spooking- how often, and what does your horse do?

H

hessy12

Well-Known Member
Joined
11 December 2009
Messages
467
Location
norfolk
Visit site
Just wondering really, as I've had a variety of experiences with spooking. My 18 yr old still does it, but it does not bother me at all because I know he will not jump off all 4 feet, or spin and run away, or buck or rear.

The worst I've had is spinning round and galloping off. The 'best' is just an arched neck, looking at the object, or a little sway away from said object, not into traffic etc.

What do your horses do in the way of spooking?

What level of spookiness will you tolerate and what would you punish the horse for?

Finally, would you buy a horse if you'd been told it was spooky? I do not think there is such a thing a a horse that never, ever spooks, does anyone know of one such perfect equine?!

Pointless post really, but I would be very interested to know your experiences.
 
I think my young WB is a close to none spooky as you can get. He has occasionally been know to 'look' at something and even take a slight step away from it, or stop and look for half a second.

I've had birds fly out the hedge right in front of us and I have jumped a mile while Micah didn't even flinch. The big plastic jump wings blow down in the wind 2 feet behind us, that one got an ear back to watch it.

However there are a couple of unusual things that have REALLY scared him, one was a 4x4 and trailer in the dark with no lights on really banging around outside the arena, with the lights on inside the arena you could hardly see it, it looked like a monster, he did a little spin to watch it and stood there shaking from head to toe, he was terrified poor lad. I got the other more experienced horse to stand between them while he figured it out. He was fine then

The other time was we were in the indoor, it was dark outside and suddenly fireworks went off above the indoor 2 out of 4 of the horses went absolutely nuts. Micah shook from head to toe and was spinning around, I manage to get off as I had recently had surgery so couldn't risk a fall. Again we stood the same old experienced horse by him and he was much better, no spinning, just shaking. I have NEVER seen a horse or human so petrified in all my life!!

But in general he is exceptional, doesn't scare easily but when he does he is terrified
 
Mine is not too spooky, although the sideways jumps at absolutely nothing used to terrify me when i first began to share him - I did think at once stage that i had to give him back as I thought I couldn't manage him.

Now, the sideways jumps (which are now much less frequent) seem like a walk in the park; this is what happened when spooked by a tiny shetland pony last week:

http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=450956
 
Meg is always spooky... always will be too. She 'jumps' at odd things like wrong coloured leaves and patches of earth are her 'monsters'! Although spooky, she always goes forward, have never known to her spin. If something is very scarey she creaps along, her backend sinks, and she curls like a banana - obviously trying to please! She often grows to 17hh, and at only being 15hh thats quite impressive... silly mare.
Thats only on hacks, at shows, jumping fillers she is ace and actually concerntrates on her job.
 
mines generally pretty good - he usually looks and moves around scary things but he has jumped and taken off before.
in regards to what I'll tolerate, if he's genuinely scared then there's not a lot you can do other than try to regain control and reassure him that he's ok and there's no reason to be scared.
I don't see the point in punishing them for reacting in a natural way.

mine likes to spook at the scary corner in the indoor school - to be fair to him, there's a shutter and the kitchen staff like to bang the bin lids quite loudly. cue a massive jump and him buggering off to the 'safe' side of the school
 
Paddy is usually fairly good , if he sees something though that he's not expecting i.e my friend left a haynet , filled but on the floor on the way in from the field , paddy planted his feet and snorted and it took a good bit of persuading to get him to walk up to it , once he relised it contained food that was fine. I've had a couple of times out riding where he's done a major shy and spun , these are always with man-made objects , like the local farmer had tied a bucket to a gate and as we came round the corner ( even though the horse we were with had already walked happily past it) , paddy immediately spun and tried to canter off , luckily we had just come down from canter or i probably would have fallen off!:eek:
Also someone left a bag of rubbish in the road which had been ripped up by foxes over night and he wouldn't pass it so i had to get another horse to lead , he was fine then and i even got him to graze on the verge right next to it...mad git! It's the one thing i wish is that i'd bought an older , more mature horse but i guess this applies to all ages...:confused:
 
My gelding will step around it and my mare will just look. The gelding spooks at most things whereas the mare isn't phased. Don't think she'd seen cows before I got her though!
 
My cob was one of the least spooky horses I've ever met - pheasants would fly out of the dyke right under his nose and his only reaction would be to prick his ears up! We only ever came across one thing that really seemed to frighten him, and then he just backed away from it and refused to go near it until another horse led him past - he never did anything dangerous. He did nap terribly if you tried to take him out alone though, so I suppose no horse is perfect. :D
 
I've had my mare 8years and she's always been spooky, don't think she'll ever grow out of it.

She gives some things a wide berth and other times she will do a full spin, jump about 2ft to the side then stop and stare. The outdoor school has a spooky side with a lake and huge trees, these can really rustle in the wind - so we can be concentrating then all of a sudden she'll take off as if something going to bite her bum.

I've just learnt to live with it :)
 
My horse is spooky, strange patches of grass and bluebells are very scary!! Has been known to be scared of new haynet as it was a different colour and ran backwards snorting at foot once when it had been vetraped blue!!! Jumps leaves and is very frightened of lawn mowers, branches and logs. You never know who may of cut them down.:D He has a variety of moves crouching tiger, karate chops and the all four feet off the floor :D
 
Merlin's about as non-spooky as it gets. The day he arrived, my neighbours had a bulldozer going full tilt in their top field, building a manege, and he walked straight past it without batting an eyelid.

The only thing he's ever been unsure about is when I walked through his field in a wetsuit with a surfboard tucked under my arm on the way to the beach, lots of prancing and pricked ears, but he came over for a scratch when I came back up the other way.
 
Old Mare has always been spooky, wrongly coloured leaf, her own widdle, wind in trees...really anything. Also large or even medium size vehicles. She's an spin and run horse.

My chestnut was a massive sideways spooker - an average spook would take us 15 - 20 foot flat out sideways.

The only horse I've ever owned that wasn't spooky was unbelievable, nothing scared her. I remember being on a narrow lane and a 4x4 was towing a plane (wings removed but with propeller etc). Didn't bat an eyelid. Also meeting a motorbike group of about 40 bikes, again on a narrow lane. The 3 horses I was hackinh with turned tail and legged it, but we just stood there and had a chat to them - she even stuck her head in one of the sidecars lol.

I really don't mind spooky horses at all, I think I'm used to the :D
 
Mine has always been spooky and i don't think that's ever going to change seeing as I've now had him 16 years!! I swear he likes the 'buzz' of spooking as he doesn't actually seem to be scared as such. His favourite 'scary object' are parked cars - i don't know if it's the reflection of himself in the windows he sees or not - he's not bothered about cars parked at the stables so god knows! I don't mind it though as he doesn't actually do anything as such, will never run away or spin or anything. It's just part of his personality I guess.
 
Shy kind of "collapses" or judders on the spot when something spooks him, which is quite funny. The not so funny, rarer ones are where something worries him, and he immediately flings himself to the left or right - cue me going straight on. It takes me a while to work out what scared him - definites are a black and white calf walking across a field, a large "cabbage type" weedy plant, and strange mounds of earth, small or large. And snowdrops and daffodils.

At least when Shy shies, he immediately forgets about it, starts eating, and just waits for me to get back on, when I do land on my backside. Ah the joys of youth, eh ! ;)
 
Last edited:
For a 4yr old I think Teddy is pretty good. I've been gently hacking out and walking out in hand and although I can tell when he's worried, he doesn't spook too much. The usual is whilst being ridden he'll jog a little if something scares him, and in hand he jumps a bit and tries to walk almost on top of me! He's fine with traffic, although a little worried by a lorry, he's scared of hedge trimmers and litter.
 
My horse isn't spooked too easily, I am more likely to jump at something out on a hack and she just sighs and marches on :) But one thing which she will spook at which really makes me smile is piles of hay in her field. My old mare used to do this as well, maybe its a mare thing! :)
If she doesn't see me take it to the field and then I lead her out she turns into a snorting giraffe and zig zags slowly towards it in walk to investigate....then there is huge sighs of relief as she realises it is just her breakfast in the same place as I put in every day ;) Funny old girl :)
 
You know I have never known Jeff to actually be scared of anything. Take the piss yes but never be genuinely scared. Flint is a master at hopping sideways when a blade of grass moves yet would walk down the middle of the motorway without batting an eye. One of my work horses is just ridiculous. Jumps anything, gallops past anything, walks past most stuff but parked cars a so scary we have to hide behind other horses - moving cars are fine! - and you can't stick your arm out the side of him. You can swing your legs any which way but arms leaving the body are a no go! He runs sideways away from them - he is a freak to put it nicely lol! My other lad hates the gorse bushes, especially when they are flowering yellow - they are mega scary but a fire truck with full lights going at speed wouldn't even make him blink.

Horses are weird!
 
The horse I ride often looks a lot and dances sideways. He then bananas his body away when you try to hold him past e.g. a filler he's taken a dislike too. However he also tanks off, though has never gone more than about 200 yards with me. In the worst episode a fortnight ago he legged it about 3 times, and on the 3rd time went into a bucking fit. I think he thought it'd make for a better escape from the person at the far end of the school spooking him if I wasn't on him maintaining some control. He failed however!

Things he's spooked at with me: his own shadow (indoors and outdoors), a tissue, a table, a child in a tinfoil covered box (robot costume), various poles and fillers, the gate to the arena creaking open, birds flying past, sweety wrappers... he's a fool, but I still love him!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top