Skip to content Skip to sidebar Skip to footer
3K
3K
740
3K
Menu
Menu
static-img
Animal Phobias

Equinophobia – Fear of Horses

Share This Article
Share Post

No Horsing Around with Equinophobia

Your buddies have been talking about going horseback riding this weekend to take a break from the busy city life. They ask if you’d like to come along, and almost immediately you break into a sweat. Your hands become fidgety. Your breathing feels labored.

You’re in a state of panic.

The thought of being lifted up on the back of a galloping, restless beast is not only unappealing to you, but downright scary. You love your friends, but how do you tell them that you can’t go on this trip because you are afraid of horses?

The fear of horses, also called equinophobia or hippophobia, is the medical explanation for why the thought of going horseback riding may result in mental anguish.  The heart-rending fear of falling off a galloping horse or getting thrown by one is a real fear for many. Confronting it would require an in-depth understanding of the nature, symptoms, and causes of the phobia.

 

The Definition of Equinophobia

Equinophobia is the irrational and resolute fear of horses, horse riding, or even petting a horse. It can sometimes extend to a fear of other hoofed animals, such as donkeys. It is triggered by a morbid fear of heights or the trauma from falling off a horse in the past, getting trampled by one, or watching it happen to someone else.

Most people are naturally wary of horses for the first time, but being equinophobic suggests an extreme and unhealthy fear of the animal

The fear of horse riding can also be genetic. A parent being unexplainably fearful of horses or other hoofed animals can unconsciously pass it to their offspring. Whatever may be the cause of one’s phobia for horses, the reaction is the same: a compelling and persistent desire to avoid horses and like animals at all cost.

Many equinophobics are lucky enough to have few encounters with horses. Unlike birds, snakes, cats, or dogs, you usually don’t have chance encounters with horses. Spotting them in urban environments is uncommon. Therefore, the phobia rarely manifests or causes real threat to a person’s quality of life.

However, if you want to take that trip with your friends and not have your fears impede your fun, it is possible to overcome your equinophobia.

 

Symptoms of Equinophobia

Like other phobias, your acute fear of horses has a number of telltale signs that help diagnose your specific condition and put it in perspective. Just thinking about a horse, or even seeing the animal in a book, leaves you hyperventilating. Others have to encounter it physically for their symptoms to manifest. Either way, common equinophobia symptoms include:

  • Nausea
  • Screaming and crying
  • Panic attack
  • Nervous breakdown
  • Sweaty
  • Shortness of breath
  • Anxiety
  • Acting hysterical
  • Heart racing
  • Trembling

 

How to Treat Your Fear of Horses

Although large in size, horses are, for the most part, gentle animals. Your instinct may not feel far-fetched and feeling scared of horses may seem normal, but if you want to overcome this anxiety, there are many options available at your disposal.

How to Help Yourself

The following are ways you can help yourself overcome this morbid fear of horses. Can equinophobia be cured? Yes! Of course!

1. Learning about Horses

One way of helping yourself cure your phobia is by reading about horses. You will find that, if well-bred, horses are not nearly as harmful as they look. Convert your fear into love and admiration by studying these creatures. Watch movies and documentaries that discuss them. Observe them in a controlled environment like the zoo where you do not have to ride or get close to them.

2. Gradual Desensitization

This is a strategy that works for most phobias. It helps you reduce the power that your fear has over you by gradually familiarizing yourself with the presence of the trigger. You can schedule visits to a ranch, zoo, or anywhere else you can find a horse. Start by petting, or just learning to touch them. Let them eat off your hands. Hold their reins or take a walk with them. Slowly but surely, you will end up on horseback wondering why you were ever so afraid of these creatures in the first place.

3. Breathing Exercises

Shortage of breath is a popular symptom of most phobias. Practicing regular breathing exercises is a sure way to help regulate your breath and control your anxiety.

Getting Professional Help

Regardless of how far you can go with self-help, equinophobia is still a psychological condition. It may require the attention of a qualified healthcare professional to treat properly. The following are possible therapies commonly used to treat such phobias:

1. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

This procedure helps the patient replace abnormal patterns of thinking with more positive and reassuring ones. They help you understand that your reaction to horses is extreme, and primarily based on scary scenarios you have built up and amplified in your head. CBT arms you with the appropriate tools needed to take charge of your mind and renavigate your thoughts.

2. Counseling

Many times, what most sufferers need for their phobia is proper counseling. Enlisting the help of a therapist to counsel you through your fear and place you on the path of mindfulness and freedom is another way you may overcome equinophobia.

 

How to Cope with Equinophobia

Try not to live your life in constant avoidance of horse-related situations. This is why exposure therapy is a huge part of your recovery process. Join a support group of people experiencing similar problems. No one likes to feel lonely and scared.

Learning that equinophobia can be genetic could spur you into overcoming your fear for future generations. Give them the gift of a fun-filled life with no horse-induced panic attacks.

Practice meditation and breathing exercises during the desensitization process. Do physical exercises and keep fit so that you gain more confidence and composure while riding.

 

The Bottom Line

You may hardly ever encounter a horse in an urban environment. But overcoming your fear of horses may do wonders for your self-esteem and widen your list of hobbies. It is also a sure way to model positive behavior. Believe you can do this. Visualize yourself someday riding gallantly across a field without a care in the world.

FearAZ.com is looking for personal stories of any 'fear of' or phobia. If you have an interesting story you'd like to share, we welcome your submission. If the story fits with our content and guidelines, we'll add it to our site.
0LikesShare Post

Your Fear Goes Up and Down

Are you someone who would rather climb the stairs than take the elevator? You call it squeezing in a workout after being sedentary the whole morning. Or perhaps you claim it's a faster route. These are both typical, normal, and acceptable reasons. But what if you need to be in the conference room on the eleventh floor in five minutes, and you're wearing your business suit and wingtips? Would you still prefer to take the stairs? If your answer is yes, then maybe it's time to take a closer look at your reasons for avoiding elevators. Elevators stir all sorts of emotions in passengers. From the discomfort of closeness to strangers to the sensations in our gut, elevators can be a source of the heebie-jeebies for many, but for some, they can also be a source of terror. Let's dig a little deeper into the latter, and see what this terror is all about and what can be done to manage it. To begin with, does being inside an elevator give you chills or the sweats? Or does it trigger an unpleasant memory? Perhaps you remember movies you've watched where something terrible happens inside an elevator. From Silence of the Lambs, The Shining, Final Destination 2, or the king of all elevator horror films, 2010’s Devil, the elevator becomes witness to something sinister and horrible. And you want nothing to do with any of it. You know that you're not claustrophobic. You can deal with heights just fine, too. And you know that you're not going to be trapped inside. All of these contribute to a fear of elevators—but they don't apply to you. Yet being inside one does something to you. It's hard to explain.

What is the Fear of Elevators Called?

What you have is a fear of elevators, which is called elevatophobia. It is most commonly triggered by an experience of getting stuck inside either due to a power outage or technical maintenance. Hearing about other people's experiences or watching a movie about similar circumstances can prompt a fear of elevators getting stuck with you inside. Usually, claustrophobics and agoraphobics may also develop elevatophobia because the triggers and objects of these fears are related. Claustrophobia is the fear of closed and cramped spaces, while agoraphobia is the fear of being trapped without any means of escape. Put the two together, and the elevator becomes the perfect combination of both phobias. The space is limited and closed, with only one means of entry and exit. You can add another point of access if you consider climbing the cables like they do in the movies, but that certainly isn't ideal.

Symptoms of Elevatophobia

If for some reason an elevator stops due to an outage or some technical difficulty, passengers with elevatophobia may go into full panic mode. Even if the maintenance team advises that it will just be a matter of minutes, by then, the person's mind has become irrational with the fear of the elevator falling, being stuck for hours, or other unpleasant thoughts. You would expect a person to exhibit the following physical symptoms: Additionally, you would be filled with that overwhelming anxiety where you feel that you have zero control over the situation. You start fearing the unknown and are filled with negative thoughts about death and imminent doom. You become irrational and unresponsive.

Possible Complications of Elevatophobia

When the panic sets in, the possibility of emergencies related to pre-existing conditions may make themselves known. This might include serious health crises like heart attacks or asthma attacks. When this happens, fear becomes a medical emergency. Elevator rides do not last long; it's just a matter of minutes or even less. But the fact that a person can escalate from panic to a near fatal medical situation classifies the fear of elevators as a 'hard phobia.'

Trying Some Self-Help Methods

Your fear of elevators can likely interfere with your social and work life and relationships. Not everyone understands that elevatophobia, like most phobias, can be crippling. But don't be disheartened. Depending on the level of your fear and level of control, you can gradually face and manage your phobia. Here are some recommendations you can try:
  1. Make a List of Everything that Entails Riding in an Elevator This is a systematic approach to getting over your anxiety. By following a step-by-step process, you can identify where the fear kicks in at its strongest. You can write a list of steps like pressing the topmost button and waiting to arrive on that floor, watching as the door closes and opens, being alone inside the elevator, or having delays with the doors opening. Now try doing the opposite. For example, face away from the door or occupy yourself with your phone so that you are distracted.
  2. Create Your Fear Ladder Although the name says fear of elevators, it is not the whole process that scares you. There are just phases and parts of the elevator riding experience that cause you to panic. So go back to the list you initially created and label the fear level you feel. You can do it numerically, too, like ten being 'really scary,' six, 'manageable scary,' and one, 'not scary at all.' You can put the corresponding fear levels so you can focus more time and effort into activities that are more scary to you.
  3. Face Your Fear By now, you have identified what scares you the most. You can try repetitive action to minimize your fear and increase your sense of ‘normalcy’. Remember that the longer you expose yourself to your fear, the better you get at handling your emotions. If you are feeling overwhelmed, stop. Pushing yourself too fast and too soon can backfire. Modify your pace and go slower instead.
  4. Talk About Your Fear People by nature, unfortunately, are not quick to offer understanding and support. You need to tell them what's wrong before they can empathize. Talk to someone who you trust and ask for their support, especially in the initial phase of overcoming your fear. If you are too afraid to ride the elevator alone, you can ask them to go with you, and before you realize it, you are on your floor, and there was no indication of panic.
  5. Learn To Be Patient Be patient with yourself and your predicament. This is, after all, your fight against fear. It might take hundreds of elevator ride practices before the fear gets under control. Even then, there might be some hesitations and episodes of nervousness. These are acceptable and expected, so cut yourself some slack and congratulate yourself for every progress.

Seeking Professional Help

Along with self-help, you can always enlist a medical professional's aid to support you with your elevatophobia. Talking to someone who has experience with similar cases can be comforting, because you know that you are not alone, and this situation can get better. Talk to your doctor about the severity of your fears and the symptoms that you experience. Explain how you deal with it in an attempt to control it. An exam and a health history are made to ensure that there are no unrelated or underlying problems that your symptoms might mask. Usually, phobias like this are approached with a combination of psychotherapy and medication. Your doctor will talk about these options with you, and it's entirely up to you, with your doctor's recommendation, what you want to pursue. For psychotherapy, the most common type is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which aims to help you find different ways of behaving, thinking, and reacting when about to step inside an elevator or when already inside it. With medications, there are beta blockers and benzodiazepines, but note that these can have side effects. Whatever these side effects are, you should promptly share it with your doctor.

Simple Tips to Overcome Elevatophobia

Elevators are not perfect, but their likelihood to malfunction, fall, or get stuck is very low. If you are not fully confident with this information, you can help overcome your elevatophobia by learning common elevator safety tips and basic elevator operations. These should help curb your mild fear until you become more self-assured. In addition to that, here are some of the things that you can do to gradually overcome your fear of elevators—both in getting on and riding one.

Conclusion

Yes, elevatophobia can be a challenge in today's world, but don't allow the elevator to win. Don't let it stop you from taking a job on the top floor or attending a social gathering on the rooftop. Sure, you can take the stairs if you insist and arrive winded and sweaty, with the party about to wrap up. But is this the quality of life you seek? Elevators are designed to make life easier. There are guaranteed ways to help you overcome elevatophobia. Take the first step and seek help. Soon, you’ll see yourself breezing through the floors with those arduous stair climbs little more than a memory.
This Pop-up Is Included in the Theme
Best Choice for Creatives
Purchase Now