Favorite groundwork for insecure horse

[OceansAway]

Hi everyone,

In case the title didn’t tip anyone off, I’m wondering what everyone’s favorite groundwork methods are for dealing with an insecure horse. I have a recently turned 3 mare, who is very, very sweet, but gets really nervous when exposed to certain scenarios. For example, walking around new parts of the yard are terrifying for her. Cars, gators, and lawnmowers are terrifying. Walking to the arena away from friends is terrifying. The things that are scary tend to be more external, because she’s great about things like being introduced to a blanket for the first time, saddle pads, saddle, fly spray, boots, etc. It’s the things around her that drive her anxiety sky-high. Her typical reaction is to put her head straight in the air with her eyes bugged out, and get explosive, and will run into my space trying to get away from whatever is scary, or try and run ahead of me. Because she checks out in a way, I worry about her knocking me down by accident. I should mention, that she can also be really, really curious and brave. She will readily approach scary objects, walk through things like hanging decorations, bang into things and not bat an eye, and be non- reactive to construction equipment being used right near her. So it’s a bit hard for me to figure her out.

Anyway, I want to do groundwork with her to remedy some of these behaviors, but I don’t know where to start. The barn where I am loved Parelli, but tends to get very worked up and upset with those methods. I would love to be steered towards some other methods, exercises, trainers, that might seems to be a good fit for what I’ve described. Thanks, everyone!

[Renn_aissance]

I’d do clicker training, which has all sorts of applications to teach her all kinds of life skills- but one “trick” I really like with anxious horses is to teach them to touch something with their noses. Start off by touching your hand calmly. Then a brush in your hand. Then a tack trunk. Or the feed cart. Things she sees every single day. What you’re asking her to do here is orient herself to you. When she understands the objective, when she spooks at something, ask her to touch your hand. She can’t do this and run away with her head up at the same time. Once she really knows this trick, and has lots of practice touching things that have completely failed to eat her at all even a little bit, when she spooks at something, work up to having her touch that thing.

She’s three years old and she doesn’t know a single thing about the world yet, so it is also not cheating to introduce her to new things with a cynical old horse who can model “yeah, sure, whatever” to bicycles or golf carts or screaming children. This is particularly true while she is learning to orient to you and her behavior is dangerous to herself and anyone around her.

[Bluey]

Many of the colts we started, we had an older super quiet horse the colts loved along.
You could see colt start getting tense about something or other, look at the old horse just plodding along and then decide they too were brave and, still keeping an eye on the monsters, just in case, try to ignore them.

We did groundwork in situations colts were learning new things and still under the threshold of just too scary, trying not to overface them.
Each one was different, some more confident in some places, others saw different things as scary.
Desensitizing to each new thing was not as effective as installing confidence where they could feel secure and that later translated to most other, scarier situations.
Having some situations one was already forward helped to build from.
The ones naturally scaredy-cat insecure ones took a little longer.

Clicker training was not in use yet then.
That, as mentioned above, would have helped the more insecure ones immensely, give it a try.
Working with youngsters is so rewarding, any pictures to share of your filly?

[Texarkana]

@OceansAway

Her typical reaction is to put her head straight in the air with her eyes bugged out, and get explosive, and will run into my space trying to get away from whatever is scary, or try and run ahead of me. Because she checks out in a way, I worry about her knocking me down by accident.

So, I have one of these horses. She actually has run me over— the only time I have ever been full on run over by a horse who could have gotten out of the way but didn’t.

This isn’t what you asked, and maybe it isn’t your problem at all, but the #1 thing that corrected the problem for us was fixing me. I couldn’t see how much she was getting my adrenaline up. The only reason I figured it out was a combination of some good horse people who pointed it out PLUS acquiring another horse who was so ridiculously sensitive to my energy that it was like having my own personal barometer standing in the barn. The latter really helped me make the change because I tend to be sensitive to criticism and not listen to people sometimes.

We tried a few different groundwork “programs” over the years. All were good in their own ways but none were a magic bullet to fix the issue. Watching a lot of pressure/release wild mustang demos did increase my awareness of when I was applying pressure and when I was not. But mainly, it was learning how to keep myself centered and balanced that greatly reduced her wigged out, explosive spooks.

Apart from that— it’s just exposure with you feeling centered and capable. When horses freak out, it’s because they have been stretched beyond what they can handle (not necessarily by humans, it can be caused by any combination of factors) and their flight or fight mechanism kicks in. You can think of it almost like strengthening a muscle: you don’t get stronger by dead lifting a single heavy object. You have to repetitively and incrementally increase the load to build their capacity.

[anon40672407]

@Renn_aissance

it is also not cheating to introduce her to new things with a cynical old horse who can model “yeah, sure, whatever” to bicycles or golf carts or screaming children.

Yup yup and yup. Get yourself up off the ground as well, so she can’t run you down. This is what the horn on the western saddle is for.

[Renn_aissance]

@anon40672407

This is what the horn on the western saddle is for .

Or a neck strap. Long live the neck strap. We used to put a loose yoke on all the babies when we were teaching them how to be horses in the world because you simply didn’t know when they were going to be trotting and when they were going to be levitating in the opposite direction and everybody around here is simply too young to die.

On the other hand, OP, if the horse is so checked out she has no self preservation, I support you wanting to be on the ground where you can get away from her- but if that’s true that really changes the game about the problem you’re trying to solve.

[OceansAway]

Thanks so much! I love the idea of clicker training. I tried it years ago on another mare, and gave up because I had a hard time with it, but I do feel like I’d be more adept now. As far as a buddy, I am usually at the barn alone, but it would be a good idea to use one of the ponies on a day when someone is available to help me.

[OceansAway]

She’s not under saddle yet. She only just turned 3, so I’m only doing groundwork with her anyway.

[anon40672407]

@OceansAway

She’s not under saddle yet. She only just turned 3, so I’m only doing groundwork with her anyway.

I might not have been clear. I’m suggesting ponying her off a staid old been-there-done-that horse. Couple times around the grounds, then you get off the staid old, and lead her in hand a couple times around. That way she gets the highjinx out when you are mounted on staid old, with your leadrope to her dallied round the horn.

After that, you ground drive her around the same path 2 more times, her leading.

[RedHorses]

“Move your body” is my starting place. Any horse I work with must be able to go forward, backwards, sideways with all four feet, and move shoulders and haunches over independent of each other. They must be able to do all of these with me on either side, and as many or few steps as I ask.

Then when we approach something concerning I can halt before the head up, explosive point, and do some back, halt, turn on forehand, halt, forward, halt, turn on haunches, halt, etc until they come down. With older horses I will run the move 1-2 steps this way/that way more quickly than with babies. I want to make it just demanding enough to require the horse pay attention to what he’s doing, but not so demanding that it’s confusing. He should still be able to keep a little attention on the thing, but he must respond to my direction.

I can put myself between the horse and the scary thing if I let them get too close to explosive so they won’t run me over if they try to bolt.

I will move away from the thing, then back towards it as they become less concerned. Look up Warwick Schiller fifty foot trail ride on YouTube for the theory.

[Foxglove]

While you have been given good suggestions above, what worked for me and my horses was an extremely structured program --at the time a DVD series titled Gaining Control and Respect on the Ground. It is now available as a download. As a former teacher of 40 years, I LOVED the format! The instructor (trainer) explained the purpose of the 30 min lesson.

He then took a well-trained horse, and showed what the goal was —something as simple as allowing the handler to gently pull the bit to one side --by giving the head a slight sideways movement. The instructor then took a never-been-handled horse and taught it the concept --small things each time, but each built on the other. The first horse he would use he called a “fat lazy gelding,” quiet horse, just never been trained. His second horse was a “reactive” horse --all over the place, high-headed horse.
With each horse, he quietly, as we watched the DVD, accomplished his simple goal. At the end, he showed common mistakes the handler might make, and common problems the horse might have. He then reminded the handler to work with the horse 20 min daily, and not try to do 90 min on the weekend all at once. . .

In the first DVD, there were eight simple exercises, each taking about 30 min to explain. Going from memory here: giving to the bridle (side tip of the nose), moving the hind end on cue, accepting a touch of the stick (longer than a crop), accepting the sound and touch of a rope (not a cow rope, but more of a lunge line lash), and three ways to back the horse in hand.

I would watch the 30 min DVD on my lunch at school, then rush home to try it on my horse. Over the years, I have done the majority of the program on all my horses --each is delightful on the ground --and in the saddle. While I didn’t do every DVD, I did manage to get through half of the 55 training lessons.

I believe Warwick Schiller has a DVD program similar to the one I refer to, as does Stacey Westfall.

The important part is daily work (even 15 min) and a clear plan --and now, putting on my flame proof suit, I will give you the trainer’s name of the DVD series I used (whisper) Clinton Anderson.

[RhythmNCruise]

I like Warwick Schiller, Tristan Tucker, and Steve Young as trainers for this kind of thing. I kind of pull bits and pieces from things I’ve picked up from watching them when I’m dealing with my own boy, who has had some anxiety now and then in the past. He’s one to raise his head sky-high with eyes bugged out, blasting dragon snorts for the world to hear. He did this not long ago while in the washrack in the barn. He saw the top of a tractor…all the way down the other end of the barn driveway…moving along on the other side of a bean field. (He can see out the front of the barn from the washrack.) He went bonkers and it was all I could do to get him out of the cross-ties before he tied himself into a knot in them. He’s not usually scared of tractors, but it was because he could only see the white top moving and the rest was hidden by the bean field. Flipped him the heck out! I took him walking toward it, head in the sky, muscles tight as a drum, eyeballs out on stems, prancing sideways and stopping every few steps to give a mighty dragon snort. (He looked gorgeous, I must admit.)

What I TRIED to do was let him see it fully, which I did. He settled somewhat then…snatched a few mouthfuls of grass while keeping an ear cocked and eye rolled towards it. But then we went back to the washrack and the tractor had gone elsewhere, and now he was all bent out of shape because “WHERE IS IT??” Like me when a spider suddenly goes missing in my bedroom. Eeek! He fretted and danced for his shower in the washrack, and I managed to keep him from losing his mind by repeatedly reaching into his mouth and doing what Steve Young calls “unlocking” or “cracking” his jaw. Basically, they clamp their jaws shut when they’re tense, and getting them to open their mouths a bit and lick/chew, helps release the tension a little. I’ve had it work for lesser situations, but I had to keep doing it for this one. Also, even though he was already moving his feet himself because he was antsy, I made a point to move him over myself, or if he was moving in such a way that was crowding me or unnecessary, I made corrections pretty clearly and moved his feet where I wanted. That actually seems to settle him for a minute or two because he listens and accepts that I’m in control…even though it was fleeting in that situation because he was truly afraid.

That brings me to my last point. When horses are truly afraid, and it sounds like your filly is, we need to let them know we hear them and value what they are communicating to us. We need them to know that we aren’t there to add to their stress or fear, and that we can be trusted to take their concerns seriously. The last thing we want to do is lose their confidence in us, and a quick way to do that is to ignore their fear and try to force them into a situation that they are truly afraid of. As Tristan Tucker put it in a video, if you take a person who is afraid of spiders and try to drag or push them towards a big spider, they’re going to fight you for all they’re worth and then run away. It’s the same for horses.

[cilla1]

My horse is kind like this, he’s 14 yo, he can walk through a fire and then spook and run me over because of a butterfly, he’s a psycho LOL

Clicker training is a good advice but be careful not to create a cookie monster, be consistent in her being very gentle where there is food involved.
Parelli method has helped a lot, of your horse tenses up maybe there’s something wrong in how you/your barn friends use the method.
Having an older very calm horse with you would be the best option anyway, he’d do the job for you.

[tabula_rashah]

I would suggest finding someone already very skilled to work with your horse on the groundwork and to also work with you. A lot of people do groundwork, but very people do it well.