Best approach for working with anxious horse?

[Elaine99]

I’m wondering what others’ training approaches are for horses that become distracted or anxious in certain situations. Is it better to let them process what’s making them nervous, or to redirect their energy and bring their focus back to you?

For example, when hand-walking to the paddock, if something catches their attention and they fixate on it, should you allow them to stand and process it on their own? Or is it better to redirect their focus and get their attention back by asking them to do something they are already familiar doing, like backing up or lowering their head? Or should you just keep leading them as if nothing has changed?

I’m also wondering if letting them stay disconnected for too long could allow anxiety to build and potentially lead to a bigger reaction. Overall, is it better to take more of a leadership role and use redirection to help ground them, or to be more of a passive, supportive presence and give them time to process? Or is the approach you take dependent on the type of horse you have?

 

[Midlifecrisis]

It does depend on the horse but I allow a stop and look then walk on again and treat. I’ve also taught mine to be curious..so to walk up to tractors/ outdoor seating, covered bales, piles of poles etc etc and they get a treat for being bold, looking and not snorting and running away.

 

[canteron]

It take a horse 12 seconds to process apparently, so if the situation allows give then that time.
The person I know with the best behaved calmest ‘hot’ horse I know says if you feel you are more use to your horse on the ground, then get off.
She also does huge amounts of setting up training moments - noisy, different surface, flappy, bangy- literally anything and everything you can imagine!

 

[feesh]

Depends on the horse & circumstance, in my experience, which of course is not a particularly useful answer.

On first pass through a space (or when something new arrives) I allow a stop and stare. After a while (my guess in 30s or so, though I've never timed it), they will sigh & lower their head a bit, or try to graze, or look around - and then it's time to move on. Second pass, if there's still a lot of anxiety and giraffe neck, I might allow it again, but generally after that they are expected to keep working (though are still allowed to look). I'm almost always riding/working alone, so that makes this a lot easier to do!

If it's something the horse is repeatedly scared of (eg specific corner of arena, gets anxious in same spot on the walk to paddock, always scared of flappy things, etc), then I think it's very much worth doing specific work with that space or thing. In the case of one of my shares, he's be taught that specific exercises (tight circles, backing up) mean "hey, get your shit together and focus," and it definitely works for him. He may still be nervous but he understands that it means that the human thinks that things are fine, and the human is in charge, so either relax or suck it up. It's a very common Western approach, and I don't love it, but he's had +/- 15 years of that, so it's very effective with him at this point.

I've heard the argument that specific *kinds* of work are better to help the horse regulate. I audited a clinic with Harmon Horsemanship/Partridge Horse Hill, and she taught that certain exercises, ways of handling, etc will make the horse trust you more/follow your lead - not in the "show him who's boss" way, but "leader who decides what is and isn't a threat." I don't know how much scientific basis this has, but I did see some fairly convincing results with very anxious horses and handlers new to the technique, in the short 1hr time slots. I've had mixed success trying it myself (gentle roof of mouth pressure is impressively effective, "taking watch" is either useless or I'm doing it wrong, and "figure 8s" have had medium success... I can't tell if it's the exercise or just the time working in a certain area).

 

[smolmaus]

Agree that unfortunately it is situation and horse dependent. Sometimes they just need to process, sometimes the processing becomes fixation and when they come back they're more anxious about it. I find with my mare tho, if she stops and watches and doesn't noticeably relax after that's a sign she is getting trigger stacked and needs a proper period of tension release.

I've sometimes rewarded the moment they bring their attention back to you. I dont actually know if that helps hugely as they need the time they need to figure stuff out and you don't actually want them to rush that. But I suppose it does reward checking back in with you after processing instead of doing something else, like rushing past or away.

 

[New Forests Rock]

I have been taught (and it works) that if the pony I am working with becomes distracted then a series of familiar commands - stand, wait, back up, circle quarters away, shoulders away etc quickly brings them "back in the room" and paying attention to me, not the distraction. We also do NOT use treats as it turns them into bitey little monsters. Only exception is for example when loading for the first time they get a piece of carrot (in a bucket, not from the hand) ONCE they have loaded. Also lots of verbal praise and a quick scratch whenever they get something right works well.

 

[Boulty]

Again I think it can be situation and horse dependent as to what works.

The Welshie I used to have would doom spiral if you let him obsess over something but equally wasn’t happy if he couldn’t look at all as then he’d invent something worse in his head.

I tend towards letting them have a look, making a show of “looking” with them and then after about 30 seconds declaring whatever it is boring and asking the horse to go back to whatever it is we were supposed to be doing.

I do also encourage exploration of “scary” things if pony wants to and it’s safe to do so.

 

[Sussexbythesea]

I’ve recently watched a Warwick Schiller online seminar where he tackles this with horses that are anxious and distracted. His take is that you draw the attention back to you by doing something that voluntarily turns their focus to you rather than pulling them or distracting them by making them do something. He uses a flag. There’s a bit more to it than that and certainly in his demo it worked well.

I tried it with my Welsh PB the other windy day and it did have a positive effect. My main issue was he’s been rather desensitised to a waving flag so it was hard to get his attention.

WS did talk about acknowledging the thing that they’re anxious about and then calmly carrying on as it’s nothing to worry about. I’ve always found that a look is ok but if they become hyper focused they seem to get more anxious the longer they stare at it.

 

[Nocturnal]

With mine I use a combination. I let him look for his 12 seconds, then bring his attention back to me/ask him to do something he finds easy/treat. Sometimes it needs several rounds of this but eventually he will signal that he’s ready to continue. This is more for scary environments/scenarios. For scary objects usually he’ll switch to investigate mode on his own after growing a hand to get a better look and giving it a good snorting at.

 

[HaplessHorse]

It depends on the situation and the horse. With Erin I stay in the vicinity, ask her to do a task to redirect attention to me, we stand and relax next to the object, then move on. Mostly, anyway.

If I feel more general stress building, I stop and work with her for even longer to bring her attention back to me, and “reattach brain to legs”, as I like to say. Which allows her to process the situation with greater impulse control and get out of the fight-flight anxiety loop, with the knowledge that the human is there with her and is paying attention. We immediately carry on our way, and she’s generally a lot calmer.

In other situations (eg. She’s in season and spots a horse in a field), it’s much better to keep going forwards and ignore the stimulus.

If I try everything in my arsenal from the seat and the anxiety levels are the same/escalating, I will get off and help her from the ground. This usually involves some groundwork stuff and carrying on as normal.

I don’t think I’d ever class Erin as “anxious”, but she is a horse, and she is a flight animal. I’ve met a truly anxious horse, and he was just baseline anxious all the time, and a lot of people had tried to help him over the years, to no avail.