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Spooking

4K views 26 replies 13 participants last post by  my2geldings 
#1 ·
Hello, I am new here, and had a question. I just bought a horse a month ago, a 10 year old gelding, and he spooks at everything. My first horse I could do anything to her, and she wouldn't bat an eye. I am getting discouraged, and my husband and I have been doing quite a bit to desensitize him and get him used to stuff, but he still spooks and will shy at almost anything. Any tips on how to get him over this or how to alleviate this situation?
 
#2 ·
It is hard to say without a bit more info. One think is what is he being fed. It may be he's on too rich a diet. Is he stalled or on 24/7 turnout. Was he like this before you bought him? Does he spook only when ridden, handled or does he spook off by himself as well. Does he seem nervous about his surroundings? etc..

Often a simple change in feed and turnout will alleviate a lot of the spooky behavior. Some horses may need a supplement, I forget what it is, that seems to help them be less jumpy also.
 
#4 ·
12% may be a little high for him you could try a 10% and see if that helps but mostly its just going to take time for him to trust you. When i got my TB he was 4 yrs old and was scared of everything including himself! I just worked with him and got him to trust me and sometimes just getting them tired enough to forget about everything helps. I worked my horse for hrs 6 days a week and eventually he just became ok with everything. The most he'll do now when he spooks is snort but we havent found anything anymore that he is scared of except chickens, he hates them! lol But be patient it just takes time, besides the best horses are always the most difficult i think!
 
#7 ·
Yeah, we have been doing a lot of lunging. He was very pushy when we got him because the lady who had him was very scared of him since he is so tall and she didn't like big horses. We have almost solved this problem and he leads like a champ now without being pushy. What other things do you recommend other than lunging?
 
#9 ·
If this is directed to me I don't advocate "lunging" for the sake of lunging. Productive ground work, imo, would be a lot of yielding exercises for one thing. Teaching your horse to yield his hindquarters, forequarters, back, go sideways, basically moving away from pressure. If you are not familiar with this type of ground work you might want to check that out.

If your horse is jumping at his own shadow, IE poop hitting the ground, it sounds like he needs some "let down" time. Keep yourself as calm as possible while doing everyday things with him. Don't react to his reactions. Take him for long walks. Just "DO" stuff while he is attached to you via a long(12' or more) leadrope. Let him figure out that the world isnt' gonna eat him.

The amount of Protein in his feed is not the problem. How much hard feed does he get daily and how often? What type of hay/forage is he getting and how much?
 
#8 ·
I like to play the game... when I stop you stop.

Everytime I stop my horse must stay at my shoulder. If she doesnt Im backing her good 5-10 steps. For the most part now if I stop she will stop and take like 1 step back. Sometimes our minute walk ends up being a 20 minute lesson. I had issues with her being very pushy coming in from pasture to the barn as well. Does he get his food as soon as he is put in the stall??? I found that to be a problem as well. In the evening she knew that when we came to get her it meant that it was supper time.

So now she doesnt get her food till everyone else has theirs, or I tie her for a little while. It really seems to help.

I hope you have good luck with your guy and plase make sure you stay safe...
 
#10 ·
If we have been working him, he doesn't get fed right away. But I do feed him immediately if he is coming straight from the pasture and is not going to be worked. I will definitely make him stand while being tied and will not give him his food as soon as he gets in now. I didn't really think about that. Thanks.
 
#11 ·
No, we do not lunge just to get him tired or for the sake of doing it. We are working with him on getting him to trust and respect us and to listen. Sorry, didn't mean to sound like I was doing it to tire him out all the time. :) He is getting one scoop in the morning and one at night along with 4 flakes of hay and turnout. He shares four acres with my donkey, so there is plenty of grass. I think I answered all the questions...hmm.
 
#12 ·
Wasn't sure what your lunging consisted of. ;) Scoop? lol I have lots of scoops, they are all different sizes. LOL I'll assume the scoops are not gallon size.. ;) So maybe 2-4 cups of feed twice daily? Doesn't really sound like a feed issue then.

I guess it's a trust issue. Take the time to work him thru it and he should come around.
 
#13 ·
Haha, yeah. Not the gallon size. I guess I just really need to get him to fully trust me and that should help the problem. Also, when he spooks, what should you do? My friend who has been a trainer for 25 years said to let him look at it and then walk him by it a few more times..just interested to see what yall have to say. Different people have different opinions and I would like to hear others.
 
#14 ·
Also, when he spooks, what should you do?

Kind of depends on the spook. Spooking when his poo hits the ground, ignore it. LOL If he is spooking as a way of evasion then I usually want him to face the object. If it is something that can be moved away from him so he can "follow" it that helps a lot with fear issues. Kind of like chasing the dog. lol Sometimes I'd want to pass it return b/f and keep going past it until he's bored to death with it. If I'm wanting to cross water/whatever and the horse is trying to evade by leaving the scene I want to keep him facing and without forcing the issue too much I want to encourage forward. You can let them stand and look a little bit but too long seems to encourage the flee response. If you are leading, I sometimes like to be at the end of my line and allow the horse to work thru the issue. Like walking over a tarp, thru a puddle, past that possessed mailbox, etc..

Does that help?
 
#17 ·
yeah he will settle..eventually!!

i now know what my horse spooks at (small ponies for some bizarre reason...hes terrified of them!!) i find that if you reassure him with your leg...like keep a nice confident leg on him when you pass the object (or ponies) it makes him feel a little less scared...like someone holding your hand or something!! and talking gently. that helps too haha!! :p
 
#18 ·
MY 2 QH's would spook at darn near everything when we very first got them. After a few months... maybe 6 they had settled on their own quite a bit. Seem like once they were comfortable with us we then went on to "de-spook" mode. I used a step in electric fence post in the middle of their small pen and tied plastic bags and used hoola-hoops, I would toss empty milk jugs into the pen, I used some of my son's larger ride on plastic toys in there for a while... Just anything new. Now they're in great mental shape. I just didn't try to hide anything from them... I let the kids be loud maniacs around them (but outside the pen). I know not everyone will be able to do this but turning them loose in my yard helped a TON. We would mow and weed-eat with the horses out and they would take off about 20-30 feet but then get interested and investigate. It got to the point where we would have to shoo them off.

Time and Patience. :D You can do it. Most importantly than any silly object is to prove yourself the leader. I love angel leaguers advice on the I stop game and I never ever ever give up grain without asking for the horses to behave and stand patiently first. I'm alpha and you'll look to me for help (and feed). :lol: Eventually he'll look to you for guidance on spooking too... Give it some time.
 
#19 ·
Freelunge him, then do some basic groundwork, such as leading, you will know when he trusts you, he will easily follow you around, and when something is bothering him, he will look at you with "worried eyes". When he looks at you with the "worried eyes" you need to halt, and comfort him. Many horses find it comforting when you lead your neck against theirs and face the opposite direction, put your left hand around under his chest, and massage both shoulders, just pressing inward gently and moving your fingers in circles and you should be able to feel his muscles start to relax and he should start to drop his head and relax, then you can move on with leading. Lead him EVERYWHERE but work with him slowly and patiently, introduce new areas slowly, let him take a break and take in a good long look at the new area then relax him. He will learn to trust you and believe when you are calm he is calm.
 
#20 ·
Most of the above posts sound really great. I think he needs to learn more trust in you. When I first got my Mustang, Dobe, he would spook at everything that he had not encountered on the prarie which was EVERYTHING. Plastic bags were the worst. Not only would he spook, but at first he would bolt and nothing could stop him. I just spent time with him, leading....petting....giving treats. If something spooked him, I would stop him with the lead rope (after I taught him to respect it in a roundpen) and just stand at his shoulder and pet him until he calmed down. Now, on the rare occasion that he does spook, he looks to my side for protection and will follow me anywhere I ask. The most important thing he learned is that he is safe when he is with me.
 
#21 ·
My friend rescued a 10 year old pony that was the spookiest thing on 4 legs. He would bolt if HE farted. She has now had him 1 1/2 years and he is SOOOOO much better. The biggest thing for him was TIME. He needed to have some down time and then just be worked with slowly.

For Paco, lunging (the Clinton Anderson lunging for respect) made him worse as it was like my friend was the predator after him. He would do it but he would never relax with it. She has followed a lot of the ideas in Mark Rashids books (get those if you can through the library).

I agree with taking him for lots of walks. My riding instructor said to try to ignore the spooks and YOU keep moving as if nothing happened----after all YOU are not scared and whatever it was isn't going to eat you. If you react big it just reinforces to the horse that it WAS something worth worrying about.
 
#27 ·
My friend rescued a 10 year old pony that was the spookiest thing on 4 legs. He would bolt if HE farted. She has now had him 1 1/2 years and he is SOOOOO much better. The biggest thing for him was TIME. He needed to have some down time and then just be worked with slowly.

For Paco, lunging (the Clinton Anderson lunging for respect) made him worse as it was like my friend was the predator after him. He would do it but he would never relax with it. She has followed a lot of the ideas in Mark Rashids books (get those if you can through the library).

I agree with taking him for lots of walks. My riding instructor said to try to ignore the spooks and YOU keep moving as if nothing happened----after all YOU are not scared and whatever it was isn't going to eat you. If you react big it just reinforces to the horse that it WAS something worth worrying about.
I just re-read this post. Thought it was amusing, thanks for sharing :lol:
 
#22 ·
There is no quick fix here, it is likely at this age, he has learned how to be spooky and use it for his advantage. Now we can agree or disagree to many of the reasons he is spooky, at the end of the day, that wont matter as much as training him to respect you to the point, even if he does spook you will have a cue to calm him down. The calm down cue will be more advantegous to you then concerning why he spooks or what protein level you are feeding (no disrespect to anyone).
I would recommend you start back at the longe line or even better free lunging in the round pen. Something a lot of horse people don't realize (even trainers) lunging is a "control" excersise rather than running off the pent up energy.
John Lyons 20 step round pen would be excellent for this horse.
Once you get your horse to listen i.e. "respect" you.
Put a lead line on him and get his feet moving, look for tension in his head, neck, eyes and ears. When you begin to see him soften in any area, allow him to go down to a walk or stop (notice I said allow, not force) and praise him for a good effort and repeat this till he is consistant at this level and begin to gradugate up. Everytime he softens, you allow him to slow or stop his feet and praise him. Now you can begin working on your "calm down cue". When you start his feet to moving, put just enough pressure on the lead line to tip his nose in toward you and as soon as he begins to soften RELEASE pressure, allow the feet to slow and reward. Repeat say 8 or 10 times (sometimes more) each way. Now you have a cue that will tell him to calm down and you can begin working on things that will excite him so you can have him to calm down.
When you are riding him, you will do the same thing, only with your reins.
 
#23 ·
I feel your frustration! I got Sandie 6 weeks ago (ok well almost 7 at this point I guess!) and at first, she was fine, NOTHING bothered her, not even doors slamming in the wind! Well that all stopped last weekend...she went past a door that normally doesn't bother her at all, and she BOLTED! About 4 steps into her bolt, she threw up a buck that caused me to fly over her head, do a complete flip, and land (thankfully) on my back!

Then yesterday I was riding again and suddenly one corner of the arena (that again, NEVER bugged her before) was scary and she bolted again! (but at least didn't buck this time so I didn't come off)...I'm starting to get really frustrated with the whole situation since it was going so well and now all of a sudden the strangest things scare her into bolting off!

It's really frustrating and disheartening but I talked to my trainer and he said to just keep taking her back to whatever made her spook, and while she's facing it, praise her and tell her it's ok. DON'T restrict the head though, let your horse move his head around and take in the whole thing, because sometimes when objects pass from their binocular vision field into monocular (one side of the head), like when you're coming up on and passing something, it's thought that the object appears to "jump" and can cause the horse to spook. So if you let him move his head and view it both ways, he'll be less afraid I guess. (according to the book "How to think like a horse" by Cherry Hill anyway! GREAT book) :)

Anyway, just keep working with him to desensitize him to things...that's what I'm going to be doing with my own horse...let me know how things go, and good luck to you both!!! Things will get better, you just have to give it some time! :)
 
#24 ·
Thank you so much everybody for responding. I appreciate all of the great advice.

Ifixproblemhorses, I will definitely give that a try. Seems like a wonderful idea that would help him a lot.

The last two days have been amazing with him. We have been focusing on lunging him and making him listen while doing it, as well as walking him around unfamiliar things. Our neighbor set off a firework this morning while we had him out and all he did was snort at it, so we are making some progress. Yay!
 
#26 · (Edited)
Sorry to hear you are going thru that. You never know what he's been thru prior to your ownership.Regardless of how broke a horse might be, you will always find something that will make him/her spook at one point or another. Horses are horses and their first goal is to protect themselves in this world we created.
I think with horses (IMO) it's more of a matter of showing them things to. Build a bond and trust between you and him. I show my guy everything under the rainbow knowing that he will never be bomb proof per say but to teach him that new things ARE NOT the end of the world and to constantly test out bond-teach him that if I say the situation he's in is ok, then he is ok.
Not long ago I showing him a tarp(look at the picture section) and tho I assumed he was going to have a fit I told him he could chill and he said "ok, if you say so". He knew that I was there with him and he knows he can trust me. One of the horses I owned was much older and we never developped a really close bond. He wasn't spooky but he did look at things and when something bothered him, it wasn't fun because he would panic. His flight and fight instinct kicked in and he didn't trust mu judgement because I think, of that lack of bond.

Spend time with him, start off with little things. Once he settles with something small and you guys build that relationship, you can then add bigger and bigger things.

I've got stories and stories with my guy. He hadn't been worked much as a foal I don't think and it started off with just catching him. Then it was brushing, then it was his feet etc etc. Now I can ask him essentially anything and HE KNOWS that if I say it's ok, then he'll be just fine. It takes months to achieve this bond so you'll have to be patient so don't start throwing things at him and start off big thinking that he'll just desensitize. These horses are like fragile little babies :D
 
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