Who else has got 'a bit of a worrier?'

cblover

cblover

Well-Known Member
Joined
1 October 2009
Messages
1,887
Visit site
Isn't it amazing how different our horses are! My cob mare is so bold and brave, unflappable and loyal too. My youngster Clyde x cob gelding who is rising 4 is a bit of a worrier. Not a nasty bone in him but he's no big decision maker. Lol

He's keen to learn but scares himself, loves people once he's got to know them, first to greet you in the field but then it all becomes too much! Bit slow for messages from his brain to his feet but can also be quite reactive. Suspicious of things and has a real baby face. Crinkles his eye brows and has that 'help' look.....you know big head, big ears, big eyes.....never sure if his body will ever grow into his head! Bless him!

Joking aside, I'm not keen on surprises with young horses and don't need it at my age.....so how do you all deal with your 'special' ones? Mine is ready to back now and that's my focus for this spring.

Did they get more confident with age? Or do they always keep you on your toes?
 
cblover said:
Isn't it amazing how different our horses are! My cob mare is so bold and brave, unflappable and loyal too. My youngster Clyde x cob gelding who is rising 4 is a bit of a worrier. Not a nasty bone in him but he's no big decision maker. Lol

He's keen to learn but scares himself, loves people once he's got to know them, first to greet you in the field but then it all becomes too much! Bit slow for messages from his brain to his feet but can also be quite reactive. Suspicious of things and has a real baby face. Crinkles his eye brows and has that 'help' look.....you know big head, big ears, big eyes.....never sure if his body will ever grow into his head! Bless him!

Joking aside, I'm not keen on surprises with young horses and don't need it at my age.....so how do you all deal with your 'special' ones? Mine is ready to back now and that's my focus for this spring.

Did they get more confident with age? Or do they always keep you on your toes?
Click to expand...

I guess the short answer to your question is that it depends on how worriers are handled . . . particularly big, slow-maturing breeds like Clydesdales.

I have a worrier . . . he's a Polish warmblood-type and he's now 15(ish - we're not sure). Incredibly friendly, very trusting once you have him on-side, but always, always, always very sensitive and easily upset. It's just who he is. I've had him a little more than four years now - I try to be sympathetic to his sensitivity but I am also incredibly firm and try to be very consistent.

By way of example - two people were having a loud verbal argument next to his field this morning . . . lots of shouting and arm waving . . . cue Kal galloping up to the other end of the field snorting. He picks up unpleasant/stressy vibes very easily and reacts accordingly. I wouldn't say he was highly-strung . . . just very sensitive and one of life's worriers.

P
 
My mum's boy is a worrier - it's in his genes to be a bit nuts, as he's by Dancing High. He's now 18 but you'd never know he'd seen things and done things in his life. He worries mostly about strange sounds, and it's taken my mum and I a long while to gain his trust (had him just over 18 months). We just take things slow and introduce him to new things a lot slower than we would with anything else. He had a freak out when we first met deer in the woods, and he used to spin and canter off. If we try to keep him moving he'll freak out, so with everything we just let him stand and think about it for a while. He now ignores deer! He has really benefitted from being allowed to take his time, being kept quiet at home, and lots of work to build a mutual trust between him and us.
My boy, on the other hand, is shy when in a situation with a new person but is bold as brass at any other time - perfect to hack out with mum's boy as he loves taking the lead to inspect scary things!
Confidence, trust and time are probably the best things I can suggest :)
 
Thanks both....looks like its more us devoted owners doing the adapting. Lol surprise surprise! Good job we love them.
 
My nearly five year old threw his first buck today, over a year after being backed, he'd seen a big rock ( granite boulder about three foot high), I'd given him time to process it so no idea what the buck afterwards was for! He does get a little worried but is the lead horse when hacking and copes brilliantly with most things. As others have said, take your time, plenty of praise when he does well, learn to trust each other- I think Tinner was quite worried about the loud shriek I gave and was pretty subdued from then on.
 
My boy is 16 & is a huge worrier, we've had him for about 6 years and he's always been the same. He takes a great deal of confidence from us and with a bit of persuasion will do stuff in an "well if you insist it won't kill me" kind of way. It used to scare me a bit when we first got him but I soon learnt he wouldn't ever try to hurt me, he just needs some reassurance.

He'll often just stop & stare, while looking like he's grown a few hands, and depending on how bad the thing causing the worry is he'll throw in a few snorts for good measure. Sometimes when riding you can feel his heart beating really fast too.

My friend was backing her youngster last year & when she started to hack out with us so my boy could show her the ropes (he is brilliant in traffic - it's things that have much less potential to actually hurt him he's scared of) and her pony acted like the old pro while my boy was snorting at things he'd seen 100 times before just because the shop sign had moved a foot sideways or whatever.

But he loves to explore new places, it's just a bit risky to do so. He'll be marching off as if he's got a real purpose but is so on edge at the same time. He's so special.

I also think the key is confidence, perseverance and joint trust. Once you both know you don't want to hurt the other it's easier for you to be confident & therefore him to be happier taking his lead from you. It took us a while to make a good partnership but now I wouldn't change him for the world. Sometimes now when I realise what he's worrying at it can take me ages to push him past as I'm too busy laughing at how ridiculous it is. A huge difference from when I first got him.
 
Last edited:
My boy is a real worrier, very sensitive, but the gentlest soul in the world.

He is 9 now and I have had him 5 years. IMO the way to confidence is to take it really slowly and consolidate every step. You also have to be brave for them. I think you also have to learn to listen very carefully, because sometimes they internalise their worries and then it all spills out. I also did quite a lot of desensitising work with him and try and make new things 'fun' in a safe environment, so that when out and about new things are an adventure rather than a threat (I did this by positive reinforcement when he was brave enough to investigate 'different scary things'.) The idea being that if you tell him something is safe and OK to investigate then he trusts you and you relieve him of the decision making.

On the plus side, they really do place their trust in you, so as long as you learn to control your emotions they will see you through anything. The key for us is to have a few things we do really well, so I can distract him from anything. For example, we do lots of shoulder in and out on hacks, even when life is calm, therefore it there start to be lots of slightly worrying things around, we practice our shoulder in/out and that keeps both our minds focussed in a comfortable place!
 
Mine gets himself worked up over nothing, he is the sweetest boy on the ground and to ride generally, but even at 7 he is very baby like. Today he was chewing his lead rope and holding it in his mouth.

He isn't a spooky sort, he will usually want to have a look at scary things and walk up to them, and bite them if given the chance.

It's usually that he worries he's done something wrong and is going to be told off, or he's anticipating doing something, or he's simply scared himself by being too bold. I can hold a whip but not use it when schooling as this can cause a melt down, he'll anticipate and shoot off then panic for doing something wrong. And he'll canter boldly at a jump and then suddenly stop if he isn't sure.

He's a simple sort and sometimes things are just too much for him!
 
I have a sensitive boy, despite being 15 now and huge... but his personality just makes him even more special to me. I'd go along with what others have said, once you build up trust and understanding with the sensitive ones they are wonderful horses to be around.

I know mostly when my boy is actually worried or when he's trying it on (he's quite cheeky with it) so we have an understanding that i'll let him off with some things but he needs to 'man up' and do other things... with time, patience and me being stubborn we get things done in the end.

He's currently on full loan to a very good friend due to me being banned from riding due to my body not being able to cope with the movement while pregnant, so i just told her all of his quirks and how we deal with them and so far they are getting on great, infact i'm worried he'll not want to come back! ;)
 
Fergus is one of life's Health and Safety officers.

I was joking the other day that at "pony Badminton", my little Daemon pony would be galloping around tackling all the big fences like the boldest event horse, while F trundles round checking the frangible pins as technical delegate!
 
I've got one. He's a Welsh D.

Jumping, if the jump changes he notices, any scary fillers he will stop first time. He can also have jumped something one day then be terrified of it the next. When he jumps he jumps well.

He never used to hack alone when I got him and he now will be is very spooky and needs reassuring. Once he's spooked at something he tends to work himself up so everything becomes frightening.

He is also nervous on the ground and can be stood on the yard, notice something on the floor, leap backwards/ stand with his front legs really close together then scare himself further because the string breaks/ his legs catch each other

He is 17 now and I think been badly treated at some point before old yo got him (I got him because he was taken out of old yo's rs by having practically a nervous break down.)

He is a stickler for routine and you can't mollycoddle him as it makes him fret but you can't bully him either. He is never nasty with it and has no vices andis also very intelligent.
 
Our horses are special.....and I'm thinking the owners are too. Either that or we are mad. There is a fine line between devotion and madness! I love hearing your stories tho, keep them coming.
 
My worrier is also a section D. He's as bold as brass with most things, traffic etc, but he was so jumpy when I got him, he couldn't be approached from behind, brushed or patted.

He needed the people and horses around him to be steady and kind. It helped that he found himself away from a couple of spiteful shetland mares and instead in with a chilled out herd of boys.

Breaking introduced him gently but firmly to a whole load of new things, with no pussy-footing around him at all. It convinced him that we were in control. Bless him, what he wanted most in the world was a leader who didn't shout or fuss and seemed to know what was going on. Same in the field. He's very happy to be bottom of the pile, but not bullied.

There has been a huge change is in his metabolism as well as his attitude. He's a much better doer now.
 
First thing my farrier said on meeting my horse was that he was a bit of a worrier - he had taken his front feet off the floor when I disappeared from sight for a second.

He does look for constant reassurance that everything is OK and that there is nothing to worry about but, on the plus side, if I say it is OK, then he is pretty cool about things generally. So we pass tractors without a problem, for example, but might have a worry about a broken branch until told he's being a wuss. He is quite spooky generally but does listen so we tackle "worries" by leg yielding, half halts, anything that makes him listen and then he focuses on that instead of the "worry".

It has taken a while for him to respond as well ridden as he does on the ground but we are getting there. However, I do need to be either in sight or on board when he has a major wobbly about something and that limits certain things like bringing him in alone and then nipping into the tackroom or to the loo. I now try to organise everything so that I don't have to disappear from view. It's not an issue if another horse is in but I am a big believer in a) sometimes they have to be on their own and (conversely) b) don't cause an issue if you don't have to. Therefore he comes in on his own, I try not to disappear from view for too long but am working on extending the period.

He is very nervous of strangers and whether that is just part of the general worrying or something more I don't know. He also hates raised voices and sudden movements near him - last night he spooked at one of the other liveries who yelped as a horse tried to push her into the trough.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top