Correct Frame and Strategy for a Spooky Horse?

Barbara F · Grand Prix

Correct Frame and Strategy for a Spooky Horse?

Jackie Cochran · Advanced

The arenas--does he spook in an inside arena more than an outside one?

What kind of fly spray do you use--specifically does it have organo-phosphates? They can affect the nervous system.

Is the horse worse in bright light?

The first picture that came to my mind as a possible solution was a brow band fringe going over his eyes. I think Smith-Worthington has one for sale made of leather, or you could make one yourself. The fringes have to end a few inches below the eye. This would give him something else to look at. It also works against face flies and gnats! Let him get used to this before you ride!

You might also think of trying a shadow roll on the noseband. Or put a Cashel cushion under the noseband where it goes over the nasal bone.

The next idea to pop up was training and competing in Competitive Trail riding. Part of it might be boredom, part of it might be the need to stretch out for a long distance for a while and this would help most. Sure, it would delay the dressage training but he doesn't sound like he'd settle down in a show ring yet. Imagine sudden loud applause as he wows the crowd! Besides, going up and down all those hills will get him fit enough and supple enough to collect much more easily.

Big movers, especially those with a lot of TB blood, NEED TO MOVE OUT. They also need to get tired from moving out. Often the English would give their TB or high TB horses "pipe openers", a good, FAST (hunting pace, not racing) gallop over safe ground before schooling. I got the impression that this type of horse feels a lot better after getting his ya-yas out and will then settle down to work.

Good luck. Just think of all the practice you are getting keeping your seat!

Barbara F · Grand Prix

Great suggestions. Thank goodness it isn't my horse, Jackie! It's a horse whose progress I've been following.

Re: a few of your questions, there aren't flies around yet and the weather has been so bad he has only been schooled in the indoor arena and hacked in the woods. He was bought as a potential dressage show horse.

Queenrider · Advanced

This will sound crazy but a strategy I used with my current youngster is deliberately teach him to spook. I bought him as an unbroken 3 year old in Feb 2009. I brought him to my barn and quickly found out he was terrified of everything. I did a lot of TTEAM to help calm him down. TTEAM is great for spookers. So I start riding him and he is fine in the indoor except he doesn't like either end of the indoor arena so we eneded up going roungd and round in a big circle which became an oval as his confidence grew and he could do the ends. But I got bucked off on 2 separate occaisons when he had a bucking meltdown. I found out he would do this if he saw something going on behind him. This had to stop as I couldn't stay on his big bucks. So the next time this happened I aimed him forward and got him cantering with a kick and I rewarded him for this more normal spook. I kept repeating this spook repsonse and I kept rewarding him.
You create a behaviour that normally is unwanted but you know you can fix later on. So I aught him to spin/spook as I could ride this out instead of bucking. You teach the horse to turn it on so you can turn it off gradually and replace it with normal behaviour.
I also found with him that shortening the reins when he was about to spook made it worse so I would release the reins and let him go and keep him going with my legs.
Spooky spots in the arena were conqueres in a different way. I would lunge first and before getting on I would walk him around and let him see all the scary spots. He had to walk up to the the scary spot to get a mint. Then he had to touch the scary thing with his nose to get another mint. Then we would move on the next scary thing. Much patience and months later, he is now fine and spooks are very small and he has reached the point where he will check with me first to see if I have a mint!
Hacking is this summer's challenge. I have taken a lot of time with this horse. I call it slow time. He needs time to think about things to make the correct decision that will win him amint.

knitty · Yearling

I have one of these horses!!
He went through a period where he was very spooky, nervous and unpredictable. His signature move was to spin and bolt. I worked with a good trainer to focus on relaxation from the moment you stepped up to the mounting block (even if that meant standing at the box for 10 mins waiting for a big sigh before asking him to walk off). Its all about teaching him to let go and relax his mind and body. I had to work on relaxation myself because as we all know if the rider is tense good luck convincing a horse to relax. Once he caught on to the idea that he wasn't going to get eaten by the boogeyman and started relaxing during our work I was able to work him less frequently.

The thing with working them more and lunging daily etc. is that they are going to get more fit and not necessarily more relaxed. More fit means its harder to stay with them if they throw a spinning bolt move; more fit means more energy to bring to the table.

My suggestion is for your friend to find a decent trainer that can help. Sometimes we all need a little help!

darkhorserunning · Well Schooled

Not a english rider but would be wondering if the horse spooks in the same places all the time in the arena? as you said it has spooked in the arena more not the trail so much. Was wondering if the rider was spooking at these places therefore spooking the horse at those spots for example clenching the horse tightening reins putting more pressure and mouth and sides of the horse all over relaying thier fear to the horse.

i would work the horse in the scarey parts of the arena with out a rider first, mostly ground work to see what it does, then if is still spooky work him in the arena with the spooky places becoming the place to rest rewarding him giving extra rewards for relaxing while in the spooky place, i am a huge beliver in producing wet saddle blankets they make a horse. i did the math and to get 1000 hrs on a horse if you only rode three times a week it would take ten years wow that is insane.

barnfrog · Advanced

IF the horse is on the aids/positioned in the first place there is less likelihood that the horse will shy in the first place. IF the horse is ridden in shoulder in by the 'scary' place it will see it only out of one side of the face, and there is less tendency to shy. If they turn to look at it, because they have ocular vision, it can appear to 'jump' which creates tension. For sure, up and open and in front of the leg. Lighten the contact/relax the seat rather than grabbing or tensing against the horse.

Lunging might help condition a horse to focusing on the handler in the first place, but is the not solution. Working the horse harder really has little to do with spooking imho.

EricaK · Foal

Spooking is easy to prevent once you know how, but takes a combination of things... it is actually pretty common that horses are spookier in the arena than on the trail. Things are always changing on the trail, whereas in the arena the horse is able to constantly scrutinize an area and find fault with it.

I've noticed that if any of these elements is missing you can expect a horse is liable to spook, if they are all in place the only way the horse will spook he will give you notice by changing one of them -

1. Impulsion - moving forward with every ounce of his energy going into that movement. This doesn't mean he is moving FAST necessarily but energetically.

2. Correctly Tracking - which refers to the position each hoof has with one another. At the walk the hind hooves should land a hoof to a hoof-and-a-half's length beyond the front hoof's print on the same side. At the trot the hind hoof should land in the front hoof's track. The canter is negligible only because it is difficult to base a tracking distance due to the hoof patterning. Start watching from the ground when you lunge the horse in order to get him consistently moving this way.

3. Light in the Mouth - meaning there is contact, there is a conversation going on between your hands and the horse's mouth rather than a monologue or dictation. He is not leaning, nor is he evading the contact or coming behind the vertical.

When a horse is going to spook one of these things will change. If you watch from the ground while developing the tracking, the horse will ALWAYS change his tracking in the gait before he makes a gait transition, up or down. When he changes his tracking he also changes his impulsion and with it his balance and attention to the conversation he is having with his rider through contact. His posture also changes when he changes his tracking and impulsion which reflects in the quality of the contact. This gives you a warning BEFORE he actually moves into the spook. When you are getting all three qualities; impulsion, tracking, lightness; you will find that he will often change these qualities a dozen or so strides BEFORE actually spooking - giving you a large amount of time to recognize their lack and remedy the situation.

Every horse I've ridden in this way who was previously a chronic spooker became the most reliably non-spooky horse to ride in the barn. Takes attention to the details when you ride however. :)