How would you deal with this whilst hacking

Supertrooper

Supertrooper

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You're on a country road and you have to go past a orchard that now has very low wire electric type fencing round it. Your friends normally 100% sane cob gets jumpy and your less confident horse even more so. Initially you think it's because there might be pigs in there but as you get a bit further along you can hear very loud clicking of the electric fence. Your horse jumps/spooks everytime he hears the click.

I had this situation on Sunday, we got past it going both ways but he wasn't happy and was generally unsure. He has electric fencing and that clicks sometimes so I'm still not sure if there may have been pigs in there that we couldn't see and that was making him worse.

I kept calm and carried on chatting to
him and thankfully no cars were coming past!

How do you deal with it though when they're spooking at noises?
 
Just by staying confident yourself to give your horse confidence, keep pushing him forward & talking to him just as you were doing.. & I would take him past it whenever possible on a hack to get him used to it.
 
Ditto, just try and act as if nothing is going on, just keep going past talking to the horse. There's a bird scarer in the field I school/jump in and it makes my horse jump at first, but after a while she ignores it :)
 
We had the same thing! The normally bombproof Blobby would start breathing heavily, jogging, snorting, shaking his head and just generally act really weird! It was only along a 20m stretch of path...odd! And sounds like you're doing the best you can, we just had to stay calm and ride him through it, firmly, but kindly.
 
You need to come to an arrangement with your horse. Danny and I have one- If there are actual dragons in the vicinty then he can deal with them in the best way he knows how. Everything else is my department! This includes plastic bags under his feet, hedge monsters and one memorable occasion a 6 foot inflatable singing carrot popping up infront of us- he doesn't bat an eyelid! (although this did fall apart when we came across a black panther a few years back!)

You need to give him confidence, lots of hugging with your leg, soothing talk, nursery rhymes to give you a beat to ride to and lots of sweets when they go passed it. He needs confidence in you to get him out of any sticky situation.

Also horses only react to what you react to (?!) Ignore it and carry on!
 
depends on how bad the situation gets tbh. Last night we did exactly as described above at the house of terror which usually involves a rear or 2, a spin and skid but last night we confidently walked by with a little hesitation/banana-ing :D then 10 mins on we met a field of cows, which ARE most definitely going to eat him and to avoid getting pissed off with down the steepest hill in a 5 mile radius, I just got off, patted him and walked by without too much kerfuffle :) got back on and enjoyed the rest of my ride. I used to have to get off at the house of terror so we are making progress :)
 
Well firstly i'd lead them in hand up to it a couple times. Sounds stupid, when ridden talk to the electric fencing, ride on stay calm. Don't pat your horse because if you "reassure" it, it won't think of it in that way, you're just confirming the fear. If you stay calm, and think happy thoughts he/she will:D We have a arab, we're use to this. Hahah. Hacks are always eventful. LOL.
 
Agree with all the advice here already. I came across a red & white taped area that was flapping in the wind the other day, making a loud crackling noise. Horse was just discussing with me whether it was scary or not, ears fixed in direction of said tape, so I sang very loudly as we went passed and it worked - horses ears focused on my voice, not the tape!

This wasn't on the road though, so such a casual approach might not be the best for you, in isolation at least. Could try a bit of shoulder-in as you pass, so horse isn't looking at it.
 
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