My horse has a wicked spin and spook, and the one and only time he dropped me he got me good and I couldn’t ride for a few weeks afterward due to a sprained SI joint (who knew you could sprain it). It happened when we were walking on a long rein.
This is preventing me from trusting him now to warm up on a long rein, particularly with the weather shift, and he is starting to resent this (I’m aware). If he weren’t so stupid athletic I think it would be much easier for me to say it’s a fluke and move on, but I’ve seen this, and it’s a big spook.
He is not generally a spooky guy, but he is hot, and very sensitive. So I know that it’s me that needs to change, not him. So what helped you feel more confident on your spook’n’dumper? Fitness? Riding more? Hypnosis? Alcohol? (Just kidding).
I’m not afraid to ride him, nor to boot him forward or ride him at faster paces - it really is just about letting him have some freedom at this point.
My TWH has the same Wicked Spook.
It’s like he teleports sideways, & I’m left sitting on air like Wile E. Coyote
My trainer gave me a correction that works every time.
Luckily my horse telegraphs his intent.
He’ll “grumble” to protest whatever before the Teleportation
So when I hear that I set up & the nanosecond I feel the spook coming, he gets a very quick One Two “punch” with the bit with my hands lifted.
Just once is all it takes, no continued seesawing. And Done.
Is there a particular place in the arena where he’s most likely to spook?
When I ride one who’s very spooky (the teleport out from under you type), I start the ride staying in the “safe” end of the arena and gradually working my way closer to the spooky end as he warms up and has enough forwardness and connection to prevent the spooks from happening.
My mare does this thing with almost no warning, where she plants her front feet into the ground and springs into the air. I’ve coined it “the pogo stick.” Once I was at a clinic and she did this a few times, but with some big rears thrown in to impress the clinician I guess. She had her white brushing boots on, and I remember the clinician repeatedly telling me - she can’t do that if those white boots are out in front of her. “Get those white boots out in front of her!” So that is my mantra when I start feeling her build tension. Also, the standard advice is to put the horse in a shoulder-in, but this just makes her worse, especially if we are going to the right. My BO mentioned that haunches-in always worked better for her FEI mare, and turns out it is more effective for my girl as well. Good luck! I am glad my young one is much slower moving although she can throw some pretty athletic moves.
No particular area that it occurs, and every time it has been understandable. Once a person popped up from behind a hedge, another time a horse galloped up behind him…all things that would cause any horse to spook, his are just super dramatic and I can’t stay with him on a loose rein.
Love it and maybe I’ll put his brushing boots on the next ride. He is turned out 24/7 so maybe I should get straight to work first for a few minutes until I can feel him relax. He does come out super tense, like he can’t even move at all. He isn’t old, it’s just nervous tension, and about 10 minutes into the ride he’ll finally relax if I don’t piss him off first.
I have a brother from another mother. My guy isn’t spooky as much as he’s hypervigilant. Well demonstrated by one German trainer (who threw his gloves at my horse’s face and said “see, he’s not spooky, he’s hypervigilant” and accepted by other trainers I work with. I could describe my injuries and three trainer’s injuries, but I won’t. These are challenging horses and shouldn’t be taken lightly.
My horse has been going in the same arena for what, 8 years now? And still spooks at the Gate of Doom because he’s looking past it and spooks at what he sees or doesn’t see? Spook and bolt is what I’ve dealt with for 8 years and came off multiple times. You just can’t sit that.
What I do these days with my hot, sensitive and hypervigilant horse has really seems to help. My horse doesn’t get to go by the Gate of Doom with his ears on adjacent pastures. He has to have an ear on me. I put him in shoulder-in, haunches in, medium trot of the short side after the G.o. D., whatever he doesn’t expect. I use the whip or spur fairly if I’m shouldering-in and his attention is on the outside of the arena. “Your attention has to be on this work and you’re kind of sucking at it right now because your mind isn’t on the work”. He has to put an ear on me and conflicted but better now that I’m insisting. Even if I rub my spur on him, he has to notice and put an ear back to say “what?” He’s used to all lateral work by the GoD so I step up my asks for things he’s just learning. This has really diffused the situation in his brain and he is listening to me.
We’ve been practicing shoulder-in on say a 20m circle with the haunches on a 22 m circle. That is hard for him and he has to pay attention. He has to transition from walk to trot to walk in SI. It’s a mental challenge for him. We do shoulder in to haunches in and he has to pay attention. We do medium and collected work. Leg yield left and then right on all sorts of lines. Medium work on the short side because he’s most happy doing in on the long side.
I’ve really “shook things up” so he can’t predict what’s going to happen and he has to listen. Anticipating is a HUGE problem of his but he’s improved a lot.
I wonder if you also have a super smart horse who is hypervigilant and anticipates. If so, break that pattern and make your aids clear. Accept his mistakes.
Another thing I’ve done with my super smart horse is that I taught him to properly longe in side reins as a youngster. Now I can free longe him (without a halter) in the arena on voice commands. I taught him to lead and do patterns with only my hand on his withers and to follow me if I jog and stop, without even a halter. I let him free-graze after rides loose on the property with his lead rope tossed over his back. This is a great example of trust we’ve built up over the years.
I know when he’s prone to freak out, and he responds to my aids when he’s freaking out. I love this trust. Aside, I know to scratch his belly button and he’s so honest in showing his pleasure, I don’t pay for my vet to clean his sheath or search for beans because he is relaxed around me and trusts me, and he can be wigged out if the saddle is too far on his shoulder for his liking and hunch up into a ball and threaten to buck, but relaxes when I yell at him and mount.
I will say as a 4 - 6 year old this horse was a nightmare. Rounding 9 years old, he became so great. Yep, I was stepped on by him last year when he whirled and bolted due to fear. That’s how his brain works. This horse is super talented but would have/would melt in the wrong hands. I’m glad he ended up in my hands despite everything because he would have melted under people who would have pushed his talent. Yeah, I let him get away with things that my current dressage trainer and the NH guy I hired 8 years ago to teach this horse how to learn and not be so reactive say, but being a sucker saved this horse from a potentially demanding fate that he likely couldn’t do at the time. As one former trainer who was significantly injured after being bucked off said “He’s not in a dog can?”
There is so much you can do, even with groundwork or under saddle rides, to build trust.
This is the right idea. My last two FEI horses were hot types, and asking them to stretch before they felt the need was a big mistake. I’d put them right to work in a forward warm-up set - figures, transitions, lateral work, etc. After 10-15 minutes of warm-up, they’d be relaxed enough, and interested in, stretching. Then we’d go back to work, and then stretch again.
Takes forever to heal too! I’ve been releasing my glutes every night with lacrosse balls because I still have knots and compensation. The injury happened 3 months ago. I’m assuming at some point it may actually heal. I hope!
Thanks - I always feel a bit nervous about too many circles but I may need to just suck it up for my butt’s sake!
Yes. He is. I wondered if he was proud cut this summer when he became all stallion-like with the mares. He is a perpetual motion machine and always on the alert to make sure nothing gets us, which is nice if he’d take me along for the ride when he does it
I cannot ask for the same thing twice in a row in the same spot or else that is “where the thing must be done so help us god”, and i instantly know when I’ve muddied my aids because he expresses his displeasure loudly, sometimes with rearing included.
Despite all that, when he’s “on” he is a blast to ride but it is truly a ride every stride kind of ride. I love this horse, but man, sometimes I wish I just had a normal one!
Thanks - I’ll give this a shot. I was just feeling so badly about how long the joints take to warm up etc…but like I said, he is out 24/7 so I should stop worrying quite so much I think!
My horse can come out very tight in the back and he just “can’t” walk in a relaxed manner on those days until we’ve done several laps of trot and sometimes he even needs a bit of canter. Then, once he lets go in his back, we go back to walk and start “the real ride.” Trying to “force” the walk just ends up with us fighting and doesn’t set us up for success for the rest of the ride. Like yours, mine lives out 24/7 in a big field and it’s a fair walk from the field to the ring/barn/etc. so I really don’t worry about not walking at the start. Given how much more comfortable/looser in general both my horses are since they moved to living out 24/7, I think it is reasonable to think they don’t need as much walk warm up to get the joints lubricated.
I actually taught mine to lunge at liberty in the arena so the circle can be huge and she has as much room as she wants to do a big long stretchy movement. If she needs to get the silly’s out she’s got all the room in the world I just don’t need to be a passenger for it!
I too would suggest a neck strap. I use one long enough so you can hold it as a second pair of ‘reins’, then you can lengthen your reins (the real ones attached to the bit), but keep the neck strap with light tension so if he does spook/teleport you already have your support in place. I use 3 strands of baling twine plaited together, it is cheap and easy to knot to the correct length for your situation.
Most of the time I hold the neck strap with my outside hand and rein, and inside hand has the rein only. But if I’m expecting ‘trouble’, or am particularly trying to lighten my contact with his mouth, I’ll go to both hands on the neck ‘strap’.
Very effective for me, and really helps my confidence which of course filters through to Mr Horse.
I third the neck strap (also called an “oh shit” strap) and would add that I sing when I know I’m tense to keep all my parts relaxed. As a bonus, I’m a terrible singer which means I laugh at myself a lot (decreasing my own physical tension which my very sensitive horse picks up on).
Don’t get set in a specific warm up routine, OP. Ride the horse underneath you. Mine generally needs an active warm up. Especially in the winter. Also make sure the horse is in front of the leg. Some are a bit more sly about this. While they’re forward moving, they might not actually be on the aid(s).
You can take short stretch breaks throughout the ride and slowly increase them as you begin to feel more confident, but there are some horses
that need to be more actively ridden. Not nagged, just ridden precisely. Nothing wrong with a grab strap either. I know someone who thinks all horses should warm up long and low, that’s just not the case. Keep your mind flexible with things and find what works for you. You can also adjust over time.
Well…for me it begins with tacking up (at the trailer if i’m at a lesson, at the bar if i’m at home) Moves on to mounting from the mounting block or gate or whatever i choose to use. With some horses sometimes this itself can be a half hour. What i want is calm obedience. And i don’t stop until i get it. The process for me is we are ‘talking’ and i am patient. I engage with my horse. IF my coach is conversing and i get caught up in that conversation, as soon as i recognize i’m focused elsewhere, i pardon myself and tell her i need to concentrate on my horse.
Once i have a good calm mount, i’ll begin my lesson. I bring a variety of my horses into lesson, not one of them is always good all the time. Most of them run on the hot-side, but not all. They are all of them my horses and i hold esteem with them already, before lessons. Some have come without ever being backed and these are their first experiences. I handle all of them with the same expectation of obedience and proceed only after they cooperate willingly.
Now that i’m old, i don’t start horses at home, because i am alone there…so all of my new guys have been hauled in for their beginnings (or in some cases re-starts)
What i do is begin at a walk and stay in half the arena and turn small, controlled figure 8s, spiral ins and outs, but only about 10m. (For all the ones who already have learned somewhat how to balance themselves with me aboard i work tight, the wobbly newbies of course need an more gradual turn) I practice a one-handed hard stop. Then i work on a very good square halt with a more or less aggressive rein (lifting straight up)…and i tell them i’m going to do it with a voice command. Then progressively softer halts…all the time keeping a good square halt as the goal, then operate halfhalts into our circles as i switch directions. Again, i do it all at a walk. Once s/he is paying very good attention, working for praise and with-me, we begin training.
My horse can be hyper vigilant / distracted / anxious and he’s lost me mid spook before (getting launched into a tree trunk sucks btw). I use a grab strap and ride on the buckle with my outside hand holding the buckle and the grab strap. I use my inside hand to pick up and lightly activate the inside rein if/when I notice his ears / focus become fixated on something other than me. I will hold that contact until that inside ear flicks back to me and then drop the inside rein again. Interestingly, bringing the horse’s focus back to me/us seems to really settle his nerves. I often get a big sigh / chew / yawn after the above. Things I like about this are that the horse gets instantly rewarded with release of pressure when he puts his focus back on me and it makes me more aware of my horse’s mental state (pretty quick like I learned the difference between horse is a little distracted and completely out of his body hyper focused on that squirrel over there) which helps me avoid wrecks.
