Horses with anxiety?

Hey everyone! 

Had a bit of a trail of thought the other day after taking my horse to a show.. She was very well behaved but  spooky at the same time, she was scared of the judges car in the indoor school which was frustrating as she didn't relax much throughout her test.. Still, she's only young and she needs more experience before I can start actually competing against people to get placed. 

Anyway it got me thinking, they say that your horse is a true reflection of yourself.. And the more Ive started thinking about it the more I've started to create a theory. Maybe horses suffer with anxiety in the same way humans do. Okay so it may sound stupid initially but if you really think about it.. Yes horses are spooky due to their instincts - new objects/sounds/smells etc are scary to them due to the fact that that new thing could possibly be out to kill them, or so they think as in the wild if they didn't run from what could be a predator then they would be killed. So I was thinking how similar that is to anxiety.. In a humans brain, we obviously know that the situations we are anxious of usually aren't going to kill us yet our body still gets anxious and panics which can lead to panic attacks. I was thinking about how similar I am to my horse Summer.. She is scared of new places.. New horses.. New things.. And so am I. In my head I know that for example, meeting new people or going for an interview isn't going to kill me yet my body reacts as though it's in panic mode despite the fact I'm not in a dangerous position. To try and sum up what I mean.. Basically we are all for telling our horses to get on with it and not be scared yet people with anxiety can actually relate to how a horse is thinking when it is spooking or scared.. We get scared too and so many people tell us just to get over it and what's the worst that could happen.. Yet we ourselves don't think like that when we are anxious.. We don't think logically we just panic. 

Perhaps horses are the same? Perhaps it's easy for us to say 'oh that car isn't scary' or 'that plastic bag isn't going to kill you' or 'just load onto the trailer, you'll be fine!'. Yes we are thinking logically and know the horse will be fine but the horse doesn't know or understand that. 

I'm not sure really where to move forward with this apart from maybe just to cut horses a little more slack and think about how we feel nervous about things that often aren't dangerous at all.. How would we feel if someone forced us into it using pain for example when people use whips and Spurs to jab a horse over a 'scary fence'. Maybe it's best to get your horse to trust your first so that when something scary comes up like a jump or something on a hack.. Your horse has faith in you to look after him/her. The same as when we are having a panic attack and sometimes it really helps to have someone understand to gently help you through it rather than force you to the other side? 

Sorry this blog is so random.. I'm actually writing this in the middle of the night as I can't sleep and this is something I've had on my mind for a few days so thought i may as well blog about it and get it off my chest! Do any of you agree? Does anyone else with anxiety think that maybe their horse could suffer with the same thing and be a true reflection of themselves?

Thanks for reading, hope to hear from you all soon!

Lots of love, Mol and Sum xxx