horse spooks and bolts on lunge- what to do?!

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thehorsediva

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My horse seems to be having a bit of a bananas moment! He is usually very chilled but we have having a right week of it and he seems terrified of anything. He has always been a bit unpredicatable on the lunge and has taken to spooking and bolting. Whats the best way to react..send him on and keep him going or is this encouraging him to run away from whatever he's "seen", or should I be calmly stopping him asap? I am not 100% sure if he is just mucking about or generally terrified of his own shadow...I think its probably the latter as he is not a naughty type really.
 
Oopsy. Doesn't sound good. I have a few suggestions but just a couple of quick questions - is your lunge area in an open school or is it fenced off? If it's in an open school, can you fence a corner off to lunge in? (I find the jumps make a good barrier). Also, are you lunging in anything gadget-wise? And is your horse ridden?

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If it's just high spirits I just calmly let them carry on, then once they've stopped leaping and cavorting about ask then calmly to trot on and get them working in a good trot to get them listening to you again.
 
He is lunged in tack with side reins. EVERYTHING has been checked- back, saddle, teeth etc so its not pain related. He is normally ridden but he seems to have 3/4 good weeks of progress and then total meltdown (which we are currently in) so I am not riding him at mo as there is no way I could sit to his "moments". I am lunging in a school, he wont bolt down the arena he tends to stay on the circle and spook forwards/ inwards and then fly (and he is BIG!)! He seems terribly insecure. I am lunging him as I want to be able to start riding him again but not until he "settles" down a bit and I wouldnt feel confident riding him at the mo, but happy to lunge and deal with whatever. I do combine lunging and riding anyway to help build muscle and give him exercise.
 
He sounds disobedient to me - and the lunge provides quite a lot of opportunity for a disobedient horse to piss about.

Bucking, falling in, spinning etc, are all behaviours for the feild and not what you're after in your ground or ridden work.

I would not lunge until you have established better behaviour with ground work and then once obedient to ground work, progress to being about 12ft away (work at a distance) from him, using a longer line with him on the outer track. Once obedient here, then progress onto lungeing. But, only do so once you feel you have absolute control over the 'stop', 'go' 'back' and control over the 'straightness', ie, shoulders.

So, start with ground work where he should bascially STOP, GO, and then go BACKWARDS for you. You can use a longer line with a long whip (not for punishment but as an extention of your hand cues/aids) for this work.

Once he's obedient to this work, you can then move onto working him at a DISTANCE of about 12 foot. You walk along side him - perhaps slightly in front - using the long whip or perhpas the end of the long line to 'direct' his shoulders to stay straight and not fall in and stay straight. This is the beginning of NOT FALLING IN on the LUNGE. Once you have mastered this, you'll find that he doesnt fall in on a larger lunge circle.

He may get a bit 'tense' and you may have to apply quite a bit of pressure on the headcollar/bridle/etc before he understands that he doesn't do anything until you tell him to do it, such as stop, etc. Its quite hard to describe this, and much easier to show.

This work (at about 12ft with you walking by the side of him) is all about getting him to stay on the outer track (you can move anywhere you like once obedient) where you have control over his shoulders. (It's very difficult to describe and best done when you can see what the trainer is doing.)

Falling in on the lunge is really a lack of control over the shoulders and he's being disobedient about being STRAIGHT.

But, once he can be disobedient on the lunge, it's very difficult to correct (without going back to some basic gound work) as it provides the horse with a very easy way of falling in, spinning, etc as you have very little control. So, control should be trained and achieved through groundwork first, then work at a distance then finally lungeing, so that he clearly understand the boundaries.

Hope that helps.

PS, I would not use side reins for this ground work or work at a distance. You want him to have the freedom to feel the 'pressure' you're exerting for the 'stop', 'go' etc. If he were to wear sidereins the pressure may be diluted or confused.

It might also be worth checking that he does have enough turnout (I know it's so difficult at the moment as they're all going a bit loopy with about 18 months of rain) as energy levels can override work you want to achieve, but I'm sure you know this.
 
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My horse is rather 'excitable' on the lunge too. Bucking, leaping, tanking off, broncing the lot! I just hold on until he realizes it doesn't get him anywhere!
 
Thanks people.

I do a lot of groundwork with him and again he is very quiet unless he is spooked by something. I will continue to do groundwork and I will also implement the groundwork at a longer distance. After ongoing days of this I really feel that it is his insecurities driving his behaviour...its just difficult to know how to give him more confidence.
 
Some horses just take longer at the basic stuff before it clicks. i had a similar horse and just started doing groundwork and then 'lunging' in a very small circle on a leadrope - working on just walk, and then in trot once i knew he was working properly. In the early days if his attention wandered for a second, I would quickly move and get it focused back on me. I didn't even attempt canter or lunging till i knew his attention was on me 100%. If I was you I'd keep him super close, and in slower paces, and work on keeping his attention completely focused on you. I would keep the circle small so he couldn't run. If he has an excess of energy causing the problem then turn him out or let him run freely in the arena to get rid of it first.

Is your horse ok on basic groundwork? it took tons of sessions with my exracer making sure his attention was focused on me when i was just leading him in walk and trot. It took a while to get him to respect my space and concentrate on basic stuff like weaving around wings and going over poles. i didn't even attempt to lunge him till i was sure his wasn't looking elsewhere for stuff to spook at. The NH guy i worked with was great - he said my lad should alwasy have his ears and eyes on me, and as soon as they went elsewhere i was to get them back immediately. That stopped all the spooking for me.
 
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