Horse nervous in traffic, any advice?

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keepitugly

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Recently taken on a green horse, she's very sweet and laid back in nature. She was broken early this year in Ireland and has been hunting once, been turned away all summer.

I've been working her on the lines for a few weeks and have ridden her in the school 3 times this week and she has been quiet and relaxed.

She has a very busy train line running through her field and is often grazing right next to it and sees all manner of farm vehicles and lorries on a daily basis around the farm.

As it was a quiet, warm day decided to take her for a hack with our super nanny cob. She was a bit joggy and on edge going out of the gate but nothing you wouldn't expect. Under the railway bridge no problem at all which is where they all usually get a fright as it echoes and it's dark. Car came past towards us very fast under the bridge, and she was very good about it. Hacked 10 minutes up the road to our bridle path, passed a few cars and a tractor harrowing the fields, bit tense but well behaved. Turned back all fine, about 5 minutes from home 2 cars came up behind us and she got a bit tense so asked the cars to wait and I put her blocked in next to the cob, she seemed settled so waved the car past. As it was coming past she just panicked but instead of running forwards she barged sideways into the poor cob and essentially pushed him into the car, luckily he stopped so it was stationary when he made contact.

When cob hit the car she spun round and took me a bit the other way towards the second car, got her settled enough so I could get off because there were cars waiting in both directions at this point and I need to tuck her safely into the hedge. Cars passed and she was relaxed again, got back on and hacked home, 2 cars passed from behind on a wider bit of road and she didn't bother.

I am feeling incredibly guilty that I essentially pushed the poor cob into traffic. I want to make sure we can find a safer way to get her out and about now. I feel it was just one of those things but the fact her reaction was to jump into the other horse towards the traffic is a bit of a worry.

I'm thinking of getting people to drive up behind and past her on the farm and see how she is then? Looking back it could've been the part of the road she was on that was upsetting her more than the cars but it could've ended up a lot worse if the driver wasn't so sensible.

Any advice and thoughts welcome.

Also cob and car are absolutely fine it was more a brush luckily.
 
I'm glad all escaped unharmed, if rather taken aback.

I agree that you need to get this sorted at home. I will say that I have never known a horse bowl into the nanny like that, so would have done what you did, expecting all to be well. I would find a way of getting the horse to link cars/vehicles and food. We did have a mare who was fine with big vehicles in wide spaces but very nervous in small spaces but she happily hid behind the nanny in all circumstances. She knew the nanny well as they shared a field, so that may have had a bearing on how much she trusted her.
 
Pearlsasinger said:
I'm glad all escaped unharmed, if rather taken aback.

I agree that you need to get this sorted at home. I will say that I have never known a horse bowl into the nanny like that, so would have done what you did, expecting all to be well. I would find a way of getting the horse to link cars/vehicles and food. We did have a mare who was fine with big vehicles in wide spaces but very nervous in small spaces but she happily hid behind the nanny in all circumstances. She knew the nanny well as they shared a field, so that may have had a bearing on how much she trusted her.
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I've never known a horse go through a nanny like that either, and we do loads of youngsters exactly like this.

I'm trying to go over exactly what happened again but it happened so fast. I just remember trying desperately to get her over onto the verge as I knew we were getting near the car then waiting for the bang.

I've got some people telling me I'm over thinking it and to just take her out again as much as possible and I wouldn't think anything of it if it hadn't happened in front of a car, but the whole point is it did happen in front of a car and I could've essentially gotten the other horse killed. Got someone else telling me to put draw reins on her which I'm not going to do, if anything they'll make her worse.

Thanks for your reply.
 
I would take her out again otherwise the fear will just continue. You could always find a safe place to pull in and let her face the traffic from behind so she can see it and hopefully she won't go sideways like she did?
 
Do you think your horse may have not had confidence in the other horse? In a herd situation when a horse is frightened they will knock into the other horse to say "run with me, this is scary". My young mare did this with a gelding we hacked out with in the early days (she hates slow cars and prefers them to whiz past!).

I find my young mare is better with cars if we stop and turn around to face the vehicle so that she can watch it, then we "chase" it as in I will ask her to walk a few steps then ask for trot so that she chases the scary thing away, this is working really well with her.
 
Glad to hear you all returned home safely.

MY lad had a real fright a couple of years ago with a car wheel spinning loose chippings up at us!! Nice man!! He got frightened to the point he only had to hear a car and he started. I am on my own on the yard so needed to sort it by myself. I took a packet of treats out with me and as soon as we heard a car I stood him and fed him treats. Took his mind totally off the traffic. It worked that we'll it ended up with horse halting as soon as he heard the traffic!! I was also alot more confident. Then I would ask him to walk past 2 cars then stand and treat on the 3rd. I know not everyone agrees with treating but this lad is a 17.1 hanxtb built like a brick outhouse and its not funny when they spin and disappear in the opposite direction!!
 
No help to you of course but I had a scare like this earlier in the year when a pony I was nannying barged into mine and pushed him in front of a car. Fortunately the car stopped in time but it put the wind up me. It's not the first time something's happened either - a few years ago the horse I was nannying managed to spook into mine so hard it knocked us into a rather deep dyke, another spun round, it's head came over my pony's back and swept me clean off him.
 
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I've managed the Nervous Nellies who aren't settled in traffic (and who can blame them, with some of the arrogant, stupid persons driving around atm?!) by singing, turning to face the traffic, preferably off the road, and treating to the left/right, so that horse's head turned away and concentrating on the sweetie, not the wheeled monsters! The singing keeps me breathing and not tensing up, which translates itself to the horse.
 
I have found that the nanny has to be a very strong character, so that the nannied horse is more frightened of her (it is usually a mare ime) than the traffic/monster in the hedge.

If there is a verge could you stand up at right angles to the road with the nanny making a T shape between the traffic and your horse? Or can you take out 2 nannies, so that your horse feels more protected?
 
Pearlsasinger said:
I have found that the nanny has to be a very strong character, so that the nannied horse is more frightened of her (it is usually a mare ime) than the traffic/monster in the hedge.

If there is a verge could you stand up at right angles to the road with the nanny making a T shape between the traffic and your horse? Or can you take out 2 nannies, so that your horse feels more protected?
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I agree with this (with the exception of the nannied horse being afraid of the nanny).

But bottom line is you need to get her out and about seeing the sights with an experienced nanny. Absolutely always ride two abreast, with the nannied horse on the inside. And only start riding single file when the nannied horse is hacking out with confidence with her companion.
 
Definitely play around at home with drivers "working for you", not just MOP driving on public highways. See if you can get her accepting "your" vehicles passing from behind. IMHO, having had a dramatically traffic-phobic horse, some horses are not safe enough to persevere with in traffic, there's too much you can't control and they just keep scaring themselves and creating their own bad experiences like the one you had today. See how well you can get her to respond to traffic training off public roads and if that is positive then all you can do is try again with the nanny on the road.
 
My nervous giant copes much better on the road if I can pull him into a drive and turn him so he can see what's coming at him and if necessary our nanny provides a slight wall BUT he has to be able to see what is approaching. The only thing this doesn't apply to is runners...he has serious issues whether they're coming torwards him/from behind him and it's generally safer for all road users to just ask them to walk past him and then continue! If I don't have a nanny I'm currently only confident enough to walk him out in hand (he's currently too unpredictable to be on my own!) and if he walks past unfazed then he gets a treat. He is gradually linking bravery to a reward and trusting me being part of our gradually less scary walks out! His nanny is biggest than him but he's actually more nervous walking behind her as everything that appears is a surprise and he loves leading the way (until a runner comes along!).
 
Thank you for all the replies. The nanny is absolutely rock solid, she just barged into him so hard the poor thing was forced into the road. It's reassuring to hear that others have had horses like this.

I wouldn't say she's horrendously traffic shy as she had all of the other vehicles we saw pass her without incident, I think it was just unfortunate that there wasn't enough verge to get her onto and it was quite tight and something about that part of the road was unsettling her before the cars even approached.

I did think about boxing her in with 2 horses. She was very calm and relaxed as soon as the incident was over I think she more frightened herself with all the clattering about.

My friend wants us to go again tomorrow and do the same little ride and thinks it'll be fine, I'm trying to decide what to do, I might take her out in hand as I am 100% confident I can control her from her head. I think I might have a practise at home in he morning and if all is fine go out again, it's only 5 minutes on a quiet road to get to our bridle path, we'll just be extra cautious now we know and try to pull into a gateway where possible.

I don't feel this is going to be a huge issue for her at all, she's such a quiet, accepting animal, I just want to get it right, I don't want to be responsible for frightening her more.

Thanks again.
 
Go traffic watching, somewhere safe and stay stationary. Sorry it's really boring... Could it be that she can't see and it worries her behind?
 
Watching with interest as my horse used to be bombproof in any traffic but is now a nervous wreck to the point where I can't hack him at all. No incident caused it... He just gradually got more and more jumpy. Have tried walking out in hand... Sometimes he is fine with it, others he on high alert and jumpy. It all started when he had gastric ulcers, though these have now been treated and cleared, he is no better to hack.
 
Took her out with nanny again, initially stayed by her head and she was absolutely fine with anything coming past towards her, slightly tense with them coming from behind but didn't jump or jog forward. Had 2 racing cyclists come from behind and I stopped her and let her look back and she had a good look but stood solid.

Had some cars come past from behind quite quickly and she seemed settled so I got on and hacked home. She was brilliant, just as we came back under the railway bridge we had to stop as a car was coming down, just as car passed bloody train came over about 10ft above our heads, and a cyclist came up behind! I let her look round and naturally eyes were on stalks but she didn't budge. Feeling much more positive, I think yesterday may just have been one of those things.

I've decided I'm going to take her out in hand for 10 minutes when I don't have anyone to hack with her, whenever I can just to get her really chilled about it.

Thanks again for all of your advice it has been really helpful.

I will keep you updated.
 
always worth doing some work with a friend in car too, so friend knows what MAY happen and is also ready to react, you can do it in stages with car going past slow and wide, then getting closer, and also a bit faster, right up to friend over revving, toot of the horn etc, these are all things that can happen and do happen, well worth if you know horse can be a bit silly in putting the work in now.

my youngsters I used to drive a car around the field with them and ride a bike around them lots too so they were ready for the roads, my last horse came galloping up the field to the sound of the car horn (I had a massive field on a steep hill horse couldn't hear me shout but knew the car!)
 
Sometimes even the best horse does something utterly perplexing. Maybe this was just one of those times for her, really unfortunate timing and reaction though.

If it does re-occurr/ become a problem consider having her broken to drive. The lead horse in a pair (generally first choice to break in a new horse) will be rock solid in traffic so she might find it more reassuring. I find breaking to drive does more for the road safeness of my horses than any amount of riding.
 
I have recently acquired a 10 year old who is totally green. We are using our other pony as a nanny horse but the spooky little pony is still freaky and panics. Add to this she doesn't accept the bit very well and is really poor at going down hill. (Not good as wherever we go hills are involved). I am not a sissy but the idea of lurching into a car does not appeal so if I feel the temperature rising and panic setting in I get off, lead her a short way, or stand still with her and get back on when it is safe to do so. I appreciate I may spend some time walking AND I was instructed back in the 70's to always "sit your horse" however I have to consider a disaster could well make my pony worse, I could cause an accident, and I may get hurt myself. All of that has zero appeal and as one of my horsey friends put it "plenty of egos in coffins".
 
Can you find a field you can put her in next to a busy road, even if for a short holiday?
Stand at the bottom of your drive (in hand or on her) watching the traffic go by. Start further back and then get nearer and nearer the traffic.
Lead her out from a quiet horse.
Make a tape of traffic and other road noises and leave it playing in her stable.
Get cars bicycles etc to go past her in the yard, or while riding in a school (if possible)
She just has to get used to traffic, and exposure to it is the only way.
 
Follychoppins said:
....I get off, lead her a short way, or stand still with her and get back on when it is safe to do so. I appreciate I may spend some time walking AND I was instructed back in the 70's to always "sit your horse" however I have to consider a disaster could well make my pony worse, I could cause an accident, and I may get hurt myself. All of that has zero appeal and as one of my horsey friends put it "plenty of egos in coffins".
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Nothing wrong with getting off in a sticky situation IMHO, I have done it before, despite my hacking partner shouting at me 'Don't get off him, Hit him! Make him walk on!'

Silly woman - he was spooking, backing up into busy oncoming traffic, was coiled like a spring and wasn't listening to me at all! Sometimes it's just neither the time or the place for a fight!

I jumped off and he then walked like a lamb! He was fine the next time we went out, passed the same spot, no problems, and he never before or after repeated his performance whilst I had him!
 
Ah I am the original poster, this is from a fair few months ago, just thought I'd update I've been walking her out in hand at least once a week and she now confidently goes out, still very eyes on stalks hacking alone but I don't take her far or anywhere busy and she's more settled in company.

Passed a gritter the other day, let her turn to face it and she was calm. Also taken her out down the village on the most disgusting, windy, freezing cold day and she was so sensible, eyes on stalks but coped with everything, except some Christmas lights but to be fair they were hideous. Had a few drivers scare the life out of me coming up very fast behind and she hasn't flickered. I think just certain situations worry her, haven't quite figured out exactly which ones yet. Just keeping going and taking it steady still. By spring she'll be ready to hack far and wide I'm sure.
 
I've counted the months and I would be considering your timescale most carefully :) I have had her since October. My old mare, I lost at the end of September was totally bombproof and having owned her for 14 years I knew all her nuances so this is totally new. The winter isn't a good time with wind, wet road noise etc however if you can start to break it down in winter by the time spring comes I'm sure things will be better. I have done in-hand work with her, most recently she was not keen to leave our other pony. That said I did get her down the road and when we got far enough I turned round and took her into a side road which was full of green bag and green box tigers which were approached with caution but by the time we had finished I could kick and shake them without her flinching and even rub them over her body in a Monty Roberts style so it had a good ending! :)
 
If you are able to, in a field or such, follow a car slowly somewhere. Anything that moves away from a horse they are intrigued with. Just walk the horse gently behind. Then, get someone to drive past you on your own whilst riding and to over take from the front and from behind. Repeat, repeat, repeat!
 
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