks characteristic:

• the outline “shrinks” and rounds,
• the hindquarters stop working,
• the neck shortens and stiffens,
• forward movement disappears or is replaced by vertical hops.

This freeze is not a form of primary fear, although it may coexist with low-level emotional tension. Above all, it is a blocking of a movement pattern caused by overload. The horse’s nervous system can no longer simultaneously analyse space, rhythm, balance and rider signals.

The key distinction:

• if the horse explodes forward after stopping → stress,
• if it stands, hops in place, turns slowly and freezes again → overload freeze.

A cause of freeze may also be pain (documented in studies by Dyson, Murray, Greve). Therefore, every behavioural assessment should include orthopaedic evaluation, saddle fit and respiratory evaluation. The fact that a horse jumps perfectly in the warm-up but stops or “shuts down” only on course does not rule out pain. On the contrary, this is often one of the most common diagnostic pathways in sport horses. More in this matter HERE

What does research say?

• Rørvang et al. 2021 – horses overloaded with cognitive tasks show higher frustration and difficulty performing motor tasks.
• McBride 2017 (“Applied neurophysiology of the horse”) – overload of the nervous system leads to movement blockage and limited access to known motor patterns.
• McGreevy, McLean – signal conflicts and simultaneous activating and inhibiting aids lead to loss of decision-making and learned freeze reactions.
• Müller-Klein 2024 – the rider’s emotional state directly influences the horse’s arousal.

Why does the internet confuse freeze with fear?

In popular equestrian articles, the freeze response is usually presented as part of the classic stress triad: fight - flight - freeze.

This is biologically correct, but far too simplistic to explain sport-horse behaviour under task conditions, such as showjumping. In mammalian neuroethology, including horses, the term “freeze” includes an entire family of immobilisation behaviours with different causes and consequences. These include:

• fear-freeze (life-threatening stimulus),
• orienting freeze (freeze to assess a stimulus),
• conflict freeze (reaction to contradictory signals),
• cognitive overload freeze (task overload),
• frustration freeze (inability to complete a movement).

In equestrian practice we focus almost exclusively on fear-freeze, because it is easy to describe and easy to understand. No wonder the internet treats it as the only valid option. The problem is that freeze seen in showjumping horses on course is almost never a form of primary fear. Much more often it is:

• informational overload,
• motor overload,
• signal conflict (endogenous vs. exogenous aids),
• loss of balance,
• insufficient decision-making capacity,
• excessive tension caused by pressure.

Neurobiologically, these behaviours may look similar (immobility, stiffness), but their cause is completely different and require different intervention.

What misleads observers?

1. Both reactions look outwardly similar: the horse stops moving.
2. The internet promotes the pattern: “if it stands still, it’s scared”, which is outdated in sport horses.
3. Fear-freeze is easy to describe; overload freeze requires knowledge of neurophysiology and learning theory.
4. Riders often interpret stopping as “unwillingness”, not loss of decision-making.
5. Traditional equestrian education still promotes dominance, obedience and “pushing through resistance” instead of analysing mechanisms of behaviour.

What does science say?

Neurophysiological studies (McBride 2017, McDonnell 2020, Rørvang 2021) show that:

• fear-freeze occurs in defensive reactions to life-threatening stimuli,
• overload freeze occurs when the task exceeds cognitive or motor capacity,
• these are two different reactions with different neural circuits, despite similar outward appearance,
• in sport horses, the dominant freeze is the task-related one, not the fear-based one.

Why does this matter so much?

Because wrong diagnosis leads to the wrong response:

• in fear → reduce arousal, build safety, increase distance to stimulus,
• in overload → reduce signals, simplify the task, rebuild decision-making.

Confusing the two may:

• increase rider pressure,
• deepen blockage,
• create a learned freeze,
• destroy the horse’s confidence to the course.

The internet misinterprets freeze as fear because both behaviours look similar but have different neurobiological origins. In sport horses, the dominant freeze forms are not linked to fear, but to overload, signal conflict or loss of decision-making ability. Therefore, in showjumping practice it is crucial to understand which freeze we are observing, because the correct intervention depends entirely on this

Why does the course trigger freeze so easily?

A course requires:

• immediate decision-making,
• balance control,
• constant regulation of tempo and direction,
• reacting to rider aids under time pressure.

This is much more complex than jumping single fences in warm-up. If a horse is:

• cognitively sensitive,
• overloaded by the rider’s emotions,
• physically insecure (lack of balance, back tension),
• bombarded with contradictory signals,

its nervous system may enter a blocked state.

Hence the phenomenon of “checkerboard jumping”: after freezing, horses often produce one or two good jumps, but their motor system is still not fully synchronised.

The rider’s role: when human reaction decides whether freeze disappears or becomes habitual

The most common mistake: increasing pressure when the horse begins to block.

In freeze, the horse is not refusing the task. It loses access to making movement decisions. Adding stronger leg, hand or seat:

• increases the number of stimuli to process,
• intensifies overload,
• deepens body contraction,
• eventually reinforces freeze as a strategy.

Biomechanically it is like pressing the accelerator and the brake at the same time: energy rises, but cannot be released.

Freeze can become a learned pattern if the horse repeatedly experiences pressure during overload moments. Then it reacts not to the fence, but to changes in the rider’s tension.

Highly sensitive horses process micro-signals:

• hand tension,
• breathing pattern,
• the rider’s energy when entering the course.

For such a horse “something is different” can mean:

the task will be difficult → I freeze.

Can freeze be prevented or reversed?

Yes. Freeze is not a personality trait, it is a nervous system strategy. It can be changed by:

• reducing pressure and minimising aids,
• rebuilding decision-making,
• clear, linear communication,
• improving balance and motor competence,
• eliminating pain as a factor,
• teaching smooth transitions and responses to minimal aids.

Freeze behaviour is fully modifiable if the rider understands its origin.

Summary

A horse that jumps well everywhere except on the course does not necessarily have a problem with courage, technique or willingness. Most often its nervous system reacts to changed task conditions with overload or signal conflict.

Stress and freeze are two different mechanisms:

• stress requires lowering arousal and increasing predictability,
• overload freeze requires structure, minimal signals and restoring decision-making.

The most important truth:

Freeze may appear spontaneously, but it can just as easily be learned through rider pressure and in the same way can be unlearned. It is not the horse’s character but the nervous system responding to the task, environment and human communication.