Advice on spooky warmblood at indoor arenas

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coralwings20

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My dopey warmblood works lovely outdoors bar the odd spook here & there. Take him into an indoor school and he acts like he has just been backed/doesn't know what an outline is. Any tips as have second round indoors this Sunday & his test beforehand is outdoors so won't even get the chance to despook him slightly.

Glass of vino & cheese nibbles for all :-)
 
sounds like he feels unbalanced, hence the lack of outline. Mine is the same, works quite nicely in the outdoor but the indoor, he motorbikes, head in the air and spooks at everything possible!! just a case of schooling and keeping things nice and basic in the indoor and nothing tootaxing until they settle. Is the indoor smaller by any chance? sometimes if a horse feels closed in they can worry and loose balance!
 
Thanks for the reply, it's not a balance issue - if I had time to ride him in in the indoor school, he would go lovely. He just spooks at flowers pots, poles on the sides, the white boards ect. He has been in several indoor schools, small, big and huge and acts the same each time. There are 27 people in my class and can see us coming 27th!! Had we been outdoors we may have stood a slim chance. :-(
 
Long term you need to go & practice in as many different indoors as possible, till they become the norm.
Short term, try at home with different plant pots, jump poles in place of white boards, fillers etc around while you school.
 
Make sure you're straight in the door the moment the previous rider has finished his/her test - so you get maximum time to trot him round.

If he spooks at something before the bell, try and circle in that area so he gets used to it before you start the test proper.

If you know where he's going to spook during the test, prepare well in advance of the spooky spot and ride him in shoulder in/shoulder fore past it.

In the long term as said above, you've just got to go to as many indoor venues as possible. I've got a spooky warmblood and he's loads better now than he was as a youngster - although by no means totally de-spooked!
 
littlelegs said:
Long term you need to go & practice in as many different indoors as possible, till they become the norm.
Short term, try at home with different plant pots, jump poles in place of white boards, fillers etc around while you school.
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Fab advice :)

My first indoor dressage test I didn't score too well, but the judge was lovely enough to come up to me afterwards and tell me she thought he'd make a lovely showjumper :rolleyes: :D

Check out JFTD's posts for some spookbusting tips :D
 
littlelegs said:
Long term you need to go & practice in as many different indoors as possible, till they become the norm.
Short term, try at home with different plant pots, jump poles in place of white boards, fillers etc around while you school.
Click to expand...

Agreed - it's a long term thing. My fella thinks white poles are the devil's own instruments, but he's gotten OK with them as we have one in our schooling session every time.
 
Thanks for all the fabby advice :-)

Take two weeks ago, took him in do his test & he spooked at the flower pots so on the way out circled him past them, all good you'd think!! Took him back in for his second test & the flower pots wern't the problem anymore, the poles stored on the arena walls were. He will do the test but I am exhausted after & we go for accuracy not consistancy. When I took him jumping indoors he just blind panci bolted out of the indoor arena so have taking him right back to dressage to gain confidence but as he is nearly 16, can anyone see him changing?? xx
 
Keep at it! Keep taking him to different places and he will come, mine is 100times better than he was, he would be terrified of the white boards and flower pots now its just a 'look' rather than a spook,spin and rear. If you feel him looking, make sure you get an inside bend and send him forwards into a contact, I ride with my hands low & wide when I feel him about to kick off it really helps. You will have to sacrifice a few tests/marks but its worth it in the end, are there any grassroots tests you could do or just go hc? For the 1st few tests i used a bungee just to make him realise we were there to work and not spook!
 
I thought about a bungee so purchased one and tried at home but he doesn't like any gadgets however loose & will just fight against it getting himself all worked up. He will mini rear. He doesn't hack alone and last time I hacked him in company we got hit by a car.

This was 2 days ago at home, this is just of his minor spooks because he saw a cat!! My poor husband:

http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/v1/y1/r/Qyh5ph9cQ_M.swf?v=3513076782342&ev=0
 
Unless you've had him years & years, & he's done dozens of tests there's no reason why 16 is too old to get used to them.
Mine was actually ok the first time she did indoor dressage but only cos she'd done years of indoor jumping. First time she jumped indoors was another matter though, she used to freak at the stands if they were full of people. Just took lots of practice that's all. No reason yours can't get there too with lots of practice & patience. Good luck with your test.
 
Ok if he's spooking at home refusing to hack wont accept a bungee it's not a show problem it's a trainning issue.It's just worse at shows because like all training weakness they are greater at shows.
It's interesting he's worse indoors how is he indoors not at a show ? Horse who are tense indoors often associate being inside with being under pressure and react accordingly.
Like gadgets or not there's an issue with a horse who will not accept a loose bungee.
It's hard to advise ( I can't open your clip on the iPad ) without knowing his history .
 
Can you lunge him in a pessoa before you go? Mine doesnt like indoor schools but its something he has to get on with, and the more you go the better they are, I normally work him hard the day before we go somewhere otherwise we spend most of the schooling session on hind legs! Maybe a calmer before you go comepting? Mine wont hack alone either....Stupid Warmbloods!!!!
 
OP if he won't accept a bungee be very careful if you try a Pessoa.
warmbloods are not stupid they are bred for trainability and they learn the good and the bad quickly once they have learnt something they know it and it takes time and patience to retrain them .
 
He actually works very well in the pessoa but I don't tend to lunge as much as I should do as I much prefer being on his back. Now, he is normally a schoolmaster at home and very rarely spooks with me as I am a stronger rider than hubby. I can put my 13 year old son on him at home and he will jump anything. He will hack in company but depending on what his mood is is whether we jog, nap and mini rear the whole way round. He is quite happy to load so doesn't mind going out. It is a training issue but it's a difficult one as he doesn't do what he does at shows to me at home. I totally love him to bits but give me TB's any day, so much easier. People think you have it made competing a warmblood - hhmmpphh lol :-) xx
 
coralwings20 said:
He actually works very well in the pessoa but I don't tend to lunge as much as I should do as I much prefer being on his back. Now, he is normally a schoolmaster at home and very rarely spooks with me as I am a stronger rider than hubby. I can put my 13 year old son on him at home and he will jump anything. He will hack in company but depending on what his mood is is whether we jog, nap and mini rear the whole way round. He is quite happy to load so doesn't mind going out. It is a training issue but it's a difficult one as he doesn't do what he does at shows to me at home. I totally love him to bits but give me TB's any day, so much easier. People think you have it made competing a warmblood - hhmmpphh lol :-) xx
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If he accepts the Pessoa and not a bungee get his poll checked if you have not done so already.
 
He seems to have an issue with "gadgets" with a rider on board & not whilst being lunged so can only imagine that he was produced in draw reins causing him pain so I haven't pushed it. At home, once warmed up he works lovely from behind into my hand (although can take half an hour of work first) & works like this at shows as long as he is outdoors. Goes from a well schooled neddie to an idiot in 0.3 seconds lol :-)
 
Honestly would not bother with dressage tests indoors until you have him more relaxed and attentive. Book whatever indoor venues you have locally and just go to school, do simple stuff but keep him busy but not pressured. At home do some "spookbusting" with things he finds worrying at home, to establish his/your "emergency drill" for when he's worried about something, it will then translate to being out and about. Same with hacking, see if you can give him things to do to train a better quality of attention on you, it's a habit that will help you in new places.

When you feel he is ready for a show, maybe hire the indoor the week before, let him have a look without pressure, but again keep him busy with his attention on you. Why not cheat if it helps the horse! :-)

Really would not pursue the gadget route, sounds like the balance will come indoors when he is mentally relaxed. If you think he was over produced it may well be that he associates the indoor with pressure/stress, so you need to give him lots of time in indoor schools that is relaxed and enjoyable for him.
 
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