What the Heck is Hippophobia?

Please Note: This article first appeared at Bright Hub back when it had a mental health section.

Equinophobia or Hippophobia is a powerfully strong and often irrational fear of horses. Hippo is the Greek word for “horse” while equus or equine are Latin words for horses.   The patient does not need to have been injured by a horse in order to develop this phobia.  People with equinophobia often are also afraid of other animals, situations, objects or people. 

Little Hans

The father of modern psychiatry, Sigmund Freud, had a patient that suffered from Hippophobia.  His patient was a 5 year old boy that Freud called “Little Hans” that was intensely afraid of two things -- being bitten by a horse and of growing up to have a large penis.  Freud, already convinced of the strength of the Oedipus complex, concluded that horses represented a father figure.  In the Oedipus complex, boys are often afraid of their fathers cutting off their penises because they wanted the love of their mothers.  Fathers were competition.

In the case of Little Hans, he did seem to be genuinely frightened by an actual horse.  He lived in the early 1900s.  One day, a cart horse collapsed in the street.  The noise of the horse’s collapse frightened the boy.  However, his fear became so intense that just the sound of horse hooves on cobblestones gripped him with terror.  But in his place and time, Little Hans heard horses pass by every day.  Freud wrote extensively about the case in his paper “Analysis of a Phobia in a Five-year-old Boy" (1909.)

Freud’s interpretation of equinophobia in the case of Little Hans is now considered extreme.  Fear of the father may have played some role, but Hans saw and heard horses every day.  Seeing any cart horse triggered the memory.  The panic would return and the boy was frightened all over again.  After a few weeks, Hans had been conditioned to panic whenever he heard or saw a cart horse, according to Michael W. Eysenck, author of “Psychology: An International Perspective” (Psychology Press; 2004.)

Modern Exposure Therapy

Any sort of phobia, including hippophobia, is now considered an anxiety disorder and not a fear of getting castrated by a parent.  The Anxiety Disorders Association of America explains that although phobias of very specific objects like horses can develop ion childhood, they can also develop at any time of life.  Symptoms of a panic attack can come anytime.  Symptoms include rapid heartbeat, painful tightness of the chest, nausea, sweating and trouble breathing.  Just the fear of having a panic attack, let alone of meeting a horse, can trigger panic attacks. 

Patients with equinophobia may need antidepressants or anti-anxiety medication in conjunction with therapy in order to be calm enough to go through therapy.  The goal of therapy is reprogram a conditioned response with another response.  Patients can watch videos of horses or listen to short tapes of horses whinnying, galloping or making other noises.  The therapist helps supervise these sessions and praises the patient for being calm. 

The goal is to pet a real, live horse without experiencing a panic attack.  However, this may not be necessary depending on the individual patient.  For example, if a patient has many other phobias and getting access to a live horse is difficult, working on another phobia may help cure all of the patient’s phobias.

Over time, the patient can replace the memories of fear caused by horses with the memories of nothing bad happening when a horse appears or makes noises.  Each patient recovers at his or her own rate.

Sources

Simply Psychology. “Sigmund Freud Case Study: Little Hans Case Study.” 

Psychology: An International Perspective. Michael W. Eysenck. Psychology Press; 2004.

Anxiety Disorders Association of America. “Specific Phobias.”

Ailments.com. “Equinophobia.” http://www.ailments.com/716/Equinophobia.html

Image from Wikimedia Commons