HORSE SPOOKING AT NEW YARD

ponieslovered

ponieslovered

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Just wondered if anyone has any views on this, or had something similar happen to them. Im hoping for light at the end of the tunnel !! so to speak.

I bought a new horse about 4 weeks ago. I was told by my friend who i bought him from, that he is 100% on the roads and isnt spooky at all, in fact he's so laid back he could fall over.... So after the first 2 weeks, he has spooked at a pigeon in the school. He spooks if someone walks past the school on the farm when im riding. I havnt ridden him out yet on the road as i dont know the area very well, and i dont think going forward then turning round to come back is a good idea, incase he thinks thats what we will always do, i am waiting for someone to come with me (I will wear a body protector just in case)
When im leading him he's quite a good boy, big pace so i have to walk fast to keep up. The first week he was with me, he was either very excited or very nervous, but would go nuts when walking past the school if people were riding and also at the dogs, he did actually have a small rear up, (he's a heafty 16.3 TB)
But since that happened hes come on leaps and bounds, and he will now walk through the yard happily if the dogs are out running around, although he's not sure about chickens.

I dont feel nervous around him at all, I adore him, and he seems happier when im leading him, when i ride or lunge he seems to be abit more spooky.

So last week I did a search on google and put his name in, i was trying to find out why he stopped racing as there are always reasons. And a post from a forum came up from may 2007, (which must have been shortly after he came off the track) the girl posted that she could no longer ride him on the road due to him being scared of dogs and he would just bolt off.

Well he then went to a re-trainer which is the lady i have bought him from, and she said he is sound - no problems.

So I suppose Im just asking (i know horses need time to settle at a new yard) but how long do you think it would take for him to settle without the spookies !!!!, and is there anything that you think i can do to help him. I do make him face his fears, after he leaped at the dogs - i made him walk past them the following day and he was ok. But if i rode him past them im not sure what he would do actually, he seems more comfortable when i am leading him. Comments very welcome :-)
 
Hi,

I would say that it is very early days yet for your new boy to get used to his new home, he is bound to feel nervous of being in a new environment and will need time to get accustomed to the different surroundings that he is now in.

I am using a homeopathic calmer for my boy ATM because he is extra spooky at present and it seems to work quite well with him, although I think the affects wear off after an hour but it seems to make a difference for the first hour of riding! It is Scutellaria that I use for him!
 
If he's already come on leaps and bounds since, then I'm sure he will continue to do so, you have to expect the odd 'moment' till he settles in his new surroundings and gets used to you too if you have only been together 4 weeks.

If think he has an issue with dogs then I'd just try and get him used to them on the ground first so you not putting yourself in too much danger, better have the horse bolt off than both horse and rider! You could also then get him used to going past situations he's not keen on, on his own, as in lone reining him (if you can safely that is) so he learns to go forward and past things without you always being by his side all the time, otherwise he'll never get used to doing it while your on board but if you careful and take you time you probably won't even have to do that, I'm sure his eye will come of the stalks when he settles...besides you don't know if the person that had him in 2007 was a bit nervous, which could of made him worse back then.
 
I don't mean to sound rude but is it possible your friend who sold him to you as 100% on the roads lied?

Horses do take a while to get used to a new yard, but in my experience horses that are 'on their toes' always remain lively rides - it just depends on whether you enjoy that sort of ride or not.

Some general things to consider are reducing his hard feed or swapping to something that might suit him better, increasing his turnout and riding him with another very sensible horse. Is there somewhere you can hack off road for the first few times so you can check he is OK to hack? Did you hack him out before you bought him? If yes, was he OK then?
 
Ther is no doubt that when a horse is moved it can disorrientate it although I would expect a genuine bombprooof/spookproof horse to remain just that and be of the nature that anyone can hack out.

However a thoroughbred (yes there may be one in a million) is probably not the sort of horse that will have a laid back temprement so I would question the honesty of the seller when they say he is 100% on the roads and does not spook.

My advice is find a nice busy dual carridgeway and invite the seller to demonstrate it's bompbroof/spookproof nature by riding it down it in rush hour traffic. Their enthusiasm to do this will demonstarate how much faith they have in their original sales statement!



Well when I try a new horse out the first thing I do is take it out for a hack and check it out on the road. That is the only way you are going to find out how safe it is.
 
I actually think you may have hit the nail on the head, He dosnt have a good turnout schedule. We have limited fields with no grass, they are all muddy. So at the moment we have a muddy paddock that he goes in, 3 - 4 times a week for a few hours each time.
The geldings that will be his new friends are all on livery so they are also all in stables at the moment (mares and geldings are seperated at our farm)
He was use to having friends and turnout every day with his friends, so yes i guess for him this is a shocker !!, but March he will go out with his friends.
Our stable block has mesh partitions, so he can see 3 ponies in the other stables, and he is the boss of the block, bless him, so he does have company, he isnt in a stable that is brick top to bottom.
I have changed his food, 2 weeks ago, he's on sugar free and no molasses, and i have seen a big difference with this,
Where he lived before the hacking was on quiet roads, and we have only one way to go at our farm which is on a very busy small back road, its a shame really hacking in our area just isnt great.

But do you know he is the most gentle kind horse in the stable and i just love him.
I try to have a lesson every week (costing a fortune) but I really enjoy it, and also just incase something happens when cantering i have someone with me.
He hasnt tried to bugger off when cantering and when he spooked last week when someone walked down the path I was trotting in my lesson, and sat well and he listened and stopped well and we carried on.

I think what he would really like to do is, Turn out into a huge field with about 5 geldings and have a blast !!!! I bet if i bought him in after 3-4 hours he wouldnt be spooky and a joy to ride !!!
 
Don't think any horse can be 100% spook proof, after all it is a living creature. My horse is very good on the roads, but he does spook at pigeons and other birds. Although he is bombproof in the heaviest of traffic. Hack out only in company for a while with someone who's horse is bombproof.
 
absolutely brilliant comment, I didnt even think about that, she could have been a young girl and a nervous rider.

I dont feel nervous at all when i ride him, I actually feel like ive been riding him for years !!! and when he spooked in the school with me on him, i just controlled it and didnt give it a second thought, we just carried on, thanks for the comment
 
Horses will re act and learn from different riders, that's good things as well as bad.

I may take a few months of hacking and braving it before anyone can comment on if the horse is 'that sort' that will always spook etc or its just a case of bonding and learning that when you say something is ok, he'll beleive you and not batter an eye lid.

You just have to be careful, if you think he's going to jump out at something on the roads, pick you moments, wait till the car passes then ride him on.
 
If it makes you feel better when hubby tried Pride (our new boy) he was an angel. v calm, v chilled, nothing phased him.
We brought him home on weds....... thurs morning he ran through a stable chain, pissed off down the drive, screamed like a banshee when seperated from Hovis and had to be walked out in a dually. Friday he put hubby on the floor and was v on his toes. Sat he was a lot more settled but still not the chilled out dude we met.
He's gone from a small yard, v quiet & secluded and 2 friends to a large yard, 14 horses stabled in his "block" and lots going on. Its early days though and its all change so try not to fret too much
 
oh hovis !! that made me laugh
wink.gif
i guess you cant put time limits on these things, but i hope maybe another 4 - 6 weeks and he will be ok ;-) same for mine also, gone from a small yard with a couple of friends, to a big yard (over 40 horses) with miles of open fields for him to look at whilst trying to get him to concentrate on his schooling (his old school was enclosed with fences), just hope his racing instinct dosnt kick in (blimy,,,,,, it hasnt yet !!) he has been off the track 3 years now, but then again, any horse looking at miles of open fields may think about pissing off at some point....
 
I bought one in December, so had him about 2 and a half months. I had real issues with spookiness at first, he would even make things up to spook at. It's getting better but is still a problem, I would give it 6 months for a horse to settle in properly to be honest. Good luck.
 
yes mighty moose, i think they do sometimes make things up - i know my other ott tb did, good luck with yours.... the chickens at the farm scrape up all the hay and straw outside his stable and they nest in it, its so funny, he hangs his head over and watches them, i guess he feels safe, but when they came in the school the other day while riding he wasnt very happy, surely he cant see a chicken as an enemy !!, but yes did scare him, well i hope he gets over it within a few months, dont really want a spooky to ride forever....
 
I moved my horse to a new yard beginning of December and if I hadn't have had him 5 years I would have thought I'd bought a complete git. He has been at new yard about 10 weeks now and is only just beginning to settle. I think he will take at least 6 months. He is quite sensitive though and has always been on the spooky, cheeky side.

It might be worth reassessing your horses management compared to what the retrainer did with him in particular food as mine was really badly affected by having haylage instead of hay. The girl that had him off the track may not have known what she was doing which may make him sound worse than he actually was. Trouble with reading things like that is that now you may start to anticipate problems which in my experience often causes them.

Hope he settles and you have fun together.
 
I have had my ex racer for almost 7 years. When i first got her she was nervy and had lots of issues. we worked through them and she is fien now. I found that the biggest thing is a proper routine. She thrives on it. If it is changed ie changing yard, or going from winter to summer schedule, she will react until the new regime is established. When we used to hack out, she would come home lathered in sweat having jiggied joggied most of the way. Now she is used to all the routes and so settled at our yard (been there 4 years) that she is pretty much bomb proof and so laid back, i can ride her with the reins at the buckle. Pheasants can fly up at the side of her and she doesn't flinch or tree felling can be goin on and she doesn't bother. Remember, when racing he will have had a very strict routine.
Also, the fact that he is such a nice horse to deal with is a huge plus. That will be his true character once he is settled in.
4 weeks is no time at all, it takes a long time to bond properly with a horse and gain each others trust.
I also found that a low starch diet helped.
Good luck with him, he sounds lovely.
 
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