Dealing with a Horse that is Very Nervous at Competitions

[lds14]

My horse is generally a bit spooky and has difficulty with anything “new” in his environment. At home the behavior is minor and very rideable and can be treated as no big deal. At home he is not hot or nervous, just spooky. However, his behavior at shows/off property escalates significantly. It’s all new to him and it just blows his mind. We just went to a show where we had to withdraw from all classes because he was unrideable. We got him to the point where he was handwalking around reasonably calmly and called it a day.

The biggest issue is that he exhibits behavior at shows that he never exhibits at home, like rearing, broncing and literally have a massive temper tantrum. I have ridden him through this but this isn’t safe to expose other competitors to. We follow a similar routine that we use at home - lunging and then getting on. At home I even lunge in a different ring than I plan to ride in (whenever possible) so there is some “difference” for him in warm up (since at shows you can never lunge near the action.

I will be committing to the very expensive proposition of just taking him to all competitions my barn goes to even if we can’t compete to get used to the atmosphere. But are there any other techniques at home or when at shows that you’ve used to improve upon this type of behavior? I assume this may always be an issue, but I want to give him the best shot at overcoming this as he is super fun to ride at home and very talented when he can focus. Has anyone have any stories of a horse that has a similar reaction at shows that settled into competition later in life? I know some people use supplements/calming paste and I don’t know anyone who has seen real results with that.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

P.S. He has custom fit saddles (and a shimming system that is adjusted as his back changes), he has regular chiro, and is generally laid back at home.

[EventerAJ]

Unfortunately there is no easy fix. Lots and lots of day trips, exposure to new places, trial and error (let him look & think, vs keep him moving) is the only solution. It will get better, but some horses may always be a little insecure away from home.

I had an ottb gelding who lost his marbles in warmup. Rearing, spinning, shaking, crow hopping, trantering mess. I took him to lots of local shows just to ride on the far fringe of warmup. After about 10 expeditions, he was getting less explosive. Finally one day, he jigged past all the trailers, took one look at crowded dressage warmup, took a deep breath and sighed. He still had tense moments, but he was safe and rideable thereafter.

[ACountingRider]

I’ll offer one train of thought. Rather than train your horses to grow accustomed to new things, a lot of trainers call it “desensitizing” train your horse to be responsive to the moving off of your pressure. Her philosophy followed that some horses are naturally spooky and while you can accustom them to new things, you will always incur some new obstacle that you haven’t seen before. Rather by really honing in on the horse being 100% responsive to the lightest amount of pressure by you, even when your horse is very nervous, his focus will still be on you.
For example, her 4**** horse, and later my prelim packer was always so spooky to anything sitting outside the ring. This was never a horse you could hack on the buckle and lose your attention on your phone with. However, the moment you put your leg on and told him where to go, he was 100% willing and attentive.

This can start from the ground having your horse always attentive to a T to under saddle. Even in the simple areas such as walking to the ring at home, he’s working and attentive.

While I didn’t give exercises, she taught me to be somewhat bothered by the idea of getting horses “accustomed” to things, rather than just obedient and submissive. I feel like that philosophy worked well with young horses and while it takes some more pressure in the very beginning, in the long-run makes your and their job a lot easier.

[lds14]

@EventerAJ

Unfortunately there is no easy fix. Lots and lots of day trips, exposure to new places, trial and error (let him look & think, vs keep him moving) is the only solution. It will get better, but some horses may always be a little insecure away from home.

I had an ottb gelding who lost his marbles in warmup. Rearing, spinning, shaking, crow hopping, trantering mess. I took him to lots of local shows just to ride on the far fringe of warmup. After about 10 expeditions, he was getting less explosive. Finally one day, he jigged past all the trailers, took one look at crowded dressage warm up, took a deep breath and sighed. He still had tense moments, but he was safe and rideable thereafter.

Thank you! I’m happy to hear your horse settled. It’s nice to hear there is hope. I debate back and forth on the letting him look and keeping him busy. At home, letting him look seems to help his confidence (because it’s just usually one thing). At shows it is so many things and the more I try to let him look, the more worked up he gets. It’s like he’s a completely different horse. I do appreciate your reply, it’s something i definitely think a lot about.

[lds14]

@ACountingRider

I’ll offer one train of thought. Rather than train your horses to grow accustomed to new things, a lot of trainers call it “desensitizing” train your horse to be responsive to the moving off of your pressure. Her philosophy followed that some horses are naturally spooky and while you can accustom them to new things, you will always incur some new obstacle that you haven’t seen before.

Thank you! I do work on this at home as he can get behind the leg. It’s good reminder to keep working on that as he does have room to improve here.

[Training_Cupid]

I think it definitely helps taking your horse different places just for schooling and practice, without the added stress of showing. I’ve been doing this with my green horse, and yesterday for the first time when he came off the trailer he was totally relaxed and just as lazy as he can be at home! I took him to a public arena, not a show, and we were the only horse there so it minimized the distractions. But I’ve taken him to several shows just to school in the warm up ring, and a few schooling shows where we did actually enter. I just got my own trailer so it is easier to go places.

One thing that helped me was to change my mindset. At first I was like oh poor horse, and I tried to really soothe him and tell him it’s okay. I realized what I need to do is to step up and be the boss. Not in a mean way, but just so he is reassured there is a leader.

For my horse it really helped to just get him trotting in a circle, and putting my inside leg on to get him to bend and accept the leg. That also gave him something to focus on, and keep his mind in the ring not outside at all the distractions.

Though, my horse never reared or did anything too bad. He just gets anxious and very quick and giraffe-y with his neck.

How old is your horse, and how many times have you trailered him out?

[lds14]

@Training Cupid

How old is your horse, and how many times have you trailered him out?

Thanks for your reply! He just turned 8, but was started late and had only once left his breeder’s farm. I’ve had him a year and have taken him out 9 times so far. We have done several mini xc schoolings when the barn goes out and I have taken him to one show where we just schooled in the warm up arena. I realize I need to up the number of outings. When he is reasonable enough to ride, it does help to do circles, leg yields, spiral in and out, and change directions frequently anything that keeps him busy. But this does not always produce relaxation really, but it can keep him moving. A buddy can also help when it works out that I have a someone riding at similar times.

I agree about the mindset. Because he goes so well at home, it’s a major adjustment for me at shows to be more active and not as quiet as I usually am.

[gumtree]

As others have said taking him out and about the town as often as possible. Taking him to shows to hang out, doesn’t cost anything to show up at small local shows if they are available and not compete. But if you don’t have access to a truck and trailer this can be expensive paying others to haul you around.

[yellowbritches]

I think all the various answers are worthy of using. Time and exposure, continuing to de-sensitize and teach him appropriate responses for when he’s frightened (I don’t care if you spook, but you will spook in place/keep moving forward/not turn into a dangerous mess when you spook), and also continuously reminding him that you’re the boss- you won’t lead him into harm’s way, but he’s gotta go where you say. Real spookiness and nerves needs to be dealt with on many levels, at home and away.

The one thing you don’t mention is ulcers. Even if he may not have an active case, you may want to load him up with UlcerGuard a day or two before and the day of any outings. 1/4 to 1/2 a tube may do wonders. Some horses work themselves into such tizzies away from home and make big turn arounds with some gut support.

Now for a mini-rant, but not directed at the OP, specifically, but this is a good example as to why learning about the world from a young age is VITAL. This poor horse only left the farm ONCE in his first 7 years and has no idea on how to handle himself when he’s unsure. This type of young horse rearing is SUCH a disservice to otherwise nicely bred horses and especially the people later in their lives. Teaching them about the world, what having a job is like (even if that just means long lining them for ages), and what appropriate responses are for being frightened is so important and makes MUCH better equine citizens. You can’t change genetics and it will only help an inherently spooky, nervous horse so much, but why NOT give them the chance to be successful. (Also, this is exactly why OTTBs are more likely than not to be calmer, in my book, than their sport bred counterparts). Ok. Rant over.

[Texarkana]

OP, I can totally relate.

Through a series of unfortunate events (aka “life”), my WB baby never got off the farm as much as I wanted her to as a young horse. She would also blow her mind; to the point where I couldn’t even trust that I could handwalk her safely in a new venue, let alone ride her. You mention temper tantrums-- my mare is the queen of the temper tantrum, and is not afraid to sacrifice herself and everyone around her for the greater cause of FREAKING OUT.

To bolster your confidence: my girl is now 12 and has just recently re-joined the ranks of “solid citizen.” In the past year, I’ve taken her to lessons, horse shows, trail rides, cross country schooling, swimming at the beach…

What changed?

A lot of it is mental maturity; after 12 years, she has finally realized it’s easier to acquiesce than temper tantrum, and is more willing to negotiate than she was in her younger years.

I also set myself up with a new truck and trailer, resolving a decade-long transportation issue that caused her to be homebound more often than not. (I don’t know about you, but after a point, I felt guilty tagging along to shows with my nutcase, even if I was paying for the transportation.)

But the biggest contributer to our turnaround was slowly building up my own confidence so I have the ability to diffuse the ticking time bomb that is my horse.

For me, it started with an understanding trainer. So many trainers are NOT sympathetic to these types of issues; I was blessed to find someone who could capably and patiently help me through it.

Knowing that my confidence was suffering as much as my horse’s, I made it a point to only go places where I could safely handle a blow up and generate a positive experience. At first, the only place I would go was my trainer’s farm. When I was ready to show again, I chose low key shows with safe schooling facilities and paid for my trainer to coach me. Having trusted “ground cheerleaders” who understand the situation and can appropriately coach and distract you can make a world of difference. After surviving a few outings with only minor theatrics, I started to feel less limited by her behavior.

If you’re anything like me, it may be hard for you to trust your horse right now, making the situation a two part problem. Your horse is only as brave as you are. It’s imperative to get your horse off the farm as much as you can, but make sure not to overface yourself, or you will be destined for a lousy experience.

Good luck!

[BatataHead]

I love the spirit of Texarkana’s post and relate to it.

I’ve been there with an ottb who was so erratic and reactive when I first got him that I used to shout “head up! coming through!” for safety of my barn mates.

It took two years of tagging along to every show and outing my barn went to and just leading him around, then riding him AT the show but not in it, then riding in a class (but skipping the hectic warm up ring), then trying the warm up ring (but exiting if we were having or causing trouble). We had a lot of rough days out. But, today we can go to a show, or any outing, have a fun day, and often do well.

I have nothing to add as far as techniques - the other posters have said it well. Don’t push yourself too hard. Take it slowly. Bring LOTS of hay. Whatever you do, don’t wear yourself or your horse out. Forget competition goals and make the outings low key. My horse was such a handful in the early days I gave my trainer lots of gray hairs (and possibly a drinking problem).

The day before the first show I actually rode in, my trainer took me aside and said “You know, you don’t HAVE to do this.” I assured him that if we went and it was crazy, I would scratch. So we went. We skipped the warm up, rode in to a dressage test cold, and did fine (meaning we did the test with no antics). I rode out of the ring all warm and fuzzy that we “did it” and was sitting on my horse waiting for trainer to tell me how fabulous we were, but all he could say was “Great now for God’s sake GET OFF now before he has the chance to do something!”. It was a really funny (to me) moment.

I’m not a great rider or horse person but I do have a lot of patience and I’m persistent, and I’m full of lots of possibly unfounded optimism, and think that really helped me and my horse.

[leheath]

I think letting a horse look at things in a new environment is fine, as long as they don’t completely tune you out. I allowed my young mare to look at “scary” things (spook in place) and generally this helped her realize they were not actually scary and move on. With time, a quick look at something was sufficient for her then to focus and get back to work. Trying to “force” her to ignore whatever was bothering her was a recipe for disaster. That said, she went through a phase of completely losing her mind away from home. Turned out it was mostly a hormone issue, but even so, I worked through a lot of it by allowing her to look at things, but not to fixate on them (hard to explain the difference in writing, but in the first case the eye is soft but interested and in the case of fixation, the eye is hard and I became invisible to her!). Even now if we are standing around not doing anything, she can look around, but not fixate on things - this is at home or away. She has to at least be in tune enough with me to notice if I ask her to something.

I found keeping my horse moving in the face of issues sometimes worked, but sometimes just wound her up more. Working on making sure I was relaxed, and not “buying in” to her anxiety was difficult, but very helpful. Now in new situations, I try to ride like I know she will be relaxed and fine and the majority of the time she behaves as I “expect” her to. As others have said, it also makes a huge difficult once (if?!) you realize you can handle whatever they do regardless. Then you have the confidence to relax a bit more and this translates into the horse relaxing too. Having a coach who could redirect my attention away from any bad horse behavior and more towards calmly going where I was going, also made a huge difference. It is very easy to get so wrapped up in your horse’s behavior and your reaction to it, rather than focusing on what you wanted originally and this can inadvertently make the situation worse.

Another suggestion - start by going less busy places than a show. Just trailer to other facilities and ride. Then go to small, quiet shows, then work up to larger, busier ones. If possible, start with shows that are at venues you have already ridden at when there wasn’t a show. This will really help you feel confident and your horse to have something at least vaguely familiar to help his confidence.

Good luck!

[Minxitbabe]

Could you haul in to other facilities just for a ride? Would be less expensive than a show and less people would likely be in danger.

[mmeqcenter]

Haul out as much as you can, not just shows. Haul to other farms to school, or if the local show venues allow open schooling haul there. Haul to trails and trail ride, or walk the trails in hand.

[lds14]

Thanks everyone! These stories are extremely heartening for me to hear. I’m so happy to hear that most horses have gotten to the point where they can compete safely. I don’t have my own trailer, so it is going to be crazy expensive go out very often, but I’m committed to do it. The biggest challenge with him is just that he is such an easy horse at home and from a training perspective has been making ton of progress, but off property, he’s an agoraphobic lunatic.

yellowbritches - I do wish he got out more as a baby, but nothing I can do about that now. He was very slow to mature so he was “delayed” in his training. He was such a laid back horse at home that we did not know until my first show with him that he was nutballs off property.

​​​​​​Texarkana - Your story is very helpful. I sure hope I can get him there. I do have a great trainer who probably has to spend way more time on us at competitions than everyone else and a great barn family that is understanding of that as well. Interestingly, this horse has actually improved my confidence significantly over the past year. My challenge though is that I’m a very quiet rider and I always like to use the lightest possible aids. And its hard for me to “switch over” at shows where I have to ride extremely aggressively to keep him paying attention to me. It’s still a jarring transition to me. I really have to work on my “adjust-ability”.

leheath - I have a similar situation in where I feel like it’s not 100% consistent what works best in terms of letting him look or not look. I feel fairly confident on him in terms of riding out most antics, but what gets me nervous is having him cause problems with other horses. He once reared straight up in the warm up ring and while he did not touch another horse and I rode it out, it caused a chain reaction of bad behavior for other horses. But honestly, relaxation and confidence are always things I can work on.

BatataHead - That’s another heartening story! Your description of yourself sums me up as well. It’s hard when you are the only one at a horse show that has to withdraw.

We are planning on another mini xc school this weekend just to be off property. And we have a smaller venue show the week after and will hopefully be able to get him into the sandbox. Or we’ll just hang out again at the show.

[Libby2563]

@Texarkana

It’s imperative to get your horse off the farm as much as you can, but make sure not to overface yourself, or you will be destined for a lousy experience.

In the spirit of this, I would skip the xc schoolings for now because they can be pretty exciting (wide open spaces, galloping horses coming and going, loose horses if riders fall off) and you risk overfacing him and making both of you even more nervous. Seek out easy, positive experiences for now (as others have recommended, haul out to other farms or schooling shows that you know will be low-key) and don’t worry about showing yet.

He has some catching up to do as far as worldliness, but I think if you take your time and go about it intelligently you will get there!

[HeyJealousy]

I think it’s wonderful that you’re willing to work through this issue and have a great trainer and supportive friends to help you.

My horse was terrified of other horses coming anywhere near him so every time we tried to go near warm-up he would start rearing, bucking, plunging, just anything to get away. Riding more aggressively to make him pay attention made him worse because his brain was overloaded and he thought he was getting in trouble, which made him more reactive and dangerous. What we’ve done with him is take it back to the basics on the ground…making sure he is paying attention to me, halts when I ask (politely), moves away from pressure when asked…basically I try not to just throw him on the lunge and let him careen around or be spooky/reactive but slowly try to get him to tune into me and realize I’m the leader and things are going to be okay. Then giving him a basic exercise under saddle seems to really help. A simple “bend left and move your feet” and it helps to slow his brain down and give him something very simple to focus on.

That said, we have a LONG way to go and I actually have no real desire to compete anymore so we just focus on taking him into different situations at other farms and arenas right now. The groundwork has really, really helped immensely.

I wish you the best of luck, and please do keep us updated on your progress!

[Fairview_Horse_Cente]

All day hunter shows. The kind that you can set up chairs, coolers, etc pretty close to the rings and just hang out. The goal would be to tack up and ride 3-4 times throughout the day, in a hack class when you are comfortable, or just in the warmup, but then hang out for hours doing nothing, napping in the sun, etc

[lds14]

@Libby2563

In the spirit of this, I would skip the xc schoolings for now because they can be pretty exciting (wide open spaces, galloping horses coming and going, loose horses if riders fall off) and you risk overfacing him and making both of you even more nervous. Seek out easy, positive experiences for now (as others have recommended, haul out to other farms or schooling shows that you know will be low-key) and don’t worry about showing yet.

He has some catching up to do as far as worldliness, but I think if you take your time and go about it intelligently you will get there!

When I say mini XC, I mean it. It’s remedial, “special needs” XC schooling and just for the purposes of getting him off property. I have only so many options to do that since I don’t have a trailer. I lunge him while my barn mates do a real schooling. He’s allowed to relax, eat some grass, get comfortable. Then I ride around the field a bit and do the same logs, take him through the water (which surprisingly he really likes) and then call it day. And it’s a very quiet private farm where we’ve never had company out there with us schooling. It’s really low key. He isn’t thrilled about the open space for sure, but he can see his friends and he is not out of his mind like he is at shows. It’s just uncomfortable enough for us to practice a “different” location.

[lds14]

@HeyJealousy

I think it’s wonderful that you’re willing to work through this issue and have a great trainer and supportive friends to help you.

My horse was terrified of other horses coming anywhere near him so every time we tried to go near warm-up he would start rearing, bucking, plunging, just anything to get away. Riding more aggressively to make him pay attention made him worse because his brain was overloaded and he thought he was getting in trouble, which made him more reactive and dangerous. What we’ve done with him is take it back to the basics on the ground…making sure he is paying attention to me, halts when I ask (politely), moves away from pressure when asked…basically I try not to just throw him on the lunge and let him careen around or be spooky/reactive but slowly try to get him to tune into me and realize I’m the leader and things are going to be okay. Then giving him a basic exercise under saddle seems to really help. A simple “bend left and move your feet” and it helps to slow his brain down and give him something very simple to focus on.

That said, we have a LONG way to go and I actually have no real desire to compete anymore so we just focus on taking him into different situations at other farms and arenas right now. The groundwork has really, really helped immensely.

I wish you the best of luck, and please do keep us updated on your progress!

He does have a bit of a dominant streak (esp if he needs single turnout for whatever reason) that comes out in subtle ways at home, so I try to keep up on groundwork. He can be very quirky, so we cycle through periods where we do more groundwork that others. He has been extremely well behaved recently. But that did not transfer over to the show. I did groundwork with him at the show to keep him busy. But it’s another thing we can focus more on at home for sure. Maybe more consistency would help.