Spooking when possibly not scared

C

Clare-22

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Apr 30, 2005
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Loki has two kinds of spooking, one which I class as genuine and another that I am not sure about :)

It is the second type that I am not sure how to ride, should I ignore it?

It mainly involves objects such as logs and puddles, the logs have been there for the last six months, and were not issue, but one day he decided to spook at them and that has carried on, he will fixate on them and move sideways past, nothing terrible at all, especially as we have off road hacking. But they are located on a lovely track that I would like to canter down at some point

I have tried stopping and letting him graze around them, which he was happy to do even grazing inbetween them with his nose touching.

If I ask him to bend away from the monster whilst walking past he will then find something to spook at on the other side of the track :rolleyes:

I am just wondering how best to deal with it, last night I tried keeping his attention, but that made things worse, although we did get a lovely medium walk :p

Should I just ignore his antics or is there something I should be doing to work at stopping it, I am getting the feeling by me trying to get him used to them I am making them more of an issue :eek:
 
Alpi is exactly the same, he will spook at the jump wings that have been in the same place at the side of the arena for 2 years! :rolleyes: Then other times he will go straight past them without batting an eyelid, I think it is partly just them having a spooky nature and partly when their mind is wandering and they are not listening to you so thinking "I wonder what might be hiding behind there" instead.

Alps is really obvious about it, if you have his attention he completely ignores things then once he starts getting tired/bored he'll throw massive spooks in at stuff that has been there the whole time - I think it's just an evasion tactic, perhaps not even a conscious one but just that he is distracted from his work and more interested in spooking instead at that point.

I will usually get him to flex slightly away from whatever he is spooking at and ride him strongly past with the opposite leg so riding him leg to hand and forcing him to listen to me and taking away the option of stopping and ogling at it. I don't see the need to make a drama out of it, I don't allow skidding to a halt to spook if it's completely uncalled for but if he backs off going past it or slows slightly I just ride him through it and the next time expect him to ignore it - if he doesn't he get's told to stop being so silly. :cool:

It is tricky as everything is suddenly so much scarier in canter according to horses isn't it :p But I carry the same principle of riding through it, leg to hand and ignoring the "scary" object myself and concentrating on riding him straight and forward past it - kind of like saying "oi ignore that, listen to me" at first we had massive skidding to a halt leaping to middle of the arena performances every time but with consistency and me giving myself a kick up the bum to ride properly and strongly he is much better.

Good luck and my sympathies as someone with an equally daft horse! ;) :)
 
Jack looks for things to spook at whilst being ridden. Most sessions it's me :rolleyes:.

My RI ignores him and pushes him on - unfortunately Jack usually spooks as an excuse to buck, in those situations it actually helps to know where he's going to spook (ie, every time he passes me in the hut) so you can prepare better!


xxx
 
Oscar spooks at things that he has seen loads of times - like the same plastic wrapped haylage bales at the side of my RI's arena for the last year etc.. He also spooks at stupid things like, for example, if a stone has fallen of a wall - it isnt a scary stone - it's just that it wasnt there last time!

As he gets better schooled, I find that I can now turn his head away from the spooky thing, but move him over towards it with my leg, which really helps.

You never quite know, if cantering in open ground or beside a hedge, if he is going to suddenly shift 2 feet in either direction though - for a big slow horse he seems to be able to teleport himself sideways! Though strangely he doesn't seem to do it when he has a job to do, like round a X-country course or showjumping (apart from at the jumps of course :eek:)
 
I agree - if a horse is engaged and listening to you then his mind won't be looking for the monsters in the hedge and outside the arena.
Ignore the spooks, maintain your position and ask him to move forwards and he should settle.
I find that horses with excess eenrgy (i.e. they're been stabled for the night or have a higher energy feed) and horses who are not being mentally challenged in their work, tend to switch off to their rider more and focus on other things to amuse themselves.
So make sure your horse has at least daily turnout and his feed suits his workload, and you could lunge him for 10-20 minutes before getting on and riding, to encourage him to settle, develop engagement and listen to you before you actually ride him.

:)

xx
 
Good to know i am not the only one with a horse who sees monsters in the funniest things :)

I do have a problem keeping his concerntration, he is very easily distracted and RI is working with me to get the ears locked into me and not the rest of the world :rolleyes:

I am sure his spooking is due to this but it is catch 22, I can not get his attention when he has locked onto something. What else can I do to regain it, other than asking with the leg and touching lightly with a schooling whip behind the leg and making funny noises. All of which if he is having a spook make him worse.

I guess I need to keep it rather than get it back, but that would turn our hack into me constantly getting at him, I have gone out with the intention of having that ear constantly flicked back but goodness it is impossible!

I think his turnout and feed are all fine, before the monster logs we had a close encounter with a train, lorry and motorbike all of which he was fine, obviously not in the same monster league as wood :p
 
i use leg yeilding and turn on the forhands and excercises to make finn listen to me when he's sticking his fingers in his ears and going "lalala i can't hear you and look thats a monster over there"

he does it cos he's feeling goooooooooood, he gets no hard feed so can't be that but he's fighting fit and full of beans

i guess loki is too :D
 
Clare-22 said:
before the monster logs we had a close encounter with a train, lorry and motorbike all of which he was fine, obviously not in the same monster league as wood :p
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Tell me about it! We hack past lorries, busses, over railway bridges and motorway bridges no problem at all. 45 minute hack up to a yard for riding club jumping last night - perfectly behaved - then spooked at a drain on the way into the school (idential to the ones in the road all the way there). You can but laugh!
 
Clare-22 said:
I am sure his spooking is due to this but it is catch 22, I can not get his attention when he has locked onto something.
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This is where I do get a bit tough, I give them a reasonable time to have an ogle and a stare but then when I ask for their attention back I expect it - sometimes the only way is to make a point of making them look in the opposite direction to what they're spooking at and go past that way or do something else facing the opposite direction. When we first used to do this with Alps he would have terrible tantrums, stamping his feet (literally :p ) rearing and leaping around - because it was a power battle, he was saying "No I don't want to listen to you I want to have a good stare at this funny looking blade of grass". Nowadays though once you have him turned away from what he's staring at he immediately relaxes and submits. It's funny really, even in a full on napping tantrum once you disengage him from whatever he is fixated on he will give in straight away.
 
hehe my mare does this all the time.I took her out today on are way out we went along the busy road with every kind of lorry u could imagine. Past some lads playing football,past the recycling centre with a massive machine that looks like a big spider that spits sand off the end,past the tip this includes masive tractors diggers and loads of noise and beeps .By this time we where out onto the heath
We spooked at a puddle and a piece of heather .Didnt even look at the tractors ,diggers ,pickup trucks ,trailers also parked on the heath.:eek:
 
You know what, come to think of it I have yet to ride a horse who has never done this: i think it's just part of being a horse, that only training and quality schooling will overcome.
You probably will not be able to stop the spooks completely, but you can have some lessons to find out if you're doing anything wrong and to try to get the most out of a more effective position and riding so that when your horse does spook, you are in a good position to correct it quickly and move on (i.e. rather than punish him for it).

:)

x
 
Can I ask what people regard as "having their horses concerntration"?

I can get his head looking away from it, but his mind is still very much on it, if that makes sense. My RI has been saying concerntration is having the ear flicking back to you, which I find almost impossible when faced with a spooky situation.

Is that asking too much in that situation? What do you guys judge it on?
 
With Joy I let her face the offending monster and walk her past it shoulders in.

Just because she is allowed to look it doesn't mean I do. I make a great show of continuing to look in the direction of travel and caling her a dopey cow in a soft smile filled voice. This not only provides a verbal calmer (without pandering) to her but also put me in the right frame of mind perception of an incident is all about frame of mind :)
 
You will stop the fake spooking completely and you are ideally set up to do so.

Take him to the spook zone. Walk on, on a loose rein and let him spook. Hurrah ! My favourite ! A spook = Way Hey! Time to do some serious work. Put that ponio's little hoofs to work so fast he won't know what hit him, move that butt over a full 360 and back, back, back - back up 23 strides and sling them shoulders around, pivot on his HQ a full 360 and halt, set up and straight into right canter, 3 strides and halt, back, back back and over... forward through the puddle, and back, in a circle around it and halt, and flex his nose to your toe, left, and right, and left, and right until ponio's neck is made of silk. Phew. Sit back, drape the reins, rest for 30 seconds and walk on, on a loose rein.

Do this every single time.

You be the judge of what constitutes a spook. At first, if he's thinking about it, but doesn't actually spook, you let him off because that is progress. As the weeks go on, you'll put his idle butt to work even as the thought of spooking crosses his pony mind.

That'll cure em.

Mind you, if you simply do not have those sort of exercises to hand - the fast rein-back, roll-back out of it, energetic turn on the forehand ... then what you need to do first is go get yourself some such tools. They are SO useful, honestly, I'd hate to leave the yard without them.
 
Can I ask what people regard as "having their horses concerntration"?
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i can tell you how it feels when i haven't got his attention, if that helps

when finn's acting the goat, he just ignores me , if i ask him to do anything he's like a kid watching the TV and eating his tea at the same time, he's doing it but its sloppy, clumsy and he's not putting any effort in cos he's watching the TV
 
Aren't they clever:D Mayo does the exact same thing, he's looking all round for something to spook at when he's had enough, which used to result in me then ending the session on him just going and sniffing it then rewarding him :eek: he wasn't even scared of it and easily got out of having to do anything else and then got a carrot:eek: How nieve was I:rolleyes: No advice all the stuff above looks good:)
 
The horse I ride is exactly the same, a little flighty and genuinely spooks sometimes but most of the time is just being a right chancer and attempting to liven things up when he gets bored or thinks I'm not concentrating!:D

I wouldn't be too worried about cantering past stuff, I have found the slower I go the more time there is to stare at terrifying log/rock/drain etc and to decide to spook, with the worst spooks happening from walk. When we are cantering it tends to occupy his mind more and he enjoys it and doesn't think about spooking.

The one thing I would suggest is if you know there might be a spook ahead sit up with bottom in the saddle in a dressage-style canter position unless you have a really secure two-point. I find if the horse spooks and does a little sidestep or speeds up it's easier to stay in control if you're sitting tall.
 
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