Blinkers

[PC Steele]

Has anyone ridden their extremely spooky horse in blinkers????

 

[Mrs. Jingle]

Yes years ago I bought a lovely driving mare and she proved to be a very interesting ride indeed out and about when I initially tried her under saddle. However, after reverting to using blinkers she suddenly became as reliable ridden as she was driven. Over the course of a year I very slowly and patiently weaned her off the blinkers and eventually she was as steady without them as she had been with them.

 

[Mrs. Jingle]

Just another small point that might be worth mentioning - are you sure it is actually 'sight' she is spooking at rather than sound? I had another difficult horse that was not pleasant to hack out - but with a good sound muffling ear veil on was perfect. obviously in this case it was sounds around and about that unsettled the horse, not sights.

 

[joosie]

Yes, the Dy'on blinkers are good.

 

[Leo Walker]

Driving blinkers can make horses much more spooky to start with, as they cant see.

 

[PC Steele]

Just another small point that might be worth mentioning - are you sure it is actually 'sight' she is spooking at rather than sound? I had another difficult horse that was not pleasant to hack out - but with a good sound muffling ear veil on was perfect. obviously in this case it was sounds around and about that unsettled the horse, not sights.

It was definitely a sight today. There was a pheasant in the school who was attacking his reflection in the school mirrors which is absolutely scary. However when said pheasant was chased away he still wouldn’t go near the mirror which is fine but then became tense and spooky and started spooking at ‘normal’ sights. I will ride with his acoustic ears on tomorrow though 👍🏻