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Location: midwest mama | I have a gelding who is an awesome barrel horse but he is very "lookie" and OBSESSIVE.
He is constantly scanning the horizon and looking around, and when he sees something out of the ordinary he obsesses over it. He will stand and look at whatever it is for hours.......sometimes days. Sometimes he will get so wound up he will spin around and come back to stare - over and over again. The only way I can stop him is if I physically get him, tie him up and groom him or something to distract him. The other day my next door neighbor was fixing his fence and my horse stared (ears forward) at the place the neighbor had been working all day long - hours and hours after he was done working and had left. I swear this horse can see an ant in the pasture and obsess over it for hours.
He is not spooky but is very lookie when I ride him. Sometimes it is a challenge to keep him engaged with me. Interestingly enough when he is at a barrel race he is pretty focused. When he takes off to the first barrel he locks on and is awesome. It seems that the more action there is the less lookie and obsessed he is.
Anyone else have a horse like this? Have any suggestions on how to deal with it? Sometimes he makes me crazy.
TIA
Edited by OldSchoolCowgirl 2018-02-03 3:27 AM
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Gettin Jiggy Wit It
Posts: 2734
| My good horse is like this. I swear at a barrel race or rodeo she finds Waldo out in the stands lol. I've had her since she was born and she will be 12 this year. She has never grown out of it but it has gotten better. However if there is something new the next day someplace we've walked by before she will pick it out instantly and gawk for a really long time after. |
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Nut Case Expert
Posts: 9305
Location: Tulsa, Ok | I have a gelding that sees everything and anything that in the surrounding mile. I swear he can spot an ant on a hill a halv mile away. He, however, is not particulary obsessive about continuing to watch. He is 100% focused when running barrels. |
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 Total Germophobe
Posts: 6437
Location: Montana | I have a gelding that looks at EVERYTHING. He didn't make a ranch horse because of that (and he is really broke and nice to ride) and does good in an arena if you give him something to focus on. But to just go on a trail ride, he looks everywhere, and if there is something, not even new, that catches his eye, he keeps wanting to look at it. In a way its entertaining, in another way it is a pain in the butt. But if you are working him on the pattern, he focuses on what he's doing and is fun to ride. Hopefully he stays that way when we start competing!
Edited by mtcanchazer 2018-02-03 11:40 AM
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 Accident Prone
Posts: 22277
Location: 100 miles from Nowhere, AR | I fell off my lookie-loo yesterday. LMAO we had coyotes in the woods by his pasture a few day ago and he’s been staring and freaking himself out ever since. He was pretty squirrelly when I got on him but after loping circles for a bit he seemed to settle in and relax so I let my guard down. Did I mention it was cold so I was dressed like the Michelin man? Well we were still loping and next thing I know he’s pointed the other direction, I had missed the horn, and was hanging off the side with only the reins and my right foot in the stirrup keeping me attached to 1000 pounds of dumbass. This scared the poo out of him, and he started leaping sideways trying to escape my trick riding shenanigans that were obviously an effort to punish him for shying. I hit flat on my back, he ran to the barn bug eyed and shaking like a leaf, and the stupid donkey commenced to running around the pasture braying at the top of his lungs for the next 10 minutes. Not sure if he was laughing or sounding the alarm...hard to tell with donkeys.
Anyway, I had to ride him for a while before he quit shaking, he somehow worked great the rest of the ride, and I’m sore, but undamaged. Think I’m going to give him a chill pill today before we start. Haha |
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 A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | Three 4 Luck - 2018-02-03 12:41 PM
I fell off my lookie-loo yesterday. LMAO we had coyotes in the woods by his pasture a few day ago and he’s been staring and freaking himself out ever since. He was pretty squirrelly when I got on him but after loping circles for a bit he seemed to settle in and relax so I let my guard down. Did I mention it was cold so I was dressed like the Michelin man? Well we were still loping and next thing I know he’s pointed the other direction, I had missed the horn, and was hanging off the side with only the reins and my right foot in the stirrup keeping me attached to 1000 pounds of dumbass. This scared the poo out of him, and he started leaping sideways trying to escape my trick riding shenanigans that were obviously an effort to punish him for shying. I hit flat on my back, he ran to the barn bug eyed and shaking like a leaf, and the stupid donkey commenced to running around the pasture braying at the top of his lungs for the next 10 minutes. Not sure if he was laughing or sounding the alarm...hard to tell with donkeys.
Anyway, I had to ride him for a while before he quit shaking, he somehow worked great the rest of the ride, and I’m sore, but undamaged. Think I’m going to give him a chill pill today before we start. Haha
I'm sorry but I had to laugh at this, I bet you were a sight to see, LOL and pretty sure that Donkey was laughing too. I hate when this happens you just cant do anything to save yourself in this situation, been there a few times in my lifetime. I have one thats a looker too and he can turn out from under you real quick so got to pay attention all the time on him...Glad you were padded up, did you bounce when you hit the ground..lol...  |
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Accident Prone
Posts: 22277
Location: 100 miles from Nowhere, AR | I was giggling when I typed all that, just picturing what I must have looked like. Every day is a circus around here... I am sad to report that I did not bounce, it was quite literally a SPLAT. The excessive amount of clothing, however, did offer a small amount of cushion. |
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Total Germophobe
Posts: 6437
Location: Montana | Three 4 Luck - 2018-02-03 11:41 AM I fell off my lookie-loo yesterday. LMAO we had coyotes in the woods by his pasture a few day ago and he’s been staring and freaking himself out ever since. He was pretty squirrelly when I got on him but after loping circles for a bit he seemed to settle in and relax so I let my guard down. Did I mention it was cold so I was dressed like the Michelin man? Well we were still loping and next thing I know he’s pointed the other direction, I had missed the horn, and was hanging off the side with only the reins and my right foot in the stirrup keeping me attached to 1000 pounds of dumbass. This scared the poo out of him, and he started leaping sideways trying to escape my trick riding shenanigans that were obviously an effort to punish him for shying. I hit flat on my back, he ran to the barn bug eyed and shaking like a leaf, and the stupid donkey commenced to running around the pasture braying at the top of his lungs for the next 10 minutes. Not sure if he was laughing or sounding the alarm...hard to tell with donkeys.
Anyway, I had to ride him for a while before he quit shaking, he somehow worked great the rest of the ride, and I’m sore, but undamaged. Think I’m going to give him a chill pill today before we start. Haha
I find that exceedingly funny, as I've had some similar trick riding experiences and have been dressed to look like the Michelin man! Its always good to have a sense of humor about such things, and you have such a way of wording it! |
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Accident Prone
Posts: 22277
Location: 100 miles from Nowhere, AR | The irony is I had just been telling my daughter the day before about how everyone falls off sometimes. I hadn’t fallen off a spooking horse since 1996, long before she was born, so I guess the Good Lord thought a demonstration was in order. |
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 Porta Potty Pants
Posts: 2600
| My guy ... he hates the tractor. He sees everything a mile away and is one of those, spin around if he sees something behind him. I've owned him 5 years. He's been this way for as long as I've had him. Some days are better than others. No matter if you ride or don't ride regularly. So frustrating. |
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 Balance Beam and more...
Posts: 11493
Location: 31 lengths farms | Yep, my little mare I always say is Bi-polar/ADHD. She'd get scared and then get scared that she got scared. Lope a circle and a rope hanging on the fence she'd be like "OMG, the rope, the rope the rope..." this would go on for 10-15 laps and the dog that had been sitting watching us the entire time would go from sitting to laying down and catch her eye and the commentary would go to "OMG, the dog, the dog the dog..." Between Silver Lining herbs Keep Cool and Fatchance's post years ago about keeping their feet moving we finally got past that. She was 7 by then,LOL!!! Good times!
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Location: South Dakota | run n rate - 2018-02-05 12:46 PM Yep, my little mare I always say is Bi-polar/ADHD. She'd get scared and then get scared that she got scared. Lope a circle and a rope hanging on the fence she'd be like "OMG, the rope, the rope the rope..." this would go on for 10-15 laps and the dog that had been sitting watching us the entire time would go from sitting to laying down and catch her eye and the commentary would go to "OMG, the dog, the dog the dog..." Between Silver Lining herbs Keep Cool and Fatchance's post years ago about keeping their feet moving we finally got past that. She was 7 by then,LOL!!! Good times!
Could you elaborate on Fatchance's post...never got a chance to read it. Basically keep their feet moving in spooky situations? TIA :) |
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Location: midwest mama | Anyone else? |
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 Reaching for the stars....
Posts: 12704
| My rocket mare! Her first futurity at Memphis was so scary that it was funny! She would NOT enter the arena if the music was on, every banner was a horse monster, the flags under the speakers were going to crash her. I'm just glad we got there on Wednesday else we'd've never gotten a run! The music thing lasted forever. The banners were always to be watched, but after her 100th show (lol!) they were maybe not going to eat her. For all her power and scaredee-catness she only bolted one time -- my plastic third barrel at home broke in half and I put it outside the arena (closer to the back gate for the moment). She spotted the horse-inhaling ghost halfway down the arena side and started to poof up. I tried to ease her down to take a look. A piece of grass must have moved when we were about 25' away and she bunched up and bolted to the other end of the arena in about 2 strides! My friend and I had been laughing at her for being so scared so I was still laughing when she stopped. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 612
| If you love him in the arena, then just ride him in the arena and enjoy competing on him. We have two horses that aren't good to trail ride or move cattle, but have a tremendous work effort in the arena. We love these horses. We gave one of the horses to my son when he was 9 and he gave my son a ton of confidence.
Edited by JAG18 2018-02-07 12:55 PM
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 1079
Location: MN | I cant say my guy is obsessive but he is very lookie! Hes been that way since the day I broke him as a 3 year old and he is now 11. I'm okay with it because he makes me laugh!! Hes so dang predictable about almost everything that I usually see it coming. I also use to breakaway off of him when he was a youngster - he loved it. BUT he spooks at steers or calves in the chute. Snorts at a rope. Shy's away from the heelomatic when he see's one (the ropers seceretly love my horse lol.) Its hilarious to me and one of the quirky things that makes me love him SO much!!! |
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Member
Posts: 37
| Yep, got one of those. Everyday is a new day, doesn't matter what we did the day before. I was riding in my field one day and Peppy stops, whirls around and is staring into the field next to us. I spot a deer come out from the woods, she whirled around and bolted. I gathered her up and tried to go back into the field to continue riding, nothing doing. That was about five years ago and she still spooks and looks into that field at the same spot. |
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Regular
Posts: 50
| You need to find a horse chiro that does upper adjustments, like in the poll and cervical. if they are out in the poll area it can affect their vision immensely and a lot of horses just live like that and owners label their horses with weird quirks or odd behaviors, when really they just may be out in the poll. Horses rely heavily on their vision for flight response |
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Balance Beam and more...
Posts: 11493
Location: 31 lengths farms | Keeping their feet moving =keeping their mind on you and maybe not so much on "seeing ghosts "... Is my laymens terms for it. With my little mare she would try to bolt when something scared her, I'd grab her face trying to keep that from happening and typically then my legs would clamp into her and she'd break in two. Once I made the adjustment to keeping her moving when she pNicked rather than the instinct to make her stop. |
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