One thing you could do is get ourself a deep seat saddle, so that when your horse scoots off you stay sitting down.
Then you won’t react so much, will stay calm, and this will help him too.
Relax!
Try to anticipate his nervousness. I have found that a scratch in the mane above the wither can be quite reassuring when the horse starts to feel a bit tense.
Usually a horse will take off for a few paces and then stop to see what the scary thing was. BY not reacting you will help him.
I think this could be a lack of confidence in the big outdoors - does he do it in company? Or when at the back of a group? Or in front?
FWIW, I’ve spent -and still spend- a lot of time using clicker training to work with my hot, reactive, spooky gelding to teach him to “spook in place” (sneeze spooking). It works well for us, but YMMV. There are usually a lot of good scary objects and noisemakers at your local Dollar Store.
Not to hijack but since the OP may be interested as well, can anyone provide more specific resources on teaching a horse to spook in place? Google found me a couple of John Lyons articles and some other forum threads. My almost-19-year-old WB is a lot less spooky than he used to be but it’s probably the only thing keeping him from being a husband horse after I stop showing him. I would love to try to teach him that, even at this late stage. My 2-year-old would probably benefit too, even though I don’t think I’ve ever seen him spook at anything! TIA.
John Chattertton has a book out called The 10 Commandments. It is not teligeous just t hat Spooky Object Training is not done until the horse knows other things.
He also has DVD’s out.
He is in Australia but you might be able to order them online.
[QUOTE=Libby2563;8096859]
Not to hijack but since the OP may be interested as well, can anyone provide more specific resources on teaching a horse to spook in place? Google found me a couple of John Lyons articles and some other forum threads. My almost-19-year-old WB is a lot less spooky than he used to be but it’s probably the only thing keeping him from being a husband horse after I stop showing him. I would love to try to teach him that, even at this late stage. My 2-year-old would probably benefit too, even though I don’t think I’ve ever seen him spook at anything! TIA.[/QUOTE]
This is what worked for me, but as with all things horsey, YMMV:
http://www.equineclickertraining.com/articles/articles_new.html
http://www.clickertraining.com/taxonomy/term/132
If you do check out these links, please keep in mind that clicker training =/= positive reinforcement or treat training. Clicker training = operant conditioning (also works beautifully on humans, e.g., slot machines, vending machines, paychecks).
John Lyons’ books also address this topic well.
I just started taking dressage lessons in order to be better able to sit the spook (a.k.a. the Arab Teleport Trick).
[QUOTE=wendybird;8096170]
One thing you could do is get ourself a deep seat saddle, so that when your horse scoots off you stay sitting down.
Then you won’t react so much, will stay calm, and this will help him too.
Relax!
Try to anticipate his nervousness. I have found that a scratch in the mane above the wither can be quite reassuring when the horse starts to feel a bit tense.
Usually a horse will take off for a few paces and then stop to see what the scary thing was. BY not reacting you will help him.
I think this could be a lack of confidence in the big outdoors - does he do it in company? Or when at the back of a group? Or in front?[/QUOTE]
Thank you wendybird, you ask a great question. No the horse does not do this when in the company of others, never. She only does it when out in the big outdoors alone. You make a great point about the confidence issue. I do think it is mainly a confidence issue and my anticipation of it may make it worse. I think working on desensitizing issues like others posted, working on putting the horse in situations where her confidence alone can develop and working on my confidence issues too all will help. Your thought?
[QUOTE=paintcrossmare;8099324]
Thank you wendybird, you ask a great question. No the horse does not do this when in the company of others, never. She only does it when out in the big outdoors alone. You make a great point about the confidence issue. I do think it is mainly a confidence issue and my anticipation of it may make it worse. I think working on desensitizing issues like others posted, working on putting the horse in situations where her confidence alone can develop and working on my confidence issues too all will help. Your thought?[/QUOTE]
I think you hit the nail on the head. You first want her to really trust AND respect you and see you as her leader. Then you want to gradually expand her comfort zone by incrementally putting her in strange situations or increasing the pressure (noise).
