Nervous Horse Help!!

I

izzytoyah

Active Member
Joined
18 October 2023
Messages
30
Visit site
So i have a very nervous mare, she is 17 years old and 14.3. She is extremely jumpy and the smallest things can scare her, she jumps at other horses knocking poles and tractors driving past etc (mostly just loud noises).

Surprisingly she’s amazing with cars when hacking. She also struggles with small/different places, when it got icey the ramp at my yard was too dangerous to walk up with her so we had to go a different way to her stable and where we went had a slightly lower ceiling and is quite tight and she gets really nervous and when we finally get her going she trots through it.

I’m just really confused about why she’s scared. I’ve not had her to long so i’m not sure if maybe something has happened in the past which has really spooked her.

My biggest problem with her is that she struggles with going over poles although she’s very on and off with this. Some days she’ll be terrified to go over poles and will buck and reverse to avoid going over it (and when she does she will jump it). And other days she’ll happily jump anything put in front of her.

I’ve noticed that she is quite nosy and pays a lot of attention to what other horses are doing then will look down and notice the pole and she will get scared. I’ve been trying to keep her head straight and focused on what she’s doing but i’m not entirely sure how to do this and if this is the main problem.

I’ve also been thinking at it could be load noises maybe when she hits the pole not entirely sure.

I’m just hoping someone knows what i could do and what the problem may be!

Thanks for reading xx
 
izzytoyah said:
About 3 months x
Click to expand...

The fact that her behaviour is variable makes me wonder if pain is involved- if she knows on that day going over poles/jumps is going to cause pain, then she'll likely try to get out of it if she can.

If you're certain there's no pain involved, then I'd seriously consider focusing on flatwork without poles until you've established ways to keep her focused on the flat, and have more trust in each other to help minimise the spooking. It's very possible she feels you get tense, and then that winds her up further. I'd try to set her up to succeed every time, and end on a good note- this may mean taking a few steps back with your own riding, for now. But if you can build confidence on the flat, even just for a few weeks, and then return to poles, it may really help.
 
As above I wouldn't ride her over poles until you know each other better but inhand work over poles could be very beneficial. If you put a pole in the gateway, so that she has to go over it on her way in/out that should help her to treat poles in a very matter of fact way.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top