coping with spooky irrational horses

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Louby

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Ive had my boy 8 yrs and he has always been a bit quirky but then hes talented. Ive decided its now or never and we are having a last ditch attempt at competing again this year. Weve done it before but I give up mid season due to his irrational spooky behaviour that never gets any better even though we keep going. It isnt scary unusual things he spooks at, its normal things, like people, jumps etc and once hes lost the plot thats it. He is like this all the time not just when competing. He will walk past a flapping bag no prob but has a heart attack at a push bike. It really takes the fun out of everything as I feel so restricted as he has no self preservation and would rather fall down the sheer drop rather than face his fear. I do think sometimes he does put it on though.
So has anyone 'conquered' there horses quirks aspecially whilst competing or am I just wasting my time ..... again :(
 
only you would know the answer to this, which entails being brutally honest about yourself:
A lot of it they pick up from their rider, so you might not be helping (although not on purpose) as we're all a bit more wound up at competitions...

Changing his diet to unmolassed and fibre based might help, could he have some kind of mineral deficiency, such as magnesium?
Find a sport psychologist to give you coping strategies?

Good luck :) I hope you can find a way round it.
 
You could be descibing my horse there :) He is an ex racer and as irratinal as they come - been on current yard for three years and has just started rearing on a particular track out hacking but for the rest will be absolutely fine and will walk past a jcb in full flight but crap himself at a crisp packet. Like wise with competing - local shows - we are a rearing spooking mess but took him out a county level so lots of things to see and he behaved like an angel. The only things I have found to work are to keep him very hard work and be very discplined with him so he knows exactly what is going on and I swappe him off a comp mix to an endurance mix which seemed to help. Also as much as it is horrible I try to expose him to as much as poss - thankfully we are on a busy yar so there is always things going on .
 
Ditto above.

Mine is inclined to behave like this. He's not too bad now but used to be downright dangerous.

I have to be careful how much molasses and cereals he gets as this exacerbates the problem, but at the same time he stresses weight off so he needs quite a lot of food - I found D&H Build-Up cubes keep condition on without too many fireworks!

I also found that 'flooding' him was the most effective way of calming him down; lots of work, boxing out as often as possible, taking him to every event in the neighbourhood even if it was just to hang out and not compete.
Basically don't give him time to think, just keep going, ride him through each episode, lots of schooling exercises, just bombard him with things to do.
 
Thanks for your replies. If Im totally honest, he is totally wasted and probably bored, Ive pretty much ground to a halt and he's at the moment just ticking over. Im determined to get out there this year though and am going to get some lessons sorted to give us something to work at, instead of aimless boring schooling sessions that he can do in his sleep.
I do think he is a bit sugar intollerant, he is currently on Hifi, high fibre cubes and a handful of pasture mix. Im giving him steady up but have tried the magnesium based calmer too. He needs to get out there and see some life.
Thanks everyone :)
 
Mine gets like that when he's bored, i've discovered taking a deep breath, and a large glug of something strong :D, and just getting on with it seems to work. The more I ask him to do the better he performs, he almost seems to breath a sigh of relief that we're finally doing something worthwhile.
 
Just a few suggestions.

Cut out the pasture mix. Cereal mixes can be such a fizz giver! Pasture mix contains a reasonably high level of starch if I remember correctly. The higher the starch level in a feed the more heating it will be. Try sticking to basic fibre like the HIFI, HF cubes.

Also I swear by pink powder. This does balance the diet and can have a calming effect if your horses insides are in great shape.

My horse can be a bit of a Hot head. He is on HIFI (Unmollassed) HIFI cubes and pink powder and his behaviour is the best it has ever been.

Also I have cut out apples/carrots etc and he is so much calmer!

Worth a try

:)
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Thanks again,
Im feeding less than a third of a scoop of the pasture mix between 2 feeds, so its pretty pointless really. Its me trying to humanise it I think :o as in my eyes it just looks and smells more apertising with it in. I will stop it and see.

Its like people, bikes, etc are demons in his eyes and although he passes these things without much of a problem, hes wild eyed, on his toes and I can feel his heart beating whilst Im on him.
 
Several things have worked in combination to make my stress-head LOADS calmer.

1- removing molasses and cereals from diet. At the mo enjoying Hi-fi molasses free with a scoop vits/mins.
2 - switching from haylage to soaked hay.
3 - increasing turnout to 24hrs summer, 8 hours winter.
4 - Hacking out daily, first with a sensible friend then on our own on familiar routes, slowly increasing the 'scariness' of things we encountered, for several months. During this time I turned from quivering jelly to confident rider - not so strangely enough my horse became more confident too. Now my horse is brave and will pretty much go anywhere, he is enjoying his schooling and jumping much more and we do better at competitions. He still spooks at things but not violently and never dangerously. I make sure I let him have a look at potentially spooky things, to sort of prove to him they are safe, and he trusts me enough to do this.
 
Ditto the hacking suggestion. I have the sharpest horse possible who would flip if I even coughed. I still have to be quiet and slow moving my leg to do his girth up or he freaks out. Sudden movements (of anything, inc humans) panic him and he's such a stress head most of time too.

Lots and lots of hacking did him the world of good! Just going out and seeing everything and anything for at least an hour a day kept him a) entertained and b) desensitived. Thankful he has always good with traffic ( :confused: ) but a leaf or the lines on the road would give him a melt down.

BUT some horses will never have the temperment to cope with competitions. My boy, depsite going out sometimes twice a week all summer still gets too stressed and anxious in new environments with other strange horses about to concentrate and do any form of work. He will never make a competition horse as he doesn't enjoy the 'excitment', it just upsets him. We do still go out and do as much as possible but everything has to be well below his ability level so he can do it with his eyes closed if needs be.

That's just part of his personality - he lives out 24/7 in a herd, he's fed nothing at all (just restricted grass over summer and hay over the winter) and I've tried all the supplements. Some take the razor sharp edge off him but he's still not great. You only have to watch him in the field too see that his flighty, suspicious sharp nature is just him. The only times he's quieter is if he's been cold overnight :o
 
Mine was just like this - almost unmanageable

I did the following:

Minerals - in particular Mag x

No cereals - been cereal free for 5 years, but this winter I am giving him oats but they are sprouted so lower in starch - a faff but useful faff

No molasses, sugars etc.

Feed - unmolassed beet, minerals, brewers yeast, linseed, good hay

And barefoot - often this distractable behaviour can be low grade pain. Took his shoes off and 3 months later bingo - new temperament

I have a different person now in my herd - calm, slef confident and lively.
 
Ditto all that has been said but also if you normally do schooling you could buy one of those books with lots of tips on schooling whilst hacking, that way both your minds will be working and thinking rather than having the time to notice and spook at scary things
 
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