So I've had my mare 3 years now. She wasn't great to hack alone to start with, she was quite anxious and going faster was her go-to reaction. We dealt with this though, and as we bonded more she got really good, and we did some quite long hacks alone no issues.
We moved yards last summer, friend moved too so she still has the same field mates. She settled OK, she'd always be fairly keen to get back home from hacking alone, one particular route she'd always be a bit on her toes but not a major problem.
Anyway, recently there's been a fair amount of shoots near by or possibly crow scarers, or a bit of both. If she hears them when she's out in the field she's not overly bothered. But if she hears it out when we're riding she goes into full on panic mode. This has happened twice recently. Was on the road friday when it happened ended up getting off and leading her because she wasn't listening to me asking to slow down and it seemed the safest option.
So I don't really know how to work on this. Do I try a sound deadening ear bonnet? Do I somehow try and desensitise her to loud bangs? Do I try and work on her confidence/ anxiety levels more generally? Any suggestions gratefully received
We moved yards last summer, friend moved too so she still has the same field mates. She settled OK, she'd always be fairly keen to get back home from hacking alone, one particular route she'd always be a bit on her toes but not a major problem.
Anyway, recently there's been a fair amount of shoots near by or possibly crow scarers, or a bit of both. If she hears them when she's out in the field she's not overly bothered. But if she hears it out when we're riding she goes into full on panic mode. This has happened twice recently. Was on the road friday when it happened ended up getting off and leading her because she wasn't listening to me asking to slow down and it seemed the safest option.
So I don't really know how to work on this. Do I try a sound deadening ear bonnet? Do I somehow try and desensitise her to loud bangs? Do I try and work on her confidence/ anxiety levels more generally? Any suggestions gratefully received