Are spooky horses every good xc?

wellsat

wellsat

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Bought G with the plan of going BE this season but haven't been able to due to PSD.

He's recovering well and should be ready by next season but I'm starting to doubt he has the nerve for it. He's fine with cars and lorries etc but can be spooky at funny looking bits of bush.

Does that mean I'm going to have to swap the xc colours for some dead sheep?;)
 
My boy spooks all the time out hacking, and at stupid things when schooling him like his own shadow! But when x country he is a demon, dosent look at anything! Strange but true. Good Luck
 
I dunno about other horses, but Alf is a sod for spooking at stupid things. Big leaves, white lines, sound of velcro on my gloves, purple grassy bits etc etc...but amazing XC! Yes, still a spooky b*gger, have to sit tight whilst galloping rather fast past the terrifying unflagged fences, point at the one your hoping for and off you go. He'll spend his whole time warming up for XC schooling spooking at the jumps but you point him at them and there's no hesitation. He's never naughty, doesn't stop dead or spin, just speeds past as far away as I'll let him be. I'm sure it's possible to get something going, with positive riding and a calm manner. Best of luck and glad he's feeling better :)
 
My retired mare was spooky like that, but once she got going she was fab xc, I just made sure she was very well prepared for the type of fences she was likely to meet, but she would still spook at things in the hedge etc on the way to a xc fence..... The only xc fault we ever have was at the last fence as Little Downham, it was a wave and she had never seen anything like that before..... So yes spooky horses can definitely be good xc, just make sure they're well prepared and be ready for random spooks for the first few fences..... ;)
 
Thanks, thats good to know. He has an amazing jump so I reckon he'd be awesome xc but he is a bit snorty at times! I'm hoping that it will be like people says, once his adrenaline is going and he's locked on that he'll jump anything.

Quite happy to do lots of xc schooling to get him ready.
 
Monty is awful for spooking. Complete nightmare to hack. He can be a bit looky XC but if I keep his focus on the job then he's not too bad - it's not the jumps he's looking at, but everything else! He's a fab jumper though.
 
Star - I know that feeling. I once got a refusal at a RC ODE because D was busy snorting at the fence judge. I was still a good 5-6 strides out from the fence and definitely hadn't presented her at it, was a bit miffed we got a refusal because she was staring at the woman hiding in the hedge! Wouldn't go anywhere near her.
 
Most spooky horses that I've ridden were better XC than SJ! Easier as they're in a flowing stride and usually enjoying themselves...
 
Lol star, G is 17.2. If we go at anything more than a steady canter we'll be massively under the time! First time I ever cantered him out on a hack when we pulled up at the end of the field my friend asked if I'd been tanked off with. From where I was it felt like a forwards, but steady canter, from her perspective it was like greased lightning, those long legs can shift!
 
Yes! There are quite a few of us that event at my yard and most are often loons when we hack out but when they get on that xc course they are machines!!

I'm pretty sure I have also read in the past that WFP's Tamarillo was very sharp and spooky but obviously got on with the job at comps! :)
 
Spookiest horse I ever owned was one of the best XC horses I have ever had the privledge of riding. A friend who had a lovely novice eventer also had the same problem - he would spook massively if he had to walk past a XC fence but actually competing, would not look twice!
 
Rosie is terrible for spooking. She won't walk sensibly past a fallen tree, but she'll happily jump one!

She doesn't like bags of any sort, but if they're under a jump, it's OK, because it's a jump ain't it???

Hacking is a nerve wracking experience, but XC is magic!!!
 
My Arab is dreadfully spooky, he still won't go down the long side of our school as the jumps live there and the goblins love under those. Leaves, White lines on road, drain covers, suspicious parked cars..... List is endless, the world is out to get Arab horses apparently.
XC he was initially very spooky but eventually got the hang and will now jump almost anything up to 90cm and it's his height (14.2 on tiptoes) and lack of scope that limits that, not his spooking!
 
My boy is a nightmare xc.

He'll spoke as your galloping along and as he's sharp as a knife he'll either slam the breaks on or spin, drop his shoulder and gallop off normally with me in a heap on the floor.

I was hoping to event this summer but it really isn't going to happen hopefully next season he'll be less of an idiot.
 
yep! mine is an absolute idiot hacking (and often schooling!) think a clump of dock leaves, catching sight of himself in the school mirrors etc etc all warrant total mental breakdown! Cross Country though he really is fabulous, he's competed to BE Novice - don't think he'd go any further as he's not really brave enough. The only thing he'll occasionally do xc is catch something out of the corner of his eye in the hedge etc and leap sideways as he's galloping along! I've found though this tends to be after long galloping stretches with no fences to take his mind of things! We nearly had our first xc fault at Little Downham in october when he spooked at the photographer coming in to the big angled trakehener at the end of the course - got to the fence and he went 'ahhhh! you didn't tell me that was there!' ;) Good luck!
 
Only took him xc schooling once before the PSD was diagnosed and he flew over the ditch. Didn't hesitate for a second. Not over keen on the water but I think that would be fine out on a course with some momentum, difficult to replicate that at a schooling clinic where you all jump one fence at a time.
 
kerilli said:
have a read of this - a very spooky horse who now sails around championship courses... http://www.runhennyrun.com/henbio.html
Click to expand...

What a lovely story, thanks K. The start sounds alot like G when I first got him. Had to take him right back to basics with poles on the ground because he got so nervous and worked up about it all. We were just starting to see something really special when the PSD emerged, hopefully we go on to have just a fraction of the success that this man has had. My ambition is to one day ride round a Novice without disgracing ourselves but they don't go any further than that!
 
my horse is one of the spookiest horses i have ever sat on. he is so bad that i have now given up riding in the arena at home as he spends the whole time whizzing round (in the opposite direction to where we were going :o). he's also very jumpy out on hacks. however, XC he is brilliant- takes me to a fence no problem. have done 8 BEs with him now and he's not stopped at a single fence (insert touching wood smiley here)...even the one where i fell off was because he spooked at the water in the air and jumped so huge i couldn't cling on! as a baby (4 year old, just after he turned 5) he had to stop and look at everything first time and then all of a sudden it just clicked with him :D
 
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