Thinking of buying a horse whose nervous in traffic, any advice?

[valedecem]

I've been looking for a horse for a while and have recently found one which I love. He is calm, forward going but not strong and doesn’t run off with you. The first time I got on him I felt safe. He is a real sweetie but he has one slight vice which has me thinking he isn’t quite right. He is fine in regular traffic but he gets nervous around larger vehicles, lorries and farm traffic. Apparently he doesn’t spin or try to do anything really nasty, he just wants to get past them. I took him on a hack and a driver put her foot down on the accelerator when right next to us and he just scooted forward a bit – the minute I took him back in hand he stopped. Apparently this is the worst he does.

My question is, does anyone have any experience working horse through nerves in traffic, or has anyone bought a horse with this issue?

I have ridden my whole life and I am quite confident in the saddle but I don’t have the most experience with this sort of thing. My mum has said it would be a no go for her. Everything else with him is perfect it is just this one thing which has me a bit worried? The people selling him appear really honest - they actually don't want him to go but they are selling him on behalf of someone else who wants him to be sold.

Thanks!

 

[soulfull]

It has to depend on how much road hacking you wish to do and what sort of traffic he will see, will you need to hack alone?
Will also depend how old he is too

If you need to hack alone on roads with regular larger traffic then I would not buy him

I've known a couple of horses actually get worse rather than better. It's as though they just about managed to cope the first few times but just got too much for them

Could you not have him on trial. Or go and ride him or see him ridden somewhere with a little more traffic

 

[be positive]

You can work on improving their confidence but if you have to go on busy roads or hack alone it would not be my idea of the perfect horse especially if hacking is the main purpose for buying him, a schoolmaster competition horse that hacks to keep fit would be different to a horse kept with hacking as it's main job. It may be that he does not do any more than scoot off but that can develop into more if you get tense or he has a more serious fright.

If you have good off road hacking then it is worth considering but if not there are plenty of nice horses that are calm, forward going and not too strong that are confident in traffic of all types, it would also have to be reflected in the price they are asking, the owner may want him sold due to the traffic issue, the yard will be happy for him to stay as they will be getting livery money probably.

 

[valedecem]

Thanks for the replies! We want to compete with him but he will be hacked as well to keep his fitness up. Annoyingly there isn't any off road hacking round me - there are a lot of lanes but one main road that we have to cross to get to them. I do have a confident horse I can hack with him but he is semi retired now. It's interesting that you both say that he may get worse - I hadn't considered that.

 

[Peregrine Falcon]

It wouldn't be a problem for me as I only have to cross a road and I'm on the open forest. However, if I had to ride on the roads I would personally want a horse that was good in traffic. It's dangerous enough out here and I would worry about potential accidents.

A trial period as suggested would be a good idea. Something to bear in mind would be saleability in the future.

 

[valedecem]

It wouldn't be a problem for me as I only have to cross a road and I'm on the open forest. However, if I had to ride on the roads I would personally want a horse that was good in traffic. It's dangerous enough out here and I would worry about potential accidents.

A trial period as suggested would be a good idea. Something to bear in mind would be saleability in the future.

Future sale does worry me, as my mum said it's easy to buy and much harder to sell. Yes the trouble nowadays is people on the road seem less and less aware of how to pass by horses - especially HGVs! It amazes me that so many horses ARE bombproof.

 

[MuddyTB]

I would be inclined to ask for lwvtb or a trial period then you can assess what he is likely to cope with and how bad his reaction will be. One ride isn't much to tell you.

My mum had a horse several years ago who was similar. She didn't have the confidence to work him through it so we used to swap horses half way round the ride and I would take him back on the road. He was slightly worse by the sound of it, in that he would spin round and run away if you did nothing. However, I found gathering him up and making him jog forward past things kept him going in the right direction. He didn't expect to be pushed on, he was waiting for the rider to freeze so he could turn. He did get a bit better and his reactions to tractors and lorries lessened. I felt safe enough knowing how to ride him, but I would never say he was good in traffic. You would never have sent a novice or nervous rider out on him. Not sure if that helps.

 

[Pinkvboots]

I have a gelding that is not great with any traffic but I am lucky I have lots of off road hacking, although I cant do the long rides which means crossing roads on my own which can be a pain,bought him as a 2 year old and his 10 now I have really tried to get him over it but it just takes one car to come past a bit fast and his a nightmare with any other vehicle that comes along, and I have had a few very near misses that could have been a nasty accident so I avoid most roads now, funny thing is my other horse is excellent on the road you could hack her aling the M25 and given the choice I would not want another that cant be ridden on the road, its only that I have had him since a baby and love him so much and his great in all other ways that I am not that bothered by it.

 

[valedecem]

I would be inclined to ask for lwvtb or a trial period then you can assess what he is likely to cope with and how bad his reaction will be. One ride isn't much to tell you.

My mum had a horse several years ago who was similar. She didn't have the confidence to work him through it so we used to swap horses half way round the ride and I would take him back on the road. He was slightly worse by the sound of it, in that he would spin round and run away if you did nothing. However, I found gathering him up and making him jog forward past things kept him going in the right direction. He didn't expect to be pushed on, he was waiting for the rider to freeze so he could turn. He did get a bit better and his reactions to tractors and lorries lessened. I felt safe enough knowing how to ride him, but I would never say he was good in traffic. You would never have sent a novice or nervous rider out on him. Not sure if that helps.

Thanks Muddy, that does actually help. The horse I've been trying sounds similar in that he seems to need to be told, 'it's okay', so when you gather him up and tell him to go forward, he goes forward. There seems to be no malicious bone in him, he's just nervy.

The people who had him were novices (and nervous themselves) and would take him out on the road, but put him in a gateway if big vehicles came past. Trouble is, there isn't always a gateway!

 

[valedecem]

Thanks Pinkvboots, we don't have a lot of off road round us annoyingly, could ride in the mornings when it's quieter but as falconers said what would happen when we came to sell him in future? It's so frustrating as he is lovely in every other way.

 

[Brightbay]

My first share horse, back quite a few years ago, was very worried about tractors and large machinery. She was fine with other traffic. I started off teaching her to respond to a tap with my fingers on her neck as a signal to bend around and take a small reward (I used polos back then - might use a healthy option now ). Once she'd understood at home what the tap on the neck meant, and was good at taking the reward, we started hacking out again. Every time a tractor/lorry etc appeared, I would halt her, tap her neck and feed a few rewards. I think it took two outings before she stopped skittering past scary traffic and stood to take her reward, and a few more outings before she would stop and bend around automatically when she saw a tractor I kept rewarding for a while, then gradually stopped, only offering something for very scary stuff.

I took the same approach when I started riding my young horse out - he wasn't nervous, because I'd led him out first, but I wanted him to start well. He is now amazing - we were passed on a single track road by the biggest tractor/trailer combo I have ever seen a few weeks ago, and he just stood calmly while it squeezed by, and admired his reflection in the tractor's wing mirrors

It is possible to change how horses feel about scary traffic, provided you take it slow, don't overface them and make sure they learn that the big rattly machines lead to rewards On this basis, I would say your horse is worth a try!

 

[Dry Rot]

Put him to graze in a field next to a busy road.

I used to live in the back of beyond. Think 20 mile round trip to buy a box of matches and living up behind a very large block of forestry! The only vehicle my horses ever saw was my car and that was from a distance. My neighbour suggested putting him in a 15 acre field of rough grass next to a B road but frequented by distillery lorries. The first couple of weeks he spent up in the corner as far from the road as he could get. A week more and he was reaching through the fence to nibble the grass on the verge as huge lorries thundered past! I can assure you, it may not cure the problem but it will certainly help and without costing much and with no danger to yourself. Better still if there are other horses in the field.

 

[PorkChop]

I agree that putting them in a field next to a busy road can work wonders.

I have a homebred mare that when first broken was very good in traffic. She then had a very near miss with a car and from that point on was horrendous in traffic. It took a long time but she is now super in traffic, even lorries etc. Some horses will improve, no matter how old they are, but there are no guarantees.

 

[Clodagh]

I absolutely wouldn't. My gelding is not great in traffic, but living on a lane means I cannot ride on the road on my own, at all. I never know I'm not going to meet anything too big or too fast for him to cope with. He isn't unmanageable when something goes past but he isn't safe, and traffic is so heavy nowadays.
Also, if they are selling him for someone else please meet and deal with the someone else, it is a good old get out clause!

 

[MiJodsR2BlinkinTite]

Personally...... for me, anyway, coz we have to do 99% of our hacking on roads around here, is "DON'T" buy.

BUT OP - its your choice basically. If the seller is actually admitting that the horse isn't good in traffic, you can bet your bottom dollar that he's a total fruit-loop. Yes OK so you like the horse, and if you've got either a school or can lorry-out to open country for hacking, then fine.

But if you've got to do ANY work on the roads at all, for me that would the biggest no-no. Do you really want to end up yet another horse/traffic casualty? My two are fantastic in traffic, and I'd trust them with a toddler up on their backs in the heaviest of traffic........ but then I know that they are truly exceptional

 

[mynutmeg]

It would depend on how old he was and how much he had done on the road for me. When I went to the yard I'm on now both my mare and my self were pretty nervous in traffic, she was similar in that she'd tense and jog and just be on edge / spooky about cars never mind big things. We were lucky enough to have a couple of friends who had bombproof horses who we were able to go out with and she's really improved over the last couple of years. We can now go out on our own, she doesn't bat an eyelid at cars going past at 40/50 miles an hour (most cars round us are much more considerate but you get the odd idiot), and copes with big traffic. Again I'm lucky in that tractors etc round here will stop and switch off and then she'll walk past quite happily so long as I don't freak. If I get really tense and anxious she'll be worse.

Given what you saya bout the current owners being nervous I would think that with a confident rider the horse would become more confident in traffic.

 

[Woody Le Bois]

My boy is exactly like what you describe. He is fine with traffic but if a lorry, tractor or god forbid a combain go past he shoots forward and panics (not too bad just is clearly scared). It's not a problem for me as i hack out once in a blue moon and he is a competition horse. since moving abroad i have access to off road hacking too so pretty happy at the moment. Unfortunately if you will encouner such situations on a daily/weekly basis it will get annoying and potentially dangerous unless he'd improve with training :/

 

[valedecem]

Thank you everyone who took the time to reply. After taking all this home and discussing it with my family, we decided that it wasn't worth the risk as the traffic round here can get really heavy. My mum said she saw a massive HGV try to go down our tiny lane the other day. And lorries often don't bother to slow down on the road - I think they see riders as a massive inconvenience. So we called and said no and the lady was absolutely lovely about it.

Thank you so much for all your help and advice, it made for interesting reading and has helped reassure us that we are making the right decision. Hopefully he will find a home where they can ride him off road a lot - better all round!

 

[STRIKER]

I love my cob to bits and i would not change him for the world, but his fear of traffic esp bigger vehicles has made our hacking very limited where roads are concerned, and he has bombed off with me on 3 ocassions due to traffic and it wasnt very nice, and after 7 years, no he hasnt got better, if i could rewrite my history i would probably have got something else.