Overcoming arena nerves (in horse) - advice please

[Jericho]

have a lovely 5 yr old 15.2hh gelding who we bought last June - very trusting temperament, a little hot headed at times but nothing silly or horrible, just exuberance. Has a really lovely jump on him and clearly enjoys it but he is finding it very hard to focus when in an actual competition arena, most notably big open outside ones. We bought him to bring on to event and he is amazing cross country, and been xc schooling a number of times over the summer and he was brilliant, really chilled even when it was an open schooling day with lots of horses there. He is fine going to jumping lessons/clinics and have taken him to a couple of quieter indoor showjumping shows at tiny heights and he was OK there and likewise with dressage shows he seems fine but we have twice been to bigger venues with a busier vibe and he just lost his head completely, not focussing, lost all contact and ended up cat leaping at every jump or slamming brakes on (it was like he just didn't see the jumps). We found out that he did this with previous owner so i think it has probably scared him a little. Daughter lost a lot of confidence at the shows and this then fed through to his jumping in lessons and clinics and feel we are going backwards now. Trainer has said right back to basics - grids, small jumps, lots of variety, exactly what we were doing 4 months ago. Its not the height of the jumps which worries him although he can be looky with fillers. I know the answer is experience experience and experience - just taking him to lots and lots of venues, types of shows until it all becomes less exciting and lots of lessons (although he was an absolute gem in lessons) but does anyone else have any ideas to help him focus? I am not a great believer in the one dose calmers, do they work? Willing to try anything and looking for a bit of moral support and advice from people who have had similar problems and over come them? Many thanks

 

[paddi22]

I had a similar one, and the only way he got over it was to bring him to tons and tons of busy shows, and then enter small classes where he could literally walk over the jumps if needed. I also found doing busy inhand shows with him really helped. Without the stress of a rider and jumps etc, it just seemed to help him adjust to the busyness. But it did take a bit of time, but the key was to keep the actual work part as easy as possible, we walked a lot of crosspoles for a while!

 

[Shay]

One shot calmers can help - if nothing else they calm the rider! (So does rescue remedy.) Often when you are at something more buzzy the rider expects him to react and their tension actually increases his. If they have a shot of calmer the rider is less expectant of spooky behaviour; they relax a bit, then he relaxes a bit and so on. I'm not entirely convinced it makes any difference to the horse. But we have used them (on the horse) for my daughter when she was in junior BS on the sharp or spooky ones.

PS - don't tell her. She still thinks they work.....

 

[SmallSteps]

Slightly alternative view:

Fake it until you make it.
Yes back to basics BUT sometimes when trying to build up confidence, particularly rider confidence, nothing sets you back more than feeling like you've been set back.

So personally rather than doing what you were doing four months ago, I'd do something that allows you to feel that you're progressing/ acknowledges how far you've already come. So if (FOR EXAMPLE ONLY) you were doing 80cm on arena-based SJ lessons but now need to go back to 60cm, why not do 60cm cross-country lessons/pleasure rides? If you were doing grids, why not put a much bigger spread at the end to remind you how his ability has progressed whilst still setting up to succeed & building confidence? If you were competing before, why not do pairs?

When you're chalking up experience in this case remember it's positive experience you're after for horse and rider, so whatever happens at the shows don't wring your hands at the disaster, pat yourselves on the back and give the horse a carrot. It takes a lot of motivation to go to a show when you know it's not likely to result in any glory, or even dignity, but you went and that's fantastic. During this phase all you're trying to achieve is to make horse and rider feel that shows are fun, going into the ring is fun, or at least survivable, so lots of praise and don't over-correct.

I know my arena-shy horse can jump 1.10m from trot, so if I'm in an arena that I know is likely to set him off, we only jump below 1.10m, and if we need to we trot. If he does get tense, I try to ignore it and pretend I'm a Whitaker - all still unflappable calm and core muscles. If he does have a stop someone might shout "oh no, he should be jumping 50cm!" but I let that bounce off me, carry on, and the next time/week he jumps round confidently, and the next month we have fewer sticky rounds, and we plough on and we stay friends. Mine goes enthusiastically into the ring, where he still sometimes makes mistakes, it's all good. It's frustrating and it's slow but I can see the mistakes getting fewer. First and foremost I need my him to love his job otherwise why should he bother? Just for now, you're not trying to jump clear rounds/get great dressage scores, you're trying to go between the fences /boards in a more confident rhythm than last time, and finish happier than you started. You'll know which rounds are better although the scores might not show it.

You can't tell people or horses to stop being tense, but it's one of the few problems where ignoring it really helps it to go away.

 

[Orangehorse]

One shot calmers can help - if nothing else they calm the rider! (So does rescue remedy.) Often when you are at something more buzzy the rider expects him to react and their tension actually increases his. If they have a shot of calmer the rider is less expectant of spooky behaviour; they relax a bit, then he relaxes a bit and so on. I'm not entirely convinced it makes any difference to the horse. But we have used them (on the horse) for my daughter when she was in junior BS on the sharp or spooky ones.

PS - don't tell her. She still thinks they work.....

There is a lot of truth in this. If you think your horse is going to buck it generally does.

Worth trying a calmer though. And take the horse out every week and do easy things that they find fun and gradually work up.