Are horses natures/behaviour set for life sometimes ….

[motherof2beasts!]

My darling cob has been with me 3 years now, it’s fair to say he had limited life experience before me. From what I can gather he was broken in Ireland, hunted , then came to England (via a dealer) and was sold to a lovely lady who had visions of riding him with her daughters ponies but never really got round to it due to lack of confidence, so he was a bit of a field ornament for several years but her daughter would walk/trot him in the school every other week or so.



He was very unbalanced and green in school but has come on so much in this area and actually works pretty well in school. He loves jumping (I am still getting there with that but will pop a jump every week or so) but he can get a tad too enthusiastic.



I’m just wondering if some horses you can’t train out certain behaviours , even to teach him to spook would be great….. he is generally solid on the roads , doesn’t bat an eyelid at much vehicle wise (apart from a bin lorry but that’s understandable) fine with motorbikes , vans , cars , bikes etc. however he is hyper vigilant with other animals (cows, donkeys, pigs, horses in fields!) sheep are fine . When I first got him and he spotted something scary he would spin and canter a few strides, but now his head comes up and he runs as fast as he can past it. This can be rather unsettling but isn’t a daily or even monthly thing. I have tried walking him out in hand and as long as I’m there reassuring him he’s fine but thst doesn’t transfer if he’s in front and I’m under saddle, however many times I try.



I wish he would just jump sideways or something but he’s never done that…



Do you think some horses it’s their nature and you just have to respect that and accept you need to be on your toes a bit and relaxing hacks aren’t a given ….



He is up to date with everything dentist , physio, Osteo etc.



He is very sensitive and seems to anticipate a beating a lot (he’s never had one with me).



I suppose it’s like the nature/nurture debate for horses he won’t be going anywhere either way just curious of others opinions .

 

[AmyMay]

Many horses go on high alert with other animals.

 

[maya2008]

All of ours are trained the same way, live in the same environment, eat the same food. So, those variables out of the way, what's left is temperament. We have a little Welsh A who's scared of life - prefers to be on the lead or following, as he likes having his hand held. Spooked at the broken bottom of a traffic cone last week - it was next to the jump, so he jumped at a weird angle, tucked his tail in and RAN. He'll also skip to the other side of the (single track) road to avoid passing humans he views as suspicious. My son doesn't like hacking him, because if you relax, he sees it as you not checking for danger any more, so he starts doing it - and of course he deems everything dangerous so starts spooking every few minutes! Behind/on the lead, he's perfect.

 

[NoodlesHalloween]

Bless he sounds lovely apart from the bolting, but in all honesty I think they just have personalities like us. My project share is scared of his own farts, he cannot be ridden and I am not sure that will ever be an option, he needs a lot of confidence from me whether we walk up the track or we try to use the arena right up to turning him out. My other share is anxiety ridden the list of invisible and visible dangers is endless and if I try to fight his fears then he is off in grand national mode no matter how much I reassure him. I did at one point think it was just me lol but nope some are just sensitive anxious souls.

 

[tatty_v]

I have two - one is as bold as brass, always has been. Couldn’t give a fig about solo hacking etc. However he has crippling separation anxiety so can never be turned out alone, and is also terrified of the sound of beaters when the shoot is happening.

The other is a great soft lump who prefers hacking in company and will always spook at something (yesterday it was the pipe next to the school that’s been there for two years).

Both of them have improved in their tricky areas with time, patience and consistency, but their fundamental natures and quirks have not changed!

 

[motherof2beasts!]

Bless he sounds lovely apart from the bolting, but in all honesty I think they just have personalities like us. My project share is scared of his own farts, he cannot be ridden and I am not sure that will ever be an option, he needs a lot of confidence from me whether we walk up the track or we try to use the arena right up to turning him out. My other share is anxiety ridden the list of invisible and visible dangers is endless and if I try to fight his fears then he is off in grand national mode no matter how much I reassure him. I did at one point think it was just me lol but nope some are just sensitive anxious souls.

Is the hope to ride him again ?!

Think we have some early grass as they are all heads down now , not gate hugging , which adds more spice .

Just wish he’d spook normally , as the seen to run is so quick you can’t even correct it and I feel like I’m a risk assessment officer out and about. I can’t imagine he’d ever cope with a sponsored ride or the beach … think his brains would just be blown.

 

[motherof2beasts!]

I have two - one is as bold as brass, always has been. Couldn’t give a fig about solo hacking etc. However he has crippling separation anxiety so can never be turned out alone, and is also terrified of the sound of beaters when the shoot is happening.

The other is a great soft lump who prefers hacking in company and will always spook at something (yesterday it was the pipe next to the school that’s been there for two years).

Both of them have improved in their tricky areas with time, patience and consistency, but their fundamental natures and quirks have not changed!

As I suspected may have to park the dreams of sponsored rides, XC and the beach …. He is just so sensitive I don’t imagine he’d come back down from the high.

 

[NoodlesHalloween]

Is the hope to ride him again ?!

Think we have some early grass as they are all heads down now , not gate hugging , which adds more spice .

Just wish he’d spook normally , as the seen to run is so quick you can’t even correct it and I feel like I’m a risk assessment officer out and about. I can’t imagine he’d ever cope with a sponsored ride or the beach … think his brains would just be blown.

i did hope I would be able to ride him but I dont think he will ever be sound and yep the current weather becoming milder has started to show in their attitudes lol

 

[motherof2beasts!]

All of ours are trained the same way, live in the same environment, eat the same food. So, those variables out of the way, what's left is temperament. We have a little Welsh A who's scared of life - prefers to be on the lead or following, as he likes having his hand held. Spooked at the broken bottom of a traffic cone last week - it was next to the jump, so he jumped at a weird angle, tucked his tail in and RAN. He'll also skip to the other side of the (single track) road to avoid passing humans he views as suspicious. My son doesn't like hacking him, because if you relax, he sees it as you not checking for danger any more, so he starts doing it - and of course he deems everything dangerous so starts spooking every few minutes! Behind/on the lead, he's perfect.

My boy is exactly the same as section A !! He also gets scared of older men and if they happen to be wearing a flat cap or have a walking stick, they get the same reaction as the cow ….

 

[Boulty]

Yes and no… I had one who used to launch himself from 0 to flat out at movement/ noises that he didn’t understand. That could be animals, other horses and especially anything in or behind a hedge. He bolted with me because a cow looked at him funny when I’d not had him long. (Including shoving 2 other horses out of the way that were trying to block him in). Exposure to lots of stuff plus finding a super confident hacking buddy plus doing lots of TREC obstacle stuff in the arena helped me get a bit more control of that switch. Initially if I caught him in the nanosecond where he was preparing to sit back and launch before he actually got away from me and went fully into panic mode I could hold him. (Think he saw it as someone else taking control of the situation which was good cos he was terrible at being in charge!). Eventually he’d just jump and stop for a look before moving on after he’d worked out what it was (took a looooong time to get to that stage and involved much planting to snort and things and much dismounting and remounting, lots of walking inhand etc) but then part of how it worked with him is that he more or less immediately relaxed once he figured out what something was. He was never reliable around cows though unless they were specific cows that he knew and lived with. (Pigs, sheep, goats, donkeys, wallabies & peacocks were all fine though cos they were small and would run away from him!)

He did also have a hell of a sideways spook in him including at gallop which was normally reserved for stationary objects that he felt shouldn’t be there (like benches, logs, different colour / length bits of grass etc). We came to the agreement that this was ok as long as he didn’t sod off afterwards!

My Highland is more frustrating… he’s bothered by a lot less but if he spooks at something once even if he eventually goes past he will continually plant at the same spot and he’s quite determined and seems to obsess more about things (& also cares way less about my opinion / feels more strongly that HE should be the decision maker!). Not yet found an ideal solution for him yet!

 

[motherof2beasts!]

Yes and no… I had one who used to launch himself from 0 to flat out at movement/ noises that he didn’t understand. That could be animals, other horses and especially anything in or behind a hedge. He bolted with me because a cow looked at him funny when I’d not had him long. (Including shoving 2 other horses out of the way that were trying to block him in). Exposure to lots of stuff plus finding a super confident hacking buddy plus doing lots of TREC obstacle stuff in the arena helped me get a bit more control of that switch. Initially if I caught him in the nanosecond where he was preparing to sit back and launch before he actually got away from me and went fully into panic mode I could hold him. (Think he saw it as someone else taking control of the situation which was good cos he was terrible at being in charge!). Eventually he’d just jump and stop for a look before moving on after he’d worked out what it was (took a looooong time to get to that stage and involved much planting to snort and things and much dismounting and remounting, lots of walking inhand etc) but then part of how it worked with him is that he more or less immediately relaxed once he figured out what something was. He was never reliable around cows though unless they were specific cows that he knew and lived with. (Pigs, sheep, goats, donkeys, wallabies & peacocks were all fine though cos they were small and would run away from him!)

He did also have a hell of a sideways spook in him including at gallop which was normally reserved for stationary objects that he felt shouldn’t be there (like benches, logs, different colour / length bits of grass etc). We came to the agreement that this was ok as long as he didn’t sod off afterwards!

My Highland is more frustrating… he’s bothered by a lot less but if he spooks at something once even if he eventually goes past he will continually plant at the same spot and he’s quite determined and seems to obsess more about things (& also cares way less about my opinion / feels more strongly that HE should be the decision maker!). Not yet found an ideal solution for him yet!

He sounds so like mine it’s catching that nano second I need to get quicker at maybe as it just seems to be so quick I can’t be quicker . I’m not sure if he’s very clever , we have bolted past cows so I took him in hand many times to see the cows , he was scared but stayed with me after about 10/15 mins he was right next to their fence relaxed, I tried it under saddle and he reacted horrifically again. He doesn’t really spook that’s his spook but every now and then he’ll surprise me and find his brave pants and lead others past scary roadworks like it’s nothing.

I too have had a planter in the past also very annoying but speed frightens me more than stationary.

 

[motherof2beasts!]

Think I’m more anxious about it now after a terrible experience the other day on the road, we had horses galloping by hedge one side of road and an old man with a flat cap carrying rubbish bags the other. His head hit my chin so I knew he’d hit his limit I tried to stop the car coming past me but instead the beeped continually laughing and hit the accelerator. Again he surprised me as didn’t react to that (I did)

 

[scats]

My Welsh part bred used to spin and run at the speed of lightening when she spooked. To the point that I dreaded hacking her and was relieved to get home unscathed.
Now all she does (95% of the time) is an on the spot spook. It took years to get to this point, but I love hacking her out now.

 

[Tarragon]

My new youngster is a born worrier, and assumes the worst until proven otherwise. For example, he hates feeling trapped, and to start with "feeling trapped" to him was walking between two people 10 yards apart! He never turned and ran though, even from the very beginning, he would stop and shake, or rush past with his eyes closed! Now, two years later, what he is prepared to face has increased exponentially and he is becoming a lovely pony to ride, but deep down I know nothing has changed, he is still a worrier but he is braver with me, and keeps going but only because I asked it of him. It must be hard being him
I think I would have struggled with him if he had been the sort to turn and run!