Spooking - combo of fright & evasion

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Lorrie66

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Hi all,

I'm looking for various tips for trial & error to help my horse decrease his spooking. I know there are various threads on here already but I have a theory about my particular spooks and wanted some other opinions/experiences/advice.

My horse is 9 yrs going on 4! I think he has had a sheltered life and although has been well schooled at some point (lateral moves are v good) his 3 basic paces are erratic and we have the spooks! I want to get walk, trot & canter far more consistent & I think he gets a bored easily & maybe is a lazy teenager. But he feels a little like I used to try & get out of cross country running - i.e I can do it no problem , but hated it , so would think of excuses not to & get out of it. He is a bit of a worrier but very gentle to be around in the stable.

So is it feasible that he has a combination of genuine fear,dislike or boredom of work, perhaps combined with the intelligence to think of ways to over exaggerate this & try to get out of it?

Some days he is perfect - no hiccups at all. other days he is a right spanner. I am of course working on moving forward when he spooks & spins and introduce things like trotting poles to help + circles, serpentine,figure of eight, transitions etc etc. Plus doing leg yield, shoulder in etc but he loves that as he is good at them. So its like I'll be good cos I am good at these.
But to W,T,C he seems to hate.
But we don't seem to be reducing these incidents apart from when his is having a good day! In fact recent weeks its worse.There is a particular corner & long side that is open to fields & there is always a rabbit, bird, plane,dog, noise or something he can pick. He seems to say ' yeah that's a bit scary & I am a bit scared so lets over react!'
How can I work out what's really going on? Is there a way to identify genuine fear vs. lazyitis & just plain pratting about???
How can I get the spooks to be calmer? Just a little dash to the side or a stop would be better than either bad napping &/or then launch into the air with a spin around at a mad dash! He has tried tanking across the arena & initially managed this -but I think I have now managed to feel this & to stop that before any momentum builds.
Any comments welcome as I am sure there are things I've not thought of doing. Any comments on how long this could take would also be moral boosting ( well maybe!)
For the record he's on a health plan and has had eyes, teeth ,feet, back checked & saddle adjusted & a change of bit to a myler comfort snaffle. He eats nothing - only a scoop of fast fibre to take his supplements and then ad lib hay - he's a very good doer. Could the spring grass be at work?? He's not really full of beans but seems more irrational & more reactive.
Thanks sorry for the waffle..............
 
Has the fastfibre got alfalfa in it? If so take him off it! It can affect some horses and make them very spooky/silly. Having had a feed intolerant horse, I know how unpredictable they can be, even when nothing in their routine (including feed) has changed.
Otherwise, could you do at least some of your schooling on hacks? It does sound as if he could be bored in the school.
 
Pearlsasinger said:
Has the fastfibre got alfalfa in it? If so take him off it! It can affect some horses and make them very spooky/silly. Having had a feed intolerant horse, I know how unpredictable they can be, even when nothing in their routine (including feed) has changed.
Otherwise, could you do at least some of your schooling on hacks? It does sound as if he could be bored in the school.
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Mmmmm.... interesting re Fast Fibre I will check that tonight!
Re hacking & schooling - I'm glad you said that as the hacking where I am is awful with a really busy A road & one bridlepath! So we have not been hacking really very much cos I hate the road - although he has been OK so far with it. But from June we move to a place with lots of hacking & also quiet roads to just potter on or miles of bridleway plus a brand new sand/rubber school and a 7 furlong gallops! Its more expensive but I felt it would really benefit him to do perhaps more hacking for a while & just a couple of sessions in the school per week & build up gradually.
Thanks v much
 
I think that some horses actually enjoy a good spook. My boy is one. I thought he was genuinely frightened and treated him really carefully. His spooking was worse when I was leading than riding though. But one day, only a couple of seconds after he had spooked he got straight down and rolled. There is no way a scared horse would do that. Now I know he is just having fun but he still makes me jump out of my skin with his sudden snorts and leaps.
 
Mine is much less spooky the more hacking we do. He used to do very naughty violent spooks OR be very lazy. SO I think hacking is a good plan. He gets really bored schooling so we only do that once a week and he loves it when we do. He is much more responsive and not silly. No change in our dressage results either. (Though we are mediocre!!!) We school on some hacks and relax on others. We do some jumping to break it up a bit too, and try to get out as often as we can.

Mine is calmer eating Mollichaff Calmer or Cool Fibre than anything else. But he doesn't like the taste of alfalfa... I give him topspec calmer if I need to.
 
Our 17hh TB is a spook fiend, luckily he doesn't spin just jumps, we just make him face what's spooking him and he is getting better, our bombproof gelding helps as he just stands beside what causes the spook then the TB thinks,
"well the picnic table/rubbish bin/skip/bush hasn't eaten Bruce" and comes for a look and he's 12 and should know better
 
Get some Magnitude which is a magnesium calmer it is £18 for a 6 month supply. My new mare was a little stressy and needed something to take the edge off her but is now a different horse on it.
 
I could have written your post myself it sounds sooo much like my horse! I am really struggling with the mad spins and have also believed him to be really scared..if you find a solution, PLEASE let me know as its really starting to knock my confidence!
 
My mare hates plastic bags. She acted like a right spanner the other day so I decided I had had enough. We are on a farm, there are loads of scary, flapping plastic bags. We are also just off a busy A road that is used as a dump, so loads more flappy plastic bags. We tied bags to everything. Now she's gone from spooking at bags.. to butterflies. I don't know where I can catch enough butterflies to prove they are not scary, she's just going to have to trust me on this one! She takes the pee pee definitely. Out with another horse who spooked strongly at something, she didn't care! And she is traffic bombproof. As with the spinning, don't let them spin!! Bad habit to get into.
 
blackhorse37 said:
I could have written your post myself it sounds sooo much like my horse! I am really struggling with the mad spins and have also believed him to be really scared..if you find a solution, PLEASE let me know as its really starting to knock my confidence!
Click to expand...

Me too!! I am finding my pony is better out hacking, but I have to be VERY careful where I trot and only canter in very open spaces so there is nothing in the hedges that might spook him - as when he goes, he too spins and I fly off (doing that at speed is no fun) . We also have a lovely big school which is edged by bushes trees, so he is alsways looking for what is going to eat him next when we are in there.

I usually get a warning as he tenses up - so if I can distract him (which I do by growling. being firm with my voice - as talking softly has NO effect) I can usually stop him. I also have to just sit very still and as soon as I can feel him relax even just a teeny bit, thats when I kick him on. When he's in full tense, ready to spin mode the best bet is to do nothing!

I'm not sure my pony is scared all of the time, as yesterday we were in the school and he started getting spooky as it was windy. I got off and lunged him (I take his bridle off and do it in just a halter) for 10 - 15 mins until he relaxed and listened to me and did some nice transitions, and gradually got closer to the bushes etc that had been bothering him, and then got back on & we actaully managed some nice school work.
 
Been in this situation, mine used to run backwards at shadows then spin. Had two different RI's teach me and ride him with little success, had him checked by the vet and saddler, tried various calmers all with very little effect.

My horse takes confidence from his rider but was also genuinely frightened to begin with I believe, then he started abusing the situation and the spooking became an evasion.

The solution was to go for lessons myself on a safe schoolmaster so I became more confident, have my horse schooled so he learnt to work correctly and over come his fear, then have lessons on him myself (all with RI 3).

Get some lessons to enable you to get your horse to be more obedient and help yourself become a more able to deal with spooky situations before they ocure.
 
Hi there
thanks for the replies. I think there are some things I can try/change.

He is on a calmer , but might try a different one.
He is schooled once a week for me & I have a lesson once a week. But we are changing yards in June where there is a lot of hacking available as I think the problem is being exacerbated by not enough variation. I am feeling hemmed in ....let alone him!!
We will also have a new instructor so that may also help,and I believe if she schools him too she has more experience of training young horses which is how he is behaving - 9 yrs going on 4 & give me some new advice.
I am going to change my routine to something like one lunge a week, once or maybe twice in the school & the rest hacking with a bit of schooling thrown in. We will also have the use of a 7 furlong gallops so he can get the wind in is hair every now & then!
Thanks v much as your experinces have helped me with ideas. I will let you know if there are any major break throughs!!
 
Hi,Just wondering if you ever resolved this? I have the exact same thing with my mare, have been having regular lessons and she has been schooled regularly (once or twice a week for 6 months and she still spooks when she feels like it. She is essentially a lazy horse which I suppose is why she hates working and finds ways to get out of it :mad:. She will change from day to day, one day she will work fine next she will spook at everything. My instructor says it's an evasion and that I need to get her in front of my leg, this does help somewhat, other than that I sit still and try to ignore it. I am a bit worried about alfalfa though, as was mentioned earlier, I feed her a small amount of hi-fi every day and am now wondering if this could be the problem? Any opinions much appreciated.:):)
 
I have just the same problem, mine spooks a LOT! I had him on Global Herbs Supercalm and Rigcalm - long story, but he is quite riggy and has bitten my friend and had her curled up in a ball on the floor in the field when I wasn't there. He is fine with me, we have done a lot of groundwork and de-spooking. Have now taken him off the supercalm because he was worse!!!

This is a horse that I have nearly gone down an escarpment with because ........... there was a really spooky branch in the bank.

He also had a broncing fit up on the moor about three weeks ago and succeeded for the first time in two years in getting rid of me.

I personally think his sometimes nappy behaviour, bucking and spooking is an evasion. I think I need to get those feet moving forward. I know lots of you don't agree with NH, which is fair enough, but the advice I had from someone who is very competent from the States was that a horses first reaction should be to go. If it isn't you need to make that the first reaction, and sort that out afterwards.
 
I actually wondered if I had written this thread myself and just forgotten, he sounds just like my boy. Mine is very insecure and takes his confidence from his rider but I believe he has started to use his spooking as an evasion. He is better the more forwards he is ridden, however sometimes it can be difficult for me to be confidence to ride him forwards and sort him out especially if he starts with his acrobatic skills as well as spooking :(:o

How I am dealing with it is I am riding as much as I can on other horses to keep my confidence up (in myself as well that I am a half decent rider!) keep me relaxed and my seat as deep and secure as possible. As my lad had a long holiday due to work commitments so when I came to bring him back into work my seat wasn't as secure as it could have been due to not riding on a regular basis so I lost confidence from that rather than just my boy being a prat and a half.

He is going to my RI's whilst I am on holiday for her to try iron out any issues that she can and then progress by me having more lessons on him, so if I feel my RI has helped I will feel more confident and relaxed so that will help me ride him more forwards and confidently.

Good luck.
 
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