Horse Problems: Spooky Horse

In most cases, spooking is a symptom of deeper problems. Your horse is not properly prepared to look to you as a leader and stop in his tracks when presented with unfamiliar objects or situations. He has not had enough experience controlling his anxiety and coming down from a fearful situation.

Some horses are just naturally more spooky than others. Arabs are, of course, bred to be vigilant. They are alert to every possible “problem”. I never recommend an Arab as a first horse or for someone who is not very experienced. While they are great for endurance riding, and they are beautiful to look at, they are far too sensitive and reactive for a novice trainer or rider.

Every horse needs to be desensitized to different objects and different situations. Trail riders will meet blowing debris, creek crossings, branches falling, logs in the road, tight squeezes, deer jumping, coyotes running, rabbits and snakes. Add to the list at will. (This horse is reacting at a rustling in the trees to her left. She jumped to her right and then stopped still – a mostly-correct response.)

The whole process of “facing your fears” starts in the round pen on the ground. Your horse needs to learn to stand still and think his way through a scary situation. His first lessons need to be in a controlled environment where you can control the variables and the pressures.

Entering and exiting natural states of arousal is critical to building his ability to understand and tolerate unexpected events. Experience with manageable anxiety can give a horse confidence in the particular situation as well as grow his tolerance of anxiety generally across all unfamiliar, stress-inducing situations.

There will be no work outside the round pen until you have done consistent de-sensitizing for a week or two in that confined area, and you have exhausted your imagination of things you can introduce and conquer – first on the ground and then under saddle.

Then on to the arena or a small pasture with bigger obstacles and objects. Move past scary objects slowly to give him a chance to view them critically. Allow him to move fairly freely to see it from all angles. Allow him to approach it and retreat if he wants to. (as long as he is not in danger of bolting away.) If he is hesitant to approach, find his comfort zone, then rest. Allow his nerves to calm and his body to relax. The relaxing is critical. As he enters each high-anxiety stage, so must he discharge the anxiety before entering it again as he moves closer. If he is not allowed to “come down”, he can build up anxious energy until it explodes.

Do this approach and retreat several times. If he won’t look at it or stand still, move away again. Each time you should be able to get closer before retreating. You can do this first on the ground if he is too up tight to be safe under saddle.

On the ground get his feet moving by line-lunging next to the object. Don’t force him to get too close. Just lunge in a circle near it, first on one side then another – all four sides. Each time he stops, watch for signs that he’d like to investigate it and allow any curiosity. Then retreat and circle again. See Introducing Obstacles in the Training Exercises Section.

The next step is to mount, approach, then move away and begin tight circling exercises at a comfortable distance from the object on all four sides. Each time your circle is on the close side to the object, change direction (turn TOWARD the object side so that the turn takes him a bit closer to the object each time. Don’t turn away from the objuct or he will see the turn as an escape route and end up further from the object on each turn.) Do this several times until he is too busy concentrating on you and his feet to worry about the object. He’s getting closer and closer to it. And he’s probably beginning to huff and puff a little bit. Rest.

While he is resting, take a moment to rub him and talk reassuringly.

Cue him to move away again and work in circles again. Rest on the near side. Repeat. The idea is to allow him to approach, rest and retreat (circling), which makes him more comfortable and shortens his comfort zone. At the same time, make cozying up to a scary object easier than hard work away from it. He will soon realize that the once-scary object is his resting salvation.

There is a lot of work to be done if you want to have a reliable companion. But practice makes perfect, and you should take every opportunity to practice these spooky situations in a controlled environment until you and your horse are confident. In fact, don’t wait for an opportunity. Create one!

After he has had experience with objects in a controlled environment, you will move on with life. That means encountering “threats” in his every day riding environment (ie: in a show arena or on the trail).
A carefully chosen wide-open trail (where you can get off if necessary) is the perfect training ground. Walk him up to and around the mail box, sewer pipe, piece of junk car, or anything that makes him wary. Follow the same procedures outlined above. (Have your lead rope handy so that he can lunge at a distance if you are worried about doing this under saddle).

Again, he can make the decision. He can stop near the object and rest… or he can circle at the further distance. Getting close so he can rest is preferable from an energy-conservation perspective, and most horses choose it after a few minutes of comparing the two activities and as he gets more comfortable with the object.

Don’t ever ignore a nervous reaction! It is exactly the opportunity you need to teach him how to handle the unexpected.

Going forward with real-life experiences, if you feel him becoming nervous, discern what is worrying him and get his feet going to refocus on you and take his mind off of the anxiety that is building. Start to canter in a big circle around the object. After a circle or two, turn him in toward the object to circle the other direction. Each time he changes direction, he will get closer to the object. As you feel him focusing on you instead of the problem, you can slow down. At that point, you are now quite close where you can stop next to his nemisis to rest.

Don’t ever ignore a nervous reaction!

The more you work through these types of situations, the more quickly your horse will begin to see them through his logical, problem-solving lense. Each time he encounters a scary object, it will take less time for him to analyze the situation and look to your leadership.

Thank you to Clinton Anderson for spelling out the necessary steps to train a spooky horse. These methods work well, and we always use them.

There is much more discussion of de-sensitizing on several pages of this blog. See The Theory of De-Sensitizing”, The Theory of Relax, De-sensitizing Exercises, More De-sensitizing Exercises, and Introducing Obstacles.

4 thoughts on “Horse Problems: Spooky Horse

  1. I’m really enjoying reading your writings Jax.
    In particular after being faced with an overwhelming internet plethora of hard-selling Natural Horsepeople pushing their products, courses and, I hate to say, in some cases near cons.

    I read some round re-training advice after happing upon your site… then had to find out who was offering this generous “free!” advice.
    Swiftly moved onto much appreciated spooky horses… and am very keen to continue reading. I was compelled to write so soon after this discovery as you are such a breath of fresh air… love Suzie

    1. Thank you Suzie. We love the work – both the training and the web site. But it is really great to know that it is appreciated by someone else. If you have comments or questions, send them on. We’re not always perfect, but we try hard. sincerely, Jax

  2. I don’t agree with lunging a horse if he does not face the object of his fear. That seems like punishment. And I don’t think it’s possible to “desensitize” a horse to every object. I agree that the horse needs to trust the rider, or the rider has to be a darn athletic rider for some spooks (Stop, drop, and roll-back)

    1. Thanks for your input, Kat.
      Actually, I didn’t mean “lunge” per se, so I have changed the copy. Not all horses can be desensitized to all objects, but good training can at least give most of them a different response to fear: stand, think, trust. Also, giving them something else to think about at a safe distance from the object also helps them to change their mind-set. They can make a logical decision about standing near or circling far. It’s not punishment. I didn’t mean to imply he should “lunge” ’til he dropped. It’s just a clear choice, and most horses make the right one.

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