Spooking and running forwards

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BayWelshThing

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Hello, I've been a regular lurker for a long time and found reading posts very useful but thought I'd ask for some advice with my horse. He's a 6 year old Welsh D and I've had him over a year now.
He's generally fine with 'spooky objects' and most traffic but sudden noises often make him jump, birds flying out of bushes or similar. This sometimes causes him to suddenly canter forwards away from it, he never goes far so I wouldn't describe it as bolting but I'm very conscious that it could end badly if he does it in the wrong place!
I'm looking for ideas on how to teach him not to run forwards, or should I be trying to desensitise him to sudden noises by borrowing friends to jump out at him?!
Thanks for reading :)
 
Personally I wouldn't deliberately spook him but I think his reaction is a babyish thing and my sec D did it when she was newly broken in and hacking out.

The more we hacked alone, the less extreme her reactions became and her preferred response to sudden surprises settled down to a teeny tap dance/ semi splits with the front legs or a little start forwards and nothing more.
 
By all means do as much despooking as you like, anything that helps you to build your trust in each other. Hacking with a steady companion will help him to understand that he doesn't need to react so violently but your own reaction is key. If you jump at the sudden appearance of a pheasant, or at his reaction, his reaction will be stronger. You need to be aware of your surroundings and his body, language, without being tense, if he reacts to something, you need to react instantly to his reaction. Some lessons specifically focusing on your reactions would be helpful.
 
Also, it is a horse. They kinda 'do' that. Comes with being a flight animal. If yours tends to go forwards that is great as easy to sit to and usually safest as you're most likely to be going that way anyway :-)
 
Agree with GirlFriday. In your shoes I'd be pleased. Those who slam the brakes on, spin round and take off in the opposite direction are far worse, as are those who take a sudden big leap sideways, both of which could end up with you both in the path of traffic. At least something that runs forwards a few strides is still basically where it ought to be. He will become more comfortable with sudden noises over time.
 
GirlFriday said:
Also, it is a horse. They kinda 'do' that. Comes with being a flight animal. If yours tends to go forwards that is great as easy to sit to and usually safest as you're most likely to be going that way anyway :-)
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I tend to agree with this although some are worse than others and I don't always think it's an age thing one of my Arabs does what I call a spook and go and in the school if there is a particular corner or object his looking at he speeds up when near to it, so I make him go back to walk in his scary area and if he tries to whizz off I just use half halts to keep him slower, when hacking he will leap and sometimes run from the object I just try to sit with him and not panic and after a few strides he stops, his always done it and his 13 now and if anything his got worse with age.

I also find mine does it more if his not got much to focus on so I do some schooling out hacking to keep his brain active and his better, in the school often once he gets working and we are doing more difficult stuff he tends to forget about whatever is making him spook and be silly.

I do prefer his spooking reaction to my other Arab he just spins and has been known to run in the opposite direction, his so sharp we are often facing the wrong way and I don't even know how we got there and he often has no regard to what is in his way.
 
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dreamcometrue said:
Personally I wouldn't deliberately spook him but I think his reaction is a babyish thing and my sec D did it when she was newly broken in and hacking out.

The more we hacked alone, the less extreme her reactions became and her preferred response to sudden surprises settled down to a teeny tap dance/ semi splits with the front legs or a little start forwards and nothing more.
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Thanks for the reply. I'm hoping it will get better as he gets older! I thought he had improved as he very rarely did it over winter, but I was hacking a lot less and there were fewer birds around to jump out at him! He seems to be pushing boundaries a bit more this year too which I'm sure isn't helping.
 
Pearlsasinger said:
By all means do as much despooking as you like, anything that helps you to build your trust in each other. Hacking with a steady companion will help him to understand that he doesn't need to react so violently but your own reaction is key. If you jump at the sudden appearance of a pheasant, or at his reaction, his reaction will be stronger. You need to be aware of your surroundings and his body, language, without being tense, if he reacts to something, you need to react instantly to his reaction. Some lessons specifically focusing on your reactions would be helpful.
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Thanks for replying, yes I'm sure I'm a big part of the problem which I really want to change! When I was riding another pony last year I caught myself preparing to need to stop him when a bush rustled behind us even though the pony hadn't reacted at all! So I'm really trying not to react and ignore it if he does spook.
 
I hate overly spooky horses. But my diva, as solid as she is, is still a horse and occasionally things take her by surprise. When they do, i.e. The pheasant appearing out the crop or the heron out the Birkett (I hate that heron!) her answer is a bum tuck and few strides forward of canter. I just gather my reins up, stop her and then carry on as normal. I much prefer this reaction to the spin or leap, I must admit.

The only time that it caused a problem was hacking out in a local woods, just before the part that joins the road. I heard a car coming up behind the wall just as she started eyeballing a tree stump that she didn't like. Stupidly, absolutely stupidly, I asked her to go past the tree stump, I just didn't think she would canter off as normally she only does it when something takes her by surprise. But she did. I would call it as close to a bolt as she is capable of because I couldn't pull her up, I knew we were headed out into the road and I knew a car was coming. Do you know what I did? Shut my eyes. That's how much I was convinced we were both going to be hit. Basically the entrance to the woods is so concealed that cars just fly past. Several horses have been hit here.
By some miracle, as we cantered out into the road, the car was still about thirty yards away, I must have misjudged how close it was. If it had been closer we would have been on the bonnet. For a while after that I was super cautious about asking her past spooky things near roads, but she has never ever done that again. I've broken out into a sweat reliving that!
 
Learn to do an emergency stop by disengaging the hind quarters. Practise- by doing a slower kinder version when riding and also visualise doing it quickly with a bolting horse. Hopefully you won't need it but it will give you a lot more confidence that you can deal with the situation if it arisised, and I think at the moment your horse needs to get that confidence from you.
 
GirlFriday said:
Also, it is a horse. They kinda 'do' that. Comes with being a flight animal. If yours tends to go forwards that is great as easy to sit to and usually safest as you're most likely to be going that way anyway :-)
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Thanks, yes I agree it could be worse and they all spook sometimes, many horses I've ridden have done this occasionally I just want to make sure it doesn't get worse! :)
 
Sugar_and_Spice said:
Agree with GirlFriday. In your shoes I'd be pleased. Those who slam the brakes on, spin round and take off in the opposite direction are far worse, as are those who take a sudden big leap sideways, both of which could end up with you both in the path of traffic. At least something that runs forwards a few strides is still basically where it ought to be. He will become more comfortable with sudden noises over time.
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Hiya, yes it's pretty rare he does spooks like that thankfully, touch wood! He'll have little looks at things but it's normally forwards he goes at any speed! The problem is quite a lot of our hacking tracks aren't very safe to canter on, for example some bits are very rutted or boggy! So these are the bits where I'm worried he might do it
 
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