Spooking

Sometimes horses spook at things, and then it is very important how the rider reacts. If the horse spooks habitually, the rider wants to make the spooking less likely in the future, and if the spooking is something new, the rider wants to prevent it to become a habit. Many riders say that if I do this, I'm teachin the horse that it is okay to be afraid. I am totally of another opinion, this method has worked well for me and many others, and I've never encountered a horse that became more nervous when given time to think about things. If you push the horse to go past a thing it is afraid of, while it's frame of mind is still along the lines that it wants to bolt away, then it will. And I don't want the horse to learn that if it is afraid, it should bolt. I want it to stop. All riders can sit a freezing horse, many riders can't hang on a bolting horse. Do not take the horse away from the spooky thing, let it stop, watch, think, relax a bit, whether it takes 10 seconds or 2 minutes. When the horse has stopped being stiff and shivering, encourage it with your legs and soft voice to walk on. If it totally doesn't want to walk on or starts thinking about bolting again, step off, lead the horse to the scary thing, pet the thing and show the horse it is harmless, let the horse sniff it and pet the horse, then go on when the horse has relaxed, and mount again. You'll propably find that the next time you go past the thing, the problem will be smaller or vanished. As you do this more often, you'll find the courage and calmness becoming more in the horse, and it becomes easier to go past or up to scary things. Try riding past the scary thing later and see if the horse still reacts, if so, lead the horse to it again. You are spoiling the horse only if it is using this as a trick to get away from obeying you, and is not frightened at all. Theses cases exist, but are rare. You build the confidence and the thinking in the horse by waiting and not pushing. Sometimes I'm asked for help because a horse suddenly becomes spooky, even though it has never been so before. The first thing that comes into mind then is that the horse has been pushed into more work than it wants to do, or forsed into something it is afraid of, thus bolting/spooking to get away. If a horse is scared, and gets then hit by a crop to push it past the scary object, so the horse bolts past it, then bolting becomes a learned behavior. If the simply does not care to work so hard, the process of stopping these objections of it's behalf (and getting it to work) takes longer time. Then you have to divide the work into easier steps that the horse can handle, and you can handle. You can push the horse more than it can handle, but then you also have to be ready to hang on. You have to decide for yourself if you are good enough rider for that, and if future riders are good enough riders for that.

Sometimes horses spook at things, and then it is very important how the rider reacts. If the horse spooks habitually, the rider wants to make the spooking less likely in the future, and if the spooking is something new, the rider wants to prevent it to become a habit.

Many riders say that if I do this, I'm teachin the horse that it is okay to be afraid. I am totally of another opinion, this method has worked well for me and many others, and I've never encountered a horse that became more nervous when given time to think about things. If you push the horse to go past a thing it is afraid of, while it's frame of mind is still along the lines that it wants to bolt away, then it will. And I don't want the horse to learn that if it is afraid, it should bolt. I want it to stop. All riders can sit a freezing horse, many riders can't hang on a bolting horse.

Do not take the horse away from the spooky thing, let it stop, watch, think, relax a bit, whether it takes 10 seconds or 2 minutes. When the horse has stopped being stiff and shivering, encourage it with your legs and soft voice to walk on. If it totally doesn't want to walk on or starts thinking about bolting again, step off, lead the horse to the scary thing, pet the thing and show the horse it is harmless, let the horse sniff it and pet the horse, then go on when the horse has relaxed, and mount again. You'll propably find that the next time you go past the thing, the problem will be smaller or vanished. As you do this more often, you'll find the courage and calmness becoming more in the horse, and it becomes easier to go past or up to scary things. Try riding past the scary thing later and see if the horse still reacts, if so, lead the horse to it again.

You are spoiling the horse only if it is using this as a trick to get away from obeying you, and is not frightened at all. Theses cases exist, but are rare.

You build the confidence and the thinking in the horse by waiting and not pushing.

Sometimes I'm asked for help because a horse suddenly becomes spooky, even though it has never been so before. The first thing that comes into mind then is that the horse has been pushed into more work than it wants to do, or forsed into something it is afraid of, thus bolting/spooking to get away. If a horse is scared, and gets then hit by a crop to push it past the scary object, so the horse bolts past it, then bolting becomes a learned behavior. If the simply does not care to work so hard, the process of stopping these objections of it's behalf (and getting it to work) takes longer time. Then you have to divide the work into easier steps that the horse can handle, and you can handle. You can push the horse more than it can handle, but then you also have to be ready to hang on. You have to decide for yourself if you are good enough rider for that, and if future riders are good enough riders for that.