Horse Silly and Spooky When Hacking

[frankieduck]

I have one that gets like this, I've had him long enough he doesn't unnerve me anymore, but it is a bit tiring at times! Best trick I have learned with him is put my leg on, even though it feels counterintuitive. We used to be in a cycle of - he'd tense and spook at something, I'd tense and cling on to him, he's spin 180' and bugger off in the opposite direction. Instead, now when he spies something I put my leg on and ride him into the contact in a very workmanlike fashion, I think of it like holding a child's hand - I'm never harsh and don't bully him, but I take him by the hand and say "come on, stop being silly, we're going this way". Best advice I ever had from a 5* eventer I was lucky enough to have a lesson with was "if your horse is being silly, you need to tell them what to do, if you sit back and let them make their own decisions - they will make bad ones!" so now when I feel his brain going into overdrive I step-in and tell him "you don't need to worry, this is what we are doing, listen to me and we will be fine".

 

[Olivia&Archie]

I have one that gets like this, I've had him long enough he doesn't unnerve me anymore, but it is a bit tiring at times! Best trick I have learned with him is put my leg on, even though it feels counterintuitive. We used to be in a cycle of - he'd tense and spook at something, I'd tense and cling on to him, he's spin 180' and bugger off in the opposite direction. Instead, now when he spies something I put my leg on and ride him into the contact in a very workmanlike fashion, I think of it like holding a child's hand - I'm never harsh and don't bully him, but I take him by the hand and say "come on, stop being silly, we're going this way". Best advice I ever had from a 5* eventer I was lucky enough to have a lesson with was "if your horse is being silly, you need to tell them what to do, if you sit back and let them make their own decisions - they will make bad ones!" so now when I feel his brain going into overdrive I step-in and tell him "you don't need to worry, this is what we are doing, listen to me and we will be fine".

This is really useful, thank you so much for sharing!
Will definitely need to put my brave pants on and put my leg on!

 

[KatieDM]

I have kept my horses in the small village they're in since August and I've had local residents/dogwalkers ask if his name is 'for cryin out loud Will' , 'William!' Or just 'Will' as they hear me saying all 3 to him regularly It is an improvement though as I used to say if he didn't already have a registered name I was going to enter him as 'FFS Will' as the full version of the name slipped out so many times during a ride

One of the other things I've found seems to help is talking to him as I'm riding, I don't know if it's just that it relaxes me and that feeds through to him or if it keeps his attention on me more so he's not looking for monsters but whichever it is he's less spooky when I chat away.

Wow, I have a full version FFS Rocket. Wonder if they’re related