Calming spooky horses

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My new Welsh is a complete nutter when it comes to spookiness. He's actually fine to hack out - on his own or in company - not really much more than your average spookiness and nothing I cant handle. What is frustrating me is in our own school he still wont go past the corner the jumps are in without falling in and spooking at them and we've been there months now! He's the same when I take him to lessons and wont go near the corner with the jumps in and doesn't really like the other end with the gate in it either. He gets in a right state about going past them. Some of it stems from his hatred of poles and jumps (cant get him anywhere near one unless i'm led over it), but its not all that coz it's not just poles - he hates the harrow and the gate too! It's driving me insane and I cant imagine I'll ever get a good dressage test out of him because he's so ridiculously spooky. He's got gorgeous paces, but no good if he wont work in the white boards. He's been on Equine America's Magnitude (magnesium oxide) for the 4months I've had him.

Any tips?

Desperate!
 
well i would walk him past them all time and time again, or turn him out for a while in the school to have a wander himself. mine doesnt like going past some hay bales near the school. but after time he got used to them, and if he goes near them if your lead, then may be if you keep leading him past them spooky items untill hes so bored of them, he may just forget how scary they are.

good luck
 
believe me, i've tried turning him out in the school and he just wont go anywhere near the corners that scare him. i've also spent hours out there sitting on the fillers or the poles and feeding him polos. it hasn't made a blind bit of difference.
 
lunge him in that corner-lunge him until he stops looking at them.
start off by leading him up to them and letting him have a look. dont let him leave until he's had a look. then lunge him a way a way and build up to 'spooky corner'. doesnt matter if it takes ages he has to learn that spooking doesnt = get out of work otherwise every arena will have a spooky corner! do it on 2 reins if you prefer and need extra control.
what do you do when he spooks? its a very easy trap to reward for spooking without realising it. it should be ignored as much as possible IMO.
 
i have lunged him lots - he still spooks on the lunge. even with 2 reins he's so quick he still managed to spook.

i just carry on working him when he spooks - i carry on doing whatever i'd planned to be doing.
 
I would lay poles out and just do some in hand work around them, through them etc etc for days and days, perhaps even twice a day. I use a lot of Richard Maxwell's training on my horses to desensitise, and it has made the world of difference to Grace with things like this as that is what she was like about certain things.

I would start off quite small, maybe just two poles, and work around them, walking in between etc etc and gradually increase the amount of poles and the amount of pressure you put on him. It will take quite a bit of work and patience, but from what you have said about him, he is worth it
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I know it is not just poles, but when he learns how to control his fear reaction to these, it is amazing how much it affects them on a bigger scale
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Maybe pop onto the Richard Maxwell site, introduce yourself and I can assure you that you will get some excellent suggestions from other users who are incredibly knowledgable and also Max himself too!
 
have you tried feeding him off of the poles-ie leave him and his tea in there? leave poles around the yard etc when you are doing him to desensitise him a bit? are the corners especially dark or shadowy?
he's a youngster isnt he? mine used to be alot more spooky in the school but he used it as an evasion either because he was bored with what we were doing or because he didnt want to work
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he seems to have grown out of it now he's six
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hmmm, he is 6 now - i could be waiting forever for him to grow out of it. i have tried doing in-hand pole work with him - he just gets in a stress about it and it doesn't change his reaction to the corners of the schools where the poles are kept. the corners aren't dark at all - the school is outside with standard sized fences, so very light.

this horse is just terrified of everything - every little noise on the yard and he's visibly crapping himself. he stands there with his bum tucked underneath him shaking. it's not very nice to watch. i dont know what's happened to him in the past to make him like this.
 
thats a shame, he's a section D isnt he-how is he bred? I know its pricey but it may be worth trying different calmers if he's like that. I use Karma which doesnt stop the spooking completely but does seem to stop the hysterics that could follow.otherwise as you've not had him that long it may just take alot more time.
 
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he's Sydenham bred. who makes Karma? I'll try anything!

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its Bluechip! I am terribly cynical about calmers (particularly ones made out of water
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) but this has had an effect on my megasharp ponio
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agree with tons written above, just one more for the melting pot...what are you feeding him, my t/b could be quite spooky and i changed her to a feed with very low starch, about 3%.
This was quite a few months ago and she has possibly spooked about twice since then. She is on winergy equilibrium. She is looking fab too
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My mare does this - edges away fromt he corner of the school with jumps in it.
I just give her a tap on the shoulder and I really ask for an inside bend and yeild her towards the jumps. She eventually gets over it and just goes past the jumps like there is nothing there.
Completely ignore him too when he spooks. I find that if you look when the horse looks, then it makes it worse! You ride him past the jumps like they aren't there, just keep looking to the next letter with your inside leg on and just keep asking him to go forewards.

Hope this helps
Izzi xx
 
My Arab gelding used to do this in the indoor school. Did from when I bought him........ until I sold him. Never did find a cure
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My Thoroughbred spooks at the far end of the paddock where i go to school her, i find that if i free lunge her in there before getting on then she doesn't shy anymore.

My spooky horsey is on Blue Chip Kalmer and it hasn't worked for her
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I totally sympathise with you, my horse is so spooky when hacking (had physical checks done and a new saddle) and its so so frustrating Arrrah!!
 
I have this problem with my mare she didnt used to go up one end of the school, she now does after help from my instructor, but if any little thing changes we have to start again which is really annoying when you just want to do a quick schooling session, I found if you ride either shoulder fore or shoulder in past spooky object it helps as it doesnt give them a chance to look, I have to try and stop my mare spooking the first time hich is very hard as after shes done it once she keeps doing it which is just and evasion to work, but when we go to other schools she never spooks at all, only at home, very annoying but good for competitions!
 
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agree with tons written above, just one more for the melting pot...what are you feeding him, my t/b could be quite spooky and i changed her to a feed with very low starch, about 3%.
This was quite a few months ago and she has possibly spooked about twice since then. She is on winergy equilibrium. She is looking fab too
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he was on just chaff and sugar beet for the 1st few months. he's now on spillers slow release energy because he didn't have enough energy for schooling - he's now fitter and coping with the schooling well, but the spooking is exactly the same.

if i try and ride shoulder-in past the corners he gets more tense because he thinks there's something to worry about. he's better if i ignore it completely but then he just carries on spooking every single time.
 
Axel used to do exactly the same at my last yard, I posted on here about it and tried everything you have to get him used to it.
He never did and when I moved yards the jumps were stored in the same top left corner, I vowed to not make a big deal out of it, and just let him look.
He doesn't react at all now to them.
 
Well, I totally understand how you feel because Rosie my Welsh D is exactly the same!

I've had her 13yrs and she's now 15yrs old and STILL she's frightened of schooling next to hedges or woodland, even though she's quite happy to jump a hedge or ride through woods!!

Bring on Salisbury Plain I say!!!

Over the years I've been dumped so many times from the violent spooking, and have given up hiring certain schools because it's a waste of time, she's so nervy in them.

I'm afraid to admit that I tend to hang on to her head, and drive her past with my leg whilst leg yielding her towards the thing she's frightened of.

In the end she gets in such a tizz I might as well not bother!

All the usual methods of lungeing her around things, feeding her next to them, walking her upto them are to no avail. She'll do that OK, except perhaps the lungeing.

She does this schooling in her own field, other peoples' schools and to a certain extent at competitions, but only in flat warm-up or dressage arena, not in jumping. So, to my mind she does it when she's bored or disinterested.

On the road it helps to stop and look at the scary object, but we can do this all day in a school and STILL she'll spook at it EVERY time we go past.

The only thing I've found to help the situation is to school in close proximity to another horse, which is why I welcome my youngster to walk round and about us while we're schooling!!
 
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