Scare on Hack yesterday... Will she always be scared now??

[chickeninabun]

Went for a little pootle yesterday and went down a bit of road that Molly hasn't been down before. There was a dog in a pen, barking, in someone's garden. She went past it ok first time (just a bit of nifty dressage sideways thingies across the road

!), but on the way back the dog barked again and jumped up at it's pen and the metal fencing made a funny jingling sound, cue me and horse cantering down the middle of the road!

Luckily no cars to be seen and managed to pull her up fairly easily. Then we went past another house, 100 yard down the road, and some more dogs barked and ran towards the garden fence (no metal jingling this time tho!) and I felt her about to go, I couldn't stop her and she carted me off in canter down the road again!

We pulled up fairly easily, but she was jumpy the rest of the way home then.
So the first time she was genuinly scared of the fencing noise, but second tme it was just dogs. Do you think she'll remember and always be scared of dogs now?

A few months ago we hacked past an germand shepherd dog launcing itself at a gate and barking and she didn't bat an eyelid!!

 

[indiat]

Could it just be the weather winding her up and making her overreact? These winds have been relentless and I find my lot are a bit tense. My daughter's pony spooked badly in a corner of an arena she has been ridden in for about 15 years!

 

[kateknights]

Hi, I know how you feel this has happened to me before and yes it is scarey!
Could you not ride out with someone who's horse is ok with dogs barking, jumping up etc? That will definately put your mind at rest and should relax your horse too? That's the only advice i could give really.
Hope this helps
Let us know
Kate x

 

[stencilface]

Did you take her back past it? I really don't like them running away from things and learning they can 'escape' it from running away. I get the as close to the scary things as I can, and will always turn them around if they even dare try to run away.

 

[Tickles]

Please don't worry it will be forever. Indiat is right about the weather.

Unsuitable Chestnut Arab sometimes jumps at dogs when they are in new/unexpected places/doing unexpected things but is generally fine. If possible (i.e. safe) I try to make sure we go back and have a look at soemthing we've been scared of so it can then go on the 'safe' list.

If you can get a friend like kate1 said you might try deliberately going past a few (definitely securely fenced in!) dogs together.

 

[chickeninabun]

Thanks for the help everyone.
There is only me and another lady on our yard and she doesn't ride very much anymore, but I might be able to presuade her to come out with me.
I did think about turning around and going back past the dogs again (the ones just barking not the scary metal fence one!

) but chickened out and decided I'd rather go home than plaster myself on the road

!! Will try and ride past them again soon, for both our sakes!

Am quite proud of myself tho, as am usually a complete wuss once something has scared me a bit, but I wasn't particularly scared, as I didn't feel like she was going to bolt with me. And also I managed to sit up, where as I normally hunch up when scared/taken by surprise, but had to sit up to haul on the reins!!

 

[stencilface]

I just know that letting them run can cause problems - obviously! My sisters horse is pretty bombproof, and isn't scared of anything, but likes to takes the mickey alot. My mum rides him a couple of times a week and she lets him get away with blue murder - spooking and turning tail and running. It only takes a couple of rebuffed attempts with him doing this with my sister before he remembers who's on his back though.

We try to tell our mum, (mainly to put two hands on the reins and to pay attention to the world around her

) but unfortunately to no avail. Horse is 19 next year, and if anything some habits are becoming worse

 

[terrierliz]

Hi chickeninabun, as you know I'm not very far away and could come and ride out with you - Dylan is fairly unflappable and seems to give other horses confidence.

Let me know what you think