Horse hating horse

[littlen]

Asking about a friends horse who I am trying to help her with.

He is fine alone, fine in small warmups and at local shows etc however looses his marbles if faced with any more than about 3 horses.

She can’t do any pleasure rides as horses coming up behind causes him to explode, things like hunting are huge no goes and even small things like a horse cantering in a field causes him to bronc and plunge around. Anything like xc schooling etc is a no go although he is amazing jumping at home and really knows the job.

She has worked on this a lot, to the point he is reasonably contained in small groups and also at shows on the go round etc he just about keeps his feet on the ground but any sort of ‘atmosphere’ and he is off again.

He is a very green 8 year old cob who is happy and settled in all other ways. No hard feed or problems otherwise,it’s purely excitement (or terror I’m not sure which 😬)

Is this something that can be overcome?

 

[Orangehorse]

Well I haven't had to deal with this, so I can't offer much advice, but he sounds naughty to me, frankly, and hasn't learned that it is inappropriate behaviour.

I have had a horse that was nervous of other horses, anything coming towards her, and sometimes she took a great dislike to other horses and would "stalk" them, pull faces if they got too close and even try to kick, so I had to keep to our own space, but there wasn't any bucking or silliness.

Can she work him at home first before taking him out anywhere, take the edge off him? A producer of young event horses I know used to get up (very) early and ride a problem horse at home, and work it quite hard, before taking it out to an event, if she thought it was going to be a prat.

 

[Shay]

Forums are always difficult but this doesn't sound like naughtiness to me - and treating it as such could make the matter worse.

You say he is green and she has been able to make progress with him. Some horses do just get very wired in competition / crowded environments. She needs to work out if he is just exploding with excitement or if he is actually frightened by the crowding. Once she knows she can respond better to him. You can de - sensitise to a certain extent. Learning about what sets him off and why can also help just to manage the behaviour by not putting him in scenarios he can't cope with. Settling to hunt, hack with others or do sponsored rides will be very different from settling him for shows so it would probably help to decide which is more important for focus right now.

A good instructor would help - a pair of experienced eyes on the ground to figure out what is happening and what she might be able to do. For example the plunging might be made worse by too severe a bit or holding too tight in an effort to contain him. I presume all the usual vet checks etc have been done?