Horse with Stage Fright - any answers

[FiFi61]

Hi I have a 7yo British sports horse who goes into shut down when we go somewhere new. I have been to numerous clinics and competitions over the last 2 years but when she is somewhere for the first few times she cant function. At home and regular clinics she is more than capable, she is a sensible horse not particularly flighty or spooky but can look at the odd filler, but out I can hardly get her to move. Any thoughts please.

 

[khalswitz]

Hi I have a 7yo British sports horse who goes into shut down when we go somewhere new. I have been to numerous clinics and competitions over the last 2 years but when she is somewhere for the first few times she cant function. At home and regular clinics she is more than capable, she is a sensible horse not particularly flighty or spooky but can look at the odd filler, but out I can hardly get her to move. Any thoughts please.

Mine is similar - jumps fab at home, but loads of refusals out jumping at comps due to ring fear. He's only just at the point if not throwing me off in the jump warm up!!

For me it has just been loads and loads of outings to one small class, and ignoring the silliness and riding on. It's a slow process, but he is slowly improving - still stops but for example we now have a controllable canter between fences, and no deer leaping, so definite improvement.

The more confidence he gains the better - I stuck to one competition venue to start with and got him used to what was expected, then started trying new venues. It helped bit to blow his brain too much.

 

[elliefiz]

Google warwick Schiller and take a look at his YouTube videos- completely changed my perspective on my spooky eventer. He has been round intermediate tracks, has flown to the USA and back as a racehorse yet at 13 years of age will panic and bolt if he gets too worried or afraid. Been following this guy for a while and horse is going much better using his groundwork principles. The stuff he says about a horses " worry cup overflowing" is really eye opening and completely changed my approach to my horse being afraid of things.

 

[FiFi61]

Google warwick Schiller and take a look at his YouTube videos- completely changed my perspective on my spooky eventer. He has been round intermediate tracks, has flown to the USA and back as a racehorse yet at 13 years of age will panic and bolt if he gets too worried or afraid. Been following this guy for a while and horse is going much better using his groundwork principles. The stuff he says about a horses " worry cup overflowing" is really eye opening and completely changed my approach to my horse being afraid of things.

Thanks for that Ellie, I'll have a look on YouTube.

 

[TarrSteps]

To be fair, WS is just teaching good old horsemanship. I think his videos are good (just be aware of the time frames involved when you're managing your expectations because most of the videos are not in real time and some of what works is patience and time) but the conscientious application of any proven system is going to get you results.

There are two aspects, training and exposure. One, the horse has to be what the cowboys call 'broke'. Your aids have to work all the time, under all conditions. You have to be able to rely on the horse's reactions. We don't train for the 90% of the time things go okay and the horse is compliant, we train for the %10 of the time it really matters. From the basics up - does the horse turn left, turn right, stop, go, yield shoulders and quarters? Can you do that at all speeds? (One thing that can be as issue with western style groundwork is it concentrates on the horse slowing down but there isn't necessarily much explanation of how to transition into competitive situations where you actually need the horse to a bit wound up.)

Basic training, correct reactions, are just ways of fostering attentive relaxation - emptying the worry cup.

After you can rely on the responses at home, you need to start applying them elsewhere. Go back as far in the schooling as you need to to get a correct response, even if this is to ground work. I'll often walk a horse in hand or give it a short longe if that's what it needs. I'm not a huge fan of trying to do this work at competitions initially as there is rarely the time, space and freedom to work through properly. I know people get it done but quite often the horse isn't learning all the right lessons and the 'little bit' tense/quick/slow continues to be an issue or even becomes more of an issue as demands progress.

Some horses are easy enough that this isn't an issue. Yay. If your horse isn't that easy then you'll just have to take the slightly longer route.

After the horse is relaxed in various schooling situations AND attentive and correct to the aids, then go out again and try in a competitive environment. I find this is cheaper and more successful on the long run than just doing the same thing over and over.