My horse is skittish all the time. I f something touches him behind his front legs he bucks and rears. I just don't want it to be me on him one day and my leg touch his side. If he even sees the saddle or pad he gets nervous and starts to get more skittish. what can I do to get his out of being so skittish? How can I help him to not be so skittish?
Posted By: Rita
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OK, I have a 6 yr old TN walking horse. She is kept in the barn all the time except when we ride her. My daughter showed her last season and she did very well. This season the horse is spooked by everything. She has already tried to run away with my son and they ended up fliping over (horse and rider). He didn't get hurt but the horse was so tense that we had to put her up right away. I have another boy riding her who normally breaks horses. Some days she does good, but like today she tried to run away again and was spooked by everything. When we were putting her up, I had her tied to the post and all of a sudden she was trying to get away. I thought that the halter or her neck was going to brak. Could someone please help me with her?
Posted By: Paula
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Further, I must say I do believe in the distraction method. As I red in one of Monty Robert's books, the left halve of the brain is not rational, the right halve is. So when the left halve says: RUN, it is the art to make your horse use the rational halve of his brain by doing exercise. However, I do believe this is only working for sudden upcoming spooks, and I agree with Jess Hart that you should get your horse used to things he sees a lot.
Posted By: Su from Holland
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I think you should be looking out for danger for your horse. What I have learned is that this does not show that you are nervous too. Instead, the horse will feel safer. In nature, the leader od the group does this all the time, so that he can warn the other horses if necessary. So looking out shows your horse you are the leader and he is safe with you. And when you are not panicking, there is no reason for him to do so, since you keep an eye on everything. So I do agree with Nat that you should stay calm, but I do think you should look for and at dangerous objects. Do not look to the horse's head when he is spooked, because this will make him think that you look at him as a leader and wait for him to decide if this spooky object is realy scary. So,he will be insecure and run. My horse spooked the other day from a man with a high ladder and I broke my arm as a result (I was standing next to him and he pushed me on the ground). He is also frightened of trucks, but now he is on a paddock next to a big road so hopefully it will desensitivize him.
Posted By: Su from Holland
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My 6 year old son was sitting on my 5 year old welsh cross who was standing perfectly still. I had him on a lead line/halter. Suddenly he began to buck. He has done this "out of the blue" bucking many times before. I cant figure out what I am doing wrong. Everything is usually calm and quiet when he does this. Should I be talking to him constantly to distract him from spooking? Thanks--alisa
Posted By: alisa rehberg
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My 6 year old son was sitting on my 5 year old welsh cross who was standing perfectly still. I had him on a lead line/halter. Suddenly he began to buck. He has done this "out of the blue" bucking many times before. I cant figure out what I am doing wrong. Everything is usually calm and quiet when he does this. Should I be talking to him constantly to distract him from spooking? Thanks--alisa
Posted By: alisa rehberg
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I have a 4 yr. old Gypsy Vanner known for their calmness, however my guy has decided almost everything even his foot prints in the sand are mad eating horse monsters! I spent a great deal of time with him and have developed great patience. As a trail horse who I often ride on a 10 ft. grassed area by the street I dont have the luxury of doing the "9" step turn, left-right, back, forward dance. I often experience a spook/bolt, collect him, stop give him words of confidence and continue on. 30 seconds later he may do it again at something new and again I exercise continued patience. One day... he will have the patience and faith I have and he wont spook anymore.
Posted By: Tonia
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I just got a 6 year old ranch Q horse. He will do anythimg you ask of him when it comes to arena and trail riding. Yet he is scared of ever little thing.He spooks at small things such as the cliqing of a tape measerer. Your idvice does not really help for things such as this ( Noises, blowing leaves and trash, running kids ect.)These are things you cant controll. They could happen at any time. Any advies on really de-spooking a horse in every-day-life would be very great.
Posted By: Kels
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It seems to me that by distracting your horse with a series of commands, you are not helping him face his fears at all. You say you can just walk right on by that chicken coop however, you are spinning circles around your horse everyday just to get by. I think it would be much better to have your horse face his fears by asking him to move closer and closer to the object (chicken coop) and praising him for every effort made. When the horse is relaxed, ask him to move forward a little more. Continue this until he is standing relaxed right beside the object of fear. Let him check it out and praise him for his willingness even if it took you all day. If he gets spooky and tenses up the next time you pass the object, repeat the entire procedure. It will not take as long as the first time. Each session will become shorter as your horse learns to face his fears and trust you.
Posted By: Jess Hart
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Obviously it depends if your riding your horse or not, but whilst riding one of the best things you can do is stay confident, and if on foor or on your horse dont look for the things that will spook your horse, it shows that you too are warey and looking for the same worrying aspects of that environment. Horses draw confidence from humans as they would from members of a herd so showing your looking for said objects of fear shows you too may be nervous, i would reccomend trying to stay calm and confident to show that you dont fear it so why should they. Sounds simple but it works.
Posted By: Nat
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I have a 5 y/o bay connmarra gding,he tends to spook at things that he goes past everyday (e.g) the bottom of the indoor or leaf blowing across in front of him I am only 13 and I really want to help him get through this stage as he is truely stunning, has bags of potential and could go quite far any offers to help would be nice
Posted By: charlotte
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When my horse spooks at certain objects (bikes are the worst) he will refuse to go past it. If their are objects your horse spooks at, leave them outside his stall, so he can see them. After about 2 nights of the object he will realise that it can;'t hurt him, and will learn to ignore it. Hope this helps.
Posted By: Deena
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I was wandering do you think this will work for a horse who spooks walking down the isle way in the barn to go outside. He has never been inside before and snorts at every little object laying on the side of the isle way. We've had him for 1 week now he was a working ranch horse before this and I assume lived out on the range. Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
Posted By: Monica Rogers
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