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Elite Veteran
Posts: 897
  
| I've had my new horse for almost three months now, and things are going good! We are really getting to know each other, and I'm still taking lessons weekly!
My only issue is his spookiness..mostly in the outdoor arena. On one corner of the arena, on the outside of the panel there are two 6ft tall bushes, with a 2ft tall rock in the middle. He spooks at it every time around the arena, every day. Some days I walk, then trot 20 times in a circle past it, and he gets a little better, but the next day we are back spooking at it every time around again. In another corner of the arena, on the inside is where my trainer keeps the pop up barrels, poles, cavalettis, etc, and every day we spook at them, every time around. Again, I walk a circle near it 20 times, then at a trot, etc, and he gets a little better, but the next day we are back to square one. He's pretty good in the indoor arena, and on the trails he's great. Another girl at the barn and I went on a 4 mile trail ride into town, on the side walks, crossing the street, motorcycles going by, and he was awesome! I'm getting really frustrated because I can't ride the rail one time around..I have had his eyes checked out recently.
Any tips? | |
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 My Heart Be Happy
Posts: 9159
 
Location: Arkansas | Bump | |
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 Miss Laundry Misshap
Posts: 5271
| There's a good possibility that he's bored going in circles and picks out something to spook at just for fun. There's usually much less to pick out in most small home indoor pens.
If he's that good outside, he's obviously telling you something when he's in the pen. | |
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 The Bling Princess
Posts: 3411
Location: North Dakota | Are you mentally thinking, "oh my gosh he is going to spook when I get to this corner....does it everyday...oh here we go...?" I swear sometimes if we keep telling ourselves they are going to do something they start doing it; good and bad.
Change your expectations, do some ground work and move his feet by the spooky areas, lope him down and I mean til he's really good and sweaty, and then let cool down by walking the rail. Sometimes when they are tired it's too much work to act like a freak. Any way to work him by the bushes, like take him out and do a lunging, pass by the scary object session? Take the barrels and cavalettis out of the corner and make an obstacle course with them, anything to move his feet by the scary stuff. | |
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Expert
Posts: 1343
Location: East Texas | Is there any way to tie him close to the scary corner and make him stand there for a long time... maybe even feed him there so he thinks it's a good place? | |
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Married to a Louie Lover
Posts: 3303
| To be completely honest it sounds like he has your number.
He’s spooked there before so now you expect him to spook there and are subconsciously getting tense in anticipation of the spook.
I’d stop with the circles and trying to coax him into being good and give him a good boot forward the next time he did it. That’s just me though. He needs to know he can’t pull on over on you. By the same token you need to make sure you aren’t being tense and making him think something is there. I would focus on riding forward through the corner, tough love if he tries to be a jerk.
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 Gotta Have a Gray
Posts: 899
Location: Tex. Panhandle | If it were me on one of mine, we would head straight to that corner and they would be doing roll backs along the fence till they decided it was NOT a big deal. Move his feet in that area till he chills out. We went to an arena my 3 yr old has been at sev times a few weekends ago. Worked the pattern awesome, but they had set up panels to make an alleyway and had banners on them and she lost her marbles when we were up front. She immdeiately got put to work doing rollbacks along the banners (both sides) till she decided they werent gonna eat her then we went on about our way.
My new 4 yr old hates circles. I'm guessing her previous owners did ALOT of circles to try n wear her out (she is now in awesome shape thanks to that) . She is a butt if you just try to work circles. Now work circles around the barrels (spirals, counter arcing, figure 8's) or around cones ect and she is a completely different horse. She just needs something to think about. She is to smart and gets bored easily, she needs to be working. | |
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 The best bad guy on the internet
Posts: 3519
Location: Arizona | I agree with the other posters about moving his feet in the 'scary' area. Don't let him dictate how he's going to act...make him work, do side passes in that area, get his focus on you not the "area". My mare spooks in this one area near our canal bank, every time I walk down the hill she acts like someone or something is coming after her...lol. So now we walk down the hill, stop and back up the hill. She has to really work her feet going up the hill backwards...lol. Gets her mind off of spooking! | |
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 Born not Made
Posts: 2931
Location: North Dakota | emricmacy - 2018-09-19 3:33 PM I've had my new horse for almost three months now, and things are going good! We are really getting to know each other, and I'm still taking lessons weekly! My only issue is his spookiness..mostly in the outdoor arena. On one corner of the arena, on the outside of the panel there are two 6ft tall bushes, with a 2ft tall rock in the middle. He spooks at it every time around the arena, every day. Some days I walk, then trot 20 times in a circle past it, and he gets a little better, but the next day we are back spooking at it every time around again. In another corner of the arena, on the inside is where my trainer keeps the pop up barrels, poles, cavalettis, etc, and every day we spook at them, every time around. Again, I walk a circle near it 20 times, then at a trot, etc, and he gets a little better, but the next day we are back to square one. He's pretty good in the indoor arena, and on the trails he's great. Another girl at the barn and I went on a 4 mile trail ride into town, on the side walks, crossing the street, motorcycles going by, and he was awesome! I'm getting really frustrated because I can't ride the rail one time around..I have had his eyes checked out recently. Any tips?
You didn't say: What are YOU doing during all this?
Honestly, most horses are spooky because they are allowed to be spooky. If they aren't paying attention to the rider, then they are free to pay attention to everything else going on in the world around them. If you change their mindset to start paying attention to YOU all the time, then that leaves them no room to be spooky.
So don't just "trot by the scary object". Instead, ask him to break at the poll while moving on the diagnoal away from the object, at the trot. See the difference? One is just letting the horse amble on by, but the other is demanding that he pay extreme attention to you, in order to do all those things. If he's paying attention to you to do that, then a bomb could be going off and he wouldn't notice.
So give him something to do when he wants to be spooky and looky. And if there's a particular spot where you know he is going to do it, then be proactive and get his attention before then.
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 Expert
Posts: 1367
Location: mi | Along with what everyone else said about making him work in the spook zones. If this is an enclosed pen.Turn his butt out there for a few days . Let it be his new home for awhile. | |
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Spookiness in the outdoor arena