Anxious/scared horse (LONG)

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SarahRicoh

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Well iv had my boy for a while now. Got him as his old owner had lost her confidence due to.him.bolting & his overall temperment so i got him as a project!
Hes only bolted with me twice & i regularly hack him alone & occassionally with company. We do a little jumping & some schooling.

He lost the plot the other day due to a girl carrying a picnic blanket & bolted twice. I had to get my lovely ym & another lady to help & on lunge/people there he went past the girl.
Next day my ym sat on him.in.school (1st time) and said he just felt petrified & spent a while doing stuff in walk & she said if shed have trotted he'd have bolted.

I know horses are flight animals & some more so but hes really bad.
So any exercises/ideas on.things to reassure him,calm.him down & give him.more confidence.
Im.going to do some desensitising to things like umbrellas,BLANKETS lol. But hes the sort of horse that no matter how much i desensitise him he'll still freak out over it!

Going to just do walk & halt exercises for a couple weeks in both indoor/outdoor schools til hes relaxed but anything else i can do? He tends to panic & rush & just seems scared a lot whilst ridden (dope on rope handling wise!)

Thanks in advance :)
*Haribo for anyone who gets this far!*
 
Keep him concentrated when out hacking, keep his schooling up and on the bit, bending and flexing past scary things! Keep him thinking forward and just keep that mind occupied.
Yielding past a scary object, shouldering in etc (You get the jist)
Too tired to ramble on and sick of the snow :p :rolleyes:
See how he gets on with this.

And when he tense- Potato sack him... let yourself go. Breathe! If you tense up with him it's like a brick wall hitting a brick wall. I think flexing there neck helps quite alot in the way of relaxing, get him to bring his head down and just chill.

Keep at it and all the best!
 
Snow! :o unlucky you!
Thankyou :) he thinks forward enough on his own but i think your right.
Im going to incorporate bits of schooling etc whilstchacking rathercthan just hacking to keep him focused.
 
SarahRicoh said:
Snow! :o unlucky you!
Thankyou :) he thinks forward enough on his own but i think your right.
Im going to incorporate bits of schooling etc whilstchacking rathercthan just hacking to keep him focused.
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Tell me about it... 24 degree's to snow.. I've been in a bad mood all day :rolleyes:
I used have a very bad habit of holding my breath if there was a "scary horse eating monster, with 6 inch long fangs" up ahead. Didn't even know I was doing it until my instructor pointed it out.
And as he said:
You'd be worried if your horse wasn't breathing.. :rolleyes:
Just a personal blab there, could be of no help whatsoever :p
 
I would try him on a calmer for a period to see if it takes the edge off his nerves. I used RelaxMe with my WB and it worked a treat. It's not a cop out - just something to help for a period of time. Good Luck :)
 
I know its probably what you don't feel like doing....but wrap your legs around him. I can actually feel mine relax when I do this and he strides out then rather than jigging sideways and getting behind the contact.

Its a cycle sometimes...the more anxious/uptight you are....so the horse will be. Mine was so uptight/fizzy that I used to actually feel sick at the thought of getting on him. Deep breathing- singing...pretend you are relaxed and aim for small achievements....ride little and often and really really praise him.

it will come together it just takes time.:)
 
I roughly know his past. Bred locally by settled gypsys but who bred ish & quite nice ones apparently. Talent for jumping so broken quickly & fired round courses by an ex jockey (whos horrible) to get bsja points to sell him. Bought by lady i got him off who he was just too much for so she loaned him.out to various people & now i have him.
Has obviously been beatn/roughly handled. I can.understand why hes nervy i just want to help him.

I try to put leg on but he'll literally shoot away from.any contact so thats a slow thing to get him used to it.
Going to.put him.on.a calmer too :)
 
Not for riding but on the ground all our horses come to a whistle. I took this on step further with my youngster and the second she went to back of or jump at something I'd whistle. She'd forget to jump and not back off. Even when still obviously nervous she'd at least stay on the spot rather than running off.
I fed pony nuts under/in/on top of anything scary and she's now learned that anything she's unsure of, rather than jumping at it, she sniffs as it may have food attached! She also now knows that 99% of things without food can be used as a nose scratcher!
She was very flighty and I found the split second distraction of a whistle would over ride a lot of her instinct to run.

Me relaxing too made a difference. If she jumped I would just carry on chatting away to her and busying around, not giving her a wide berth. She soon started to watch me to see if I was scared first rather than jumping away from things immediately. I even had someone spray a can next to her the other day and rather than going off, she circled and then looked to me. Even moving away from a scary object is now at a slow walk.

Sorry I can't help much once on board though, but the relaxing thing is definitely worth doing... have a tune to sing out loud when he's feeling tense, it'll relax you and him :)

Pan
 
Desensitizing is always good, but his confidence will come from YOU. He needs to trust you 100% that whatever happens, you're there to make sure nothing will go wrong, and nothing will hurt him. That takes time, and it also takes encountering scary things together and you NOT reacting at all, except to calm him - so no nerves from you allowed at all, no matter what he's doing. Calmers can help take the edge off - Prokalm has worked well for many people, but they only dull the panic so you can reach in and show him it's ok. Lots of in-hand work past scary stuff, and then the same under saddle, not so much to show him a blanket is ok, but to show him that with you on him, EVERYTHING is ok! Use your emotions to calm him - think of boring stuff while you ride past it - it works!
 
Agree with the above about keeping him thinking!

As he is older you may need to surprise him with something new to him as hes possibly learnt to work around things in the past. A couple of other things you could try,
I taught my horse that a sharp tap on the shoulder meant he would get a treat from me, I say 'and brrrrrr..' tap him firmly twice with the treat and then he flexes round and gets it. Now he will stop when I make the 'brrrr' noise or tap his shoulder, though I doubt it would work in full flight, it's still helpful in breaking his attention if hes getting too speedy and bringing him back to me.
The other thing is singing! It really helps you remember to breathe, nursery rhymes are good as they are boring and rhythmical too, (think 'one-two, buckle my shoe....etc for trot!). When he's really high you could try to imagine you are breathing out through your tummy and into the horse, it helps them relax a bit.
Good luck and keep safe!
 
Sounds very similar to my horse - very nervous with a tendency to lose his head and bolt.
I found that the only way I could really teach him not to run away from scary things was with a clicker! Luckily he's very food-oriented and it worked and he went from being a horse who would try to crash through the back wall of his stable at the sound a carrier bag to one who would actually stick his face into one in the hope that he'd get a click and a reward.

I don't do the clicker for anything else and I'm surprised at myself for trying but no other approach seemed to work as he was so extreme with his reactions. I started just getting him to touch a spoon for a reward and then put a bag on my hand that held the spoon and worked up from there.

Now, if he see's something unusual he tends to creep towards it sniffing and looking round at me expecting a click and a treat for being "brave"!! lol!
 
PandorasJar said:
have a tune to sing out loud when he's feeling tense, it'll relax you and him :)
Click to expand...

And sing VERY loud - a horse finds it hard to bolt when he's got his front hooves stuffed in his ears!:D

Seriously, this horse would be a challenge for anyone because he had a bad start - and since then, things haven't got much better! He runs when scared because - in his eyes - it's a successful strategy (he's still alive!)

I would be taking him RIGHT back - put him on the lunge with two lunge lines and 1) teach him voice commands, and 2) teach him the one-rein stop!

Once you have the voice commands - in particular 'WHOA' well installed - and he understands the one rein stop on the lunge, start riding him again in a manege, with a neck strap, and use the neck strap (pull on) and the voice command 'WHOA' to stop. If he doesn't stop pretty sharpish, use the one rein stop. Keep a handful of nuts in your coat pocket and when he stops well, lean forward and give him a small handful.

Keep working him in the manege - avoid hacking - until you are confident he's listening. Practice transitions, transitions, and yet more transitions!

This will have two important effects: 1) chances are that IF he gets a fright and bolts, you WILL be able to stop him; and 2)it will make you more confident that you CAN stop him, so you'll be more relaxed.

It is TOTALLY natural for a rider to tense up a bit if she sees something that this sort of horse WILL spook at! Horse senses the tension, and in his tiny brain it translates to: "She's scared - but it's just a bus. Why is she scared of a bus? Aaaagghh - she must be able to see the mountain lion hiding behind it! I'd better run for our lives!"

You HAVE to ride with total confidence (which is where the singing helps - along with the vital lessons you've taught him.) Then he will trust YOU - when you say: 'Silly boy, nothing to worry about!"
 
Thankyou. I am pretty confident on him tbh. Im sure i tense a bit without helping but breathing & singing i shall try!! :)

He knows voice commands on lunge & is pretty responsive & i lunge once a week at least to keep it up & improve them.

I put him.in a snaffle & no flash today & i did half hour of walk exercises practicing halting from.body & voice (no reins)... Going to keep doing this for couple weeks til hes got it down to a t! :)
 
agree with lots of in hand work, lunging and long lining to really build a relationship with him, i have one who is a bit of a panic pants , his old reaction was to leg it, now he spooks but then stops and looks to me for reassurance. I talk to him a hell of a lot, must sound like a loon when i'm riding him lol but it seems to work:D I've now got a confident 14 yr old riding him to try and wean him off me a little, I'm always there in the background so i can step in if he really 'needs' me but he's starting to put his trust in her a little and it's lovely to see:)
 
sounds like his brains been blown by prev riders, probably mainly competed less hacking by sounds of it a friend of mine had a horse who was perfect in ring showjumping /dressage you could put your granny on her , but hacking..................no !
I think out hacking you should just walk your horse for months so he learns to switch off and relax sounds hes had a busy past
 
There is a woman called Sheila Reed near Cheltenham who would be able to assess your horse and give you some good exercises for desensitising and building his confidence (on ground and ridden). With a horse like this it's not just what you do, it's how you do it, so eyes on the ground with problem horse experience does help.
Tel.07780 668136
sheilareed95@msn.com

Agree with cutting out hard feed and a calmer may help, the other thing is - plenty of exercise! Double line lunging is ideal as you can move around the school, but it takes practise (Sheila can teach this) or free schooling if your school is safe - but disciplined free schooling, with changes of direction/pace when YOU want them, not just him hooning around on his own. NB Some anxious horses just wind themselves up free schooling, if you think he's doing that then it's not going to help.
 
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