How to deal with my horse freaking out at other horses in fields

wench

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Took pony out for an in-hand hack today, all going well until we get to a field with horses in, and one charged up to us, and upset mine, badly.

Walked a bit further then went back the way I came, as on a road, and not wanting to cause an accident.

Went another way for half an hour, and then went back the "naughty" way. Had another tantrum, no where near the horses. Managed to calm her down. Stopped until she got bored, moved forwards two steps, and stopped until she got bored again and walked forwards.

Left it at that, and went home.

This field is on the way to the only off road hacking available to me without boxing up, so I'm determined that we will get over it one way or another.

I don't have access to a sensible horse to follow, or someone to lead me.

How would others go about getting over this problem?
 

BethanT

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Do you know what I would actually suggest, is long-reining. Continue with what you are doing then when walking past fairly happily start to long-rein. Of course when first starting this have someone walking with the horse if you can then get them to gradually move away.

Not sure if that is what anyone else would suggest but its something I would try.
 

wench

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Hi thanks for the suggestion. To be honest I wouldn't dare long rein anything on the roads round here they are a bit too busy for it.
 

spider

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Maybe some more inhand work at home so he gets used to concentrating on you and ignoring distractions or going past early on a Sunday morning when there might be less traffic.
 

Moggy in Manolos

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How would others go about getting over this problem?

I think they only thing will be repetition tbh, Nell was a bit naughty/scared at times when in hand hacking out alone at the start, she went to try bolt home a couple of times but I managed to hang on.
Try and ignore as best you can you horse getting itself in to a tiz, that is about my best advice, shrug off them being a drama queen and keep plugging away at it, good luck:)

ETS: Do you take treats? I have rewarded Nell with food the whole time as I have done practically the whole backing process on my own, risky but did not have much alternative tbh, but food has helped me out many a time, I find a pocket full of chopped up carrots can help change their thoughts! Might be worth a shot
 
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Shysmum

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Sounds a bit of a tricky one. Shy is always "shocked" to see new horses in fields, but I am very lucky that he just stops and shouts out "Good Afternoon" politely.

One suggestion with your horse - could you get someone to walk on foot with you past the "naughty field" ? Another horse may copy your's reaction, but someone on foot or bike might help ?

Other than that, it's desensitizing the hard way - repetition.

Would be interested to hear how things work out for you, and other people's suggestion too :)
 

pennyturner

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When my little Dartmor stallion was small, he was the devil himself to walk past horses in a field. When we couldn't geld him it became very important that (at 12.2hh) he learned to be a quiet children's ride.

There was a big hunting yard just up the road from us, with lots of fresh young Irish mares. We made it very very clear to him that his job was to trot strongly past. Any sign of slowing, or looking, or swinging his quarters towards the fence, and he would be reminded with the whip to send him on.

For a while of course, he would 'rush' a little bit (ridden and driven), when he passed other horses, but that's OK because it's forward and it's safe. Over time he realised that it was OK to walk calmly too. He still whickers under his breath at other horses, but he wouldn't dream of doing anything else.
 

GeorgeyGal

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I'm doing inhand walks with my 2.5 yr old but what I've learnt is to take control in those situations before they escalate, I tried giving her line to begin with, big mistake she just got more and more hyped up. Next time I reassured her but was stern also, keeping her head close and asking her to walk on nicely, making it known that as long as I am on the end of the rope no silliness. I guess its a case of keeping their attention on you before its too late. Now I can let her have her head for a look and it doesn't progress to silliness. I take her to look at the neighbouring horses regularly which helps. She used to freak at seeing riders, not spooky with traffic or anything like that but show her a horse and rider and it was full acrobatics! Slow repetition and she is much less reactive, I can even lead her past horses legging it round a field without a worry which is a huge result!
 

wench

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I planned on taking food with me next time. Quite a food orientated horse which should help. I've only had her a few weeks and unfortunately not had much turnout this week. Will sort this out for next week.

Interestly Sunday morning would probably be the worst time to take her down there as we have to go past church! I'm generally not around at the weekends which doesn't help, but will work on the problem when I can.

She's exercised by the yard so can ask for some help from them.

Another question is , I need something more than just normal bridle and bit to walk her in. Choices of chiffney, stallion chain, or minty Roberts head collar? Any ideas on this one?
 

AmyMay

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Just carry on with what you're doing. Most horses will have a silly moment when confronted with other animals running around on the other side of the hedge.

Just make sure you are walking out with a bridle and not a headcollar.

Don't take food. All your horse needs is the experience of the wider world - not bribary.

Edt say. Just stick with the bridle. If you have no control with that more work at home is needed. Is this horse unbroken?
 
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Moggy in Manolos

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If your horse is food orientated hopefully it will help quite a bit, Nell is massively foody and I reward her all the time as we nearly always hack alone, I give her a treat for a good steady trot and canter as well as being well behaved in tricky situations such as horses running in the next field.

TBH, personally I would go for the pressure halter, others may think differently but I would much rather pressure in that way then too much in the mouth. I walked Nell out for months and months with her normal head collar under her bridle, then when I started hopping on I still kept the head collar on as she would nap quite a bit, so it was handy to hop off and walk her, plus I tended to get on and off very often as I was doing this on my own and 40,50 or 100 yards of no trouble and I wanted to quickly end it on a good note and hop off if that makes sense, and all the time the food helped me reward her. I have in the last say 5 months left the head collar at home as she totally gets her job bless her cotton socks, sorry that was a long winded way of saying use a halter hehe!

ETS: haha, polar opposite to Amymay's suggestion! My method has totally worked for me, one size does not fit all after all, good luck with whatever method you use
 

Moggy in Manolos

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My horse is broken in an old enough to know better!

Yes they should know better but does not mean they do eh?! I think the same rewards can be applied to older broken horses,be it food or pats or both, it does not have to be just for backing purposes,in case you thought I had lost touch with what you were trying to achieve OP. I used to take polos out hacking with Seren in later years, I wanted to give her a little treat for being a wonderful and willing horse, don't see a problem with it personally, I would hack without too just to make that clear, but I like to thank my horse in a simple way it understands for its good behaviour :)
 

wench

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It's doubtful they go that way very often. It's a 40 minute walk to the off road riding, which in itself is a very small country park with about a mile of bridle way. It's a four mile round trip to get there and some of the roads are quite busy.

Today was a fact finding exercise to see how the hack there would go.

The in hand walking around the areas she been in before (housing estate) she was fine. She's good in traffic even when a stupid man squeezed his way past me and horse and a transit van (barely enough room for two cars stupid driver).

However the naughty road is not too far away so I will ask them to take her that way out hacking. We don't tend to hack for miles/hours on end as the roads are busy.
 

AmyMay

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Don't they tell you what they've done/where they've gone?

I'd start off by asking them exactly how the horse is to hack out. Where they go and how they deal with problems - as they sound as if they know the horse better than you.
 

wench

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Don't they tell you what they've done/where they've gone?

I'd start off by asking them exactly how the horse is to hack out. Where they go and how they deal with problems - as they sound as if they know the horse better than you.

No they don't generally tell me, but will if I ask. Only had the horse three weeks, and I bought her from the yard she's at, where she's been for some months. She's good to hack, I could have ridden around the housing estate on my own no problems. Well hopefully anyway!

As previous post, they don't tend to hack out much anyway, and she won't have do e that much on her own.
 

Gorseyhorsey

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For what it's worth I do think (from experience) that a led horse creates more interest from other grazing horses than a ridden one would, so you may not have the same problem when riding.
 

JLD

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Mine would go past anything at all except horses. The smaller the scarier. They didn't even have to move to set him off, he could leap and spin if they looked at him. The best I could do was keep a contact, keep my leg on and March strongly past hoping they didn't move. He was the same when I lost him at 16 as when I got him at 7 despite going past horses on every hack 2-3 x / week !
 

Meowy Catkin

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I would do everything to stack the cards in your favour. So put a coupling on the bit and use a long leadrope/leadrein rather than reins and wear gloves. Then go out when the traffic is at it's quietest and walk her past the horse field. Get her attention as you approach it - I tend to talk to the horse (steady, just walk nicely etc...) as I want the horse to focus on me and walking quietly. If you do the route that passes that field regularly, you should find that she gets better each time you do it, until it becomes normal to pass fields with loose horses in and she gets over it.
 

wench

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She happily went past other fields with horses in it yesterday, nothing else came charging over to her. And she's probably seen the fields many more times that the naughty field
 

Ranyhyn

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I think you did really well until you gave up. Just keep at it, but mainly I personally wouldn't have let her NOT go past them. However long it took. Teaching her to trust you unquestionably means you need to get her to do the thing she doesn't want to do, to find out it was fine, thus cementing her trust in your decisions.
That's just me personally mind, and would be different if I was on a young horse etc but an older horse whose trying it on...this would always be my advice. You simply must win the argument.
This is coming from someone who has always hacked alone past anything I want to. Thats not because Ive never been tested mind, I've spent hours sat in a lane on a horse who was freaking over a bin... but I won and after then the moment he saw a bin he gave in almost the instant he saw it - knowing what the outcome would be :)
 

wench

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Trust me I didn't give up. I did the best at the time with the equipment I had and the mood the horse was in!!!
 

Honey08

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You just have to keep doing it purposefully.

One of my horses loves to charge to the fence when horses go past. If they are trotting he often doesn't bother. One of my neighbours used to get off and lead her horse and be a bit panicy (rider much more than horse), and my gelding seemed to find that even more exciting. Eventually my neighbour realised nothing would happen and learned to just firmly ride past. During all this, her instructor would ride her horse past one day a week, and there were no issues at all, so it seemed the rider's confidence levels were important..
 

Ranyhyn

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Stopped until she got bored, moved forwards two steps, and stopped until she got bored again and walked forwards.

Left it at that, and went home.

Sorry it was this part that mislead me to think you had just decided you didn't want to fight any more and went home. My mistake!
 
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