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Horse very spooky

4K views 16 replies 15 participants last post by  Solon 
#1 ·
Ok so my friend has a horse and he is a jumper, he rides nice, but has a little bit of an attitude...well yesterday I was at the barn and I was watching her and we were walking up to the jumps (in another field) well there is a white fence laying on the ground and he completely has what I call a panic attack, he starts breathing hard and just decides when he wants to go...yes she has to force him sometimes, but he just is very skiddish.

My friend and her mom say its because he does not like white, well thats all fine and well, but how can they break him of that?

I said he needs more ground work, but her mom is the "frofessional trailer" ;) at least she comments
 
#2 ·
In short, I would just suggest a desensitization program - start working him around things that are spooky, don't let him get out of position, and correct him when he isn't. Slowly he'll hopefully start to accept the spooky things and figure out they're really not as spooky as they seem.
 
#3 ·
Saddle Spooked

Hope you don't mind that I am piggy backing on your topic.

I live in the Midwest and did not ride my horse for about 3 months. I am now wanting to ride again and he has become spooked about being saddled. I saddled and rode him the first time with no problem. The second time he moved to the right and the belly strap touched his back leg which sent him into a frenzy. I was able to get him under control (with alot of effort) and now he is frightened of his saddle. I have been working with him daily and can lay the saddle on him with those 'huge' scared eyes but have not tempted to strap it on. This weekend I will. Can you move too slowly with a horse. I have been trying to desensitize his sides with ropes of different weight, the saddle blanket you name it. It is just when the saddle is on and you touch his sides he seems to freak.

Has this every been a problem for your friend or any one out there?

Thank you.
Robin
 
#4 ·
One possibility to check, ChocolateGal, is the fit of your saddle. Since your horse has been out of work for 3 months, he probably lost a lot of the muscle that he had before when the saddle fit him! For his first ride, it probably wasn't a problem. But then, since it made him sore, he was uneasy about saddling up the second time. The girth hitting his leg probably escalated it all too!

I think it's good that you're working slowly to reassure him that the saddle won't eat him. Desensitizing his sides sounds good too. You're on the right road.

Are you riding bareback and/or doing groundwork with him during this time too? If saddle fit is a problem, you can probably build back up his muscles through groundwork so that the saddle will fit like it did 3 months ago!
 
#5 ·
Thank you for the suggestions.

I have been ground working him but since he has been a pretty easy horse I did not have to work him to get him to pay attention to me or to get him to join up.

Your comments about his muscle tone and the fit of the saddle make perfect sense to me. Even though I don't ride my horses hard just the change of having the weight of the Western Saddle and myself could make him sore.

Thanks again.
 
#8 ·
Well has spooking bee genuine or is he pushing her around?

If it's genuine they need to spend a lot of time desensitizing him to all those things that worry him. Work him next to those things he dislikes. Take him over, show him, touch him. Keep him around those objects, colors he dislikes. The more he sees them and the more he is exposed to them the more he'll get used to it and get over his fear. It's the only option. With time he'll probably get very bored.

If he on the other hand he is pushing her he needs a lot of handling and ground work and needs to be taught some manners and not let get away with anything.

Hard to say which one it is when you havent seen the horse. Keep us posted.
 
#9 ·
spooky

Hi there, I work with arabians and I can tell you everything is going to 'eat' them. The best thing I've found to do is to walk them up to something scary and get them to touch it with their noses. One I do that, it seems to be a lot less scary for them.
 
#10 ·
doesnt like white??? not sure but something tells me thats not the problem

anyways, my old arab would spook at his hay he was so spooky. i really had issues with it when i first got him. way back then i had no idea about desensitisation etc but i started working on increasing the amount of spooky things that were around him all the time. i ties plastic bags to the trees around his stable (he was kept stabled), i hung bailing twine from the roof of his stable and went out of my way to make sure i exposed him to as much as possible. with the scariest things i would show it to him and let him have his freak out while i stood there and waited for him to finish. then we would try again. each thing took a while but with patience he started to learn that not everything was a scary monster about to eat him. it didnt work well for things that seemed to jump out of nowhere at him but it did make a big difference :)
 
#11 ·
I would try patiently desensitizing. I do a lot of road riding, and one of the things I see with young horses that have never been off the ranch is that unfamiliar ground features always require desensitizing. I took our green broke 4 yr mare out for her first ride through a neighborhood a couple weeks ago and the only two things that really bothered her at all were 1) walking/stepping from grass to a concrete curb (I doubt she had ever walked on concrete) and 2) stepping on/over a crosswalk painted on the road (I know she had never seen a crosswalk)...both very light/white colored.
I have a friend that has a great horse they use for carriage rides for years. One day they went out and the yellow center lines in the road had been repainted (nice and bright), and the horse would not step on them at all.. even seasoned horses do not like 'change'.
 
#12 ·
For me, when my horse spooks I try to go on like nothing happens. If you make a big deal out of it, then so will he. Remember, you and your horse feed off of each others emotions. For example, if I'm working in the arena going to the left at the trot and something outside of the fence spooks him and he jumps five feet into the center, I will calmly, but quickly get his attention back on me, move him back those same five feet to where he was before and continue on at the trot. If he happens to break into a canter, I would immediately pull him down to a trot and put him back to work. I never let a horse stop and look at something. That's letting him focus on what's scaring them instead of what they are supossed to be doing.

With most of my horses, they only spook when they are not working or paying attention to me. I had one that I refused to sit on outside of the gate waiting to show because any little bitty thing would send him into lala land. However, once he had a job to do nothing would phase him. Completely different horse - working and paying attention to me vs not.

Let me know if you have any questions. These spookers aren't fun.
 
#13 ·
jazzyrider said:
doesnt like white??? not sure but something tells me thats not the problem

anyways, my old arab would spook at his hay he was so spooky. i really had issues with it when i first got him. way back then i had no idea about desensitisation etc but i started working on increasing the amount of spooky things that were around him all the time. i ties plastic bags to the trees around his stable (he was kept stabled), i hung bailing twine from the roof of his stable and went out of my way to make sure i exposed him to as much as possible. with the scariest things i would show it to him and let him have his freak out while i stood there and waited for him to finish. then we would try again. each thing took a while but with patience he started to learn that not everything was a scary monster about to eat him. it didnt work well for things that seemed to jump out of nowhere at him but it did make a big difference :)
I agree with Jazzy here. I tie plastic grocery bags and empty milk jugs all around the lot, put a tarp that flaps in the slightest breeze over the hay feeder, throw plastic pop bottles into the lot. I did this with my fillys after they were weaned and now they aren't afraid of much of anything. I figured when they started tearing the plastic bags apart they were done. :lol:
 
#14 ·
We put things in and around the pen all the time, we NEVER watch how fast we are moving or tell the kids to quiet down. We let the kids ride bikes all around the pen and leave stuff out while they graze. Plastic bags , pop bottles and cans...anything we can think of. The way we see it the more stuff they see and smell that doesn't attack :wink: them the better off they will be.
 
#16 ·
Lately i have been on yahoo answers answering peoples questions a lot like this. and it seems like the answer i can ALWAYS give them is "PAT PARELLI'S NATURAL HORSEMANSHIP 7 GAMES!!"

in this case the "friendly game" would do well for your horse.

here is what i would do:
HOLD the horse with your hands, do not tie it up to something they can't get away from.

start with something small such as a white piece of paper.

begin by letting the horse sniff it. if the horse panics at the simple SIGHT of it. DO NOT DROP IT AND KEEP A FIRM GRIP ON THE HORSE.
remain VERY calm and say "whoa" in a soft voice. do not smile and do not look angry. make sure your face remains blank.
hold the paper down at your side and let the horse spook. wait until the horse has become calm again and put the paper near the horses nose again to let it sniff the paper. when it accepts the paper near its nose, smile and tell the horse that it has done good, continue to tell it that it has done good while you RUB the paper on its nose, then on its cheeks, then neck. if the horse spooks at any one of these do the same thing, calmly tell it to "whoa" and put a blank look on your face. put the paper to your side, but don't let go of the horse or the paper.
then once the horse is calm again, start from the beginning.
eventually, the paper to the nose will be a COMFORT zone and you will be able to resort back to it when the horse spooks at the paper on its side or something like that.

after you are able to rub the paper ANYWHERE on the horses body change objects. anything white will work.
obviously you can't just RIP the fence out of the ground. so just stick to lots of white objects, big and small. continue these same steps. eventually the horse will not mind white things anymore!

GOOD LUCK!
 
#17 ·
There's a really great book called "Bombproof your horse, teach your horse to be confident, obedient and safe no mwatter what you encounter" by Sgt. Rick Pelicano.

You can get it on Amazon.

Great book with all sorts of exercises and methods.
 
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