Eh, some horses are never very good at riding out alone. Some horses never gain that same confidence others are born with.
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This is how I am feeling today. I was not expecting Lola to have this many “holes” to fill based on what I thought I was buying. I did miss some things, but it’s more than that. Time is an issue – I am seeing Feronia less, and working with both horses on the same day – when I can – is burning me out.
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I used to take our youngsters out on wilderness rides w a high country long experienced neighbor on her rides. She was a cook every summer on the Wyoming ranch rides. High country camping fishing trips she’d cook what they caught.
Advice w a group put youngster in the middle to start. Do a lead horse body block to teach creek crossings so they can’t panic and bolt. Learn to flat foot walk in water.
The day my young 4 yr stopped to linger on the trail. Oblivious to the rest of the group moving on she gave us a certificate of success. Likewise trying to swipe at tree leaves. It’s being a horse stuff. And she said sniffing trail poop too, it oriented them to find their way back if needed.
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A grazing muzzle whenever turned out on pasture or paddocks is what we use on one Morgan mare who is also a very, very easy keeper otherwise she will gain weight
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There are degrees and also it depends what “riding out alone” entails but in my world, every horse that can go in the arena can ride out with the right rider. I agree depending on experience and training they might not be great at it (side eye to an occupant of my own pasture) but they can do it functionally. I learned enough about our Occupant to make him better for me but he’s too much of a project for me to want to keep working with him. DH can ride him anywhere and he never misses a beat; with me he’s not as confident which is valid, as far as I’m concerned.
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I think maybe I’m confusing “can” with “might leave you decked”… which has more to do with a horse’s spooking style than it does the word “can”.
The horse who just spooks with a splayed leg thing can go anywhere and you aren’t going to die. The one who spins/bolts can go the same places as the other horse, but you might not stick their stupid.
So yes, I agree that they all functionally “can.” It’s just whether or not you’ll still be in the saddle when they arrive home. ha!
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Feronia had evented before I got her, so had some experience going out alone, but it was still a long-term process to get her comfortable just moseying on the trail alone. I managed it – and I am proud of that – but she was much less of a project overall. She was 10 when I bought her, and had been in fairly steady work. She had 8 months off from riding in 2010, due to suspensory surgery, and I hand walked her a lot during that time, and as the length of the walks got longer, we were out by ourselves more and more. That did a lot of good.
The day some riders came close enough to say hi, and then galloped them off across a field, and Feronia put her head up briefly but was otherwise unconcerned, I nearly cried. I’d had her for 10+ years when it happened.
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We’ve gotten a lot of difficult horses over the years and my best horse was a spooky mess when I first got him. Some of them I could work through myself as they learned who we were but some of them were only ever for my DH to ride. He can ride just about anything so he has total confidence and leadership and the horses reflect that. Sometimes I’d be having a hard time with a horse, switched with DH and the spooky jumpy horse immediately was coming from a different place, doing all the things with confidence. Infuriating lol These days I like a lower geared horse for sure, and I’m fully aware that’s what I’m bringing to the table when I get on!
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You forgot the ones that teleport—one second your horse is in the spot where they saw the scary thing, and .00001 seconds later you (or maybe just you horse) is 15 feet farther away! It’s like the horse suddenly disappears from beneath you. 
The good thing about the teleporters is they definitely make you become tight in the tack.
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Some teleports are nice enough to carefully see they take you with them.
Those are so nice to ride. 
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Feronia was like that. She could do a massive teleport spook and always kept me with her.
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I totally get this!! I purchased a lovely 5 yr old earlier this year and am 53- my last guy (who I put down in Sept) I got when I was 39. Huge difference!! I have noticed changes in my flexibility, reflexes, stamina, pretty much everything lol.
I had one a few years ago that was the soundest horse I had ever owned but too spooky for my liking- I could never relax on him, so I did end up selling him. I found him this summer when his new owner located me and turns out he lives 30 min from me and I got to go visit him.
I digress…new boy is 5 so he hasn’t obviously BTDT but he is so sane, so sweet and so willing. I find myself wanting to see him through things I hadn’t imagined I would ever be willing to do. "It all depends on the horse and it really does. My age range for a horse was the ever popular 8-12 that everyone else wants, but with a little elbow grease, I got a good one. I want to work with him and he’s such a quick leaner and so easy that he’s a complete joy to work with. I think you just have to listen to yourself and you will know at some point if Lola is right for you or not. I have TWH and they too are no dead heads much like Morgans. I like a little get up and go but not too much lol.
This is Asher 
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I’ve never come off during a teleport, no thanks to every TB I’ve ever had.
I can’t imagine a real teleport where the horse deliberately keeps you in the saddle. They happen way too fast and the horse is reacting without conscious thought. It’s like the way humans flinch when they’re startled.
I have seen horses switch ends and leave with the rider left, like a cartoon character, hovering in midair before going splat.
I have also seen horses do same while keeping the rider’s weight nicely balanced on them so the rider went along with little effort.
Yes, it is instantaneous, quicker than our brains can tell us what is going on, you are right there.
One gray 3 year old mare was sold to us by a feedlot cowboy that started her and many other horses for the public over the years and had a good reputation for doing a fair job.
In his words, she used to buck him off every morning and if she didn’t, jump out from under him at some time during the day.
He was selling her as a broodmare, not a riding horse, she had for that time very good breeding, Grey Badger II, though known for some bad actors, she was very pretty and smooth as glass to ride.
I was there to start a pasture full of young horses, some started, some not yet and sort thru them and sell most.
I was going thru them and she seemed to be very nice, green but started well, one little quirk is, if you were saddling here, tied to the hitching post and get the flank cinch too snug, she would crow hop right there, tied up, so I watched for that, not to set her off.
She never seemed to react to the flank cinch any other time, not while riding, roping or backing out of a trailer, as some do, just when saddling.
No one had told me her story, she was one more horse in those pastures to sort thru and I considered a possible keeper, started using her checking cattle.
She never did act up in any way while I rode her but twice.
Once I was checking some calving heifers trotting along a narrow cattle trail in the bottom of a canyon that had tall cane on both sides and in a bend, came nose to nose with a doe.
Doe took a ten foot jump straight up, twisted in the air and left for Dodge back where she was coming from.
Filly didn’t stop to think about it and emulated doe, went straight up, twisted and landing going the other way sold out … all that while carrying me along nicely without jerking me around, faster that I could think we were now going the wrong way!
The other time, we were penning cows and calves to wean and riding around the yard to pen into the working pens, filly out of the blue took several huge bucking jumps, then kept on pushing cattle like nothing had happened, also carefully keeping me on board, I never budged in the saddle.
Cattle were bawling and I am hard of hearing, so never heard a big calf fall thru the cellar wood door, we found him later and realized that noise and trashing is probably why she bucked in surprise.
A cowboy already in the pens told me he could see daylight under her belly over the 5’ pen boards, she really bucked high.
Several months later fall the fellow that sold us that mare came by as I was riding her around the barn, bareback and in a halter, checking as she was a bit off, we had ridden over rocky country the day before.
That cowboy asked others there if that was “that” filly and was white as a sheet, she really scared him.
That is when they told me her story.
I wondered later if in the hard feedlot ground, she was at times sore footed and that is why she bucked with him, she sure was not sore here normally, or acted up, but we will never know.
I also remember two other horses that I saw multiple times shy hard and take their rider smoothly along, where they didn’t have to scramble to stay on.
Have seen others that teleport with their rider not faring so good.
Your experiences may be different, we can “never say never”.
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I’ve posted this pic before 
Me & my Master of the Telespook, shortly after asking trainer to video our lesson:
He was new to me then & I learned he telegraphs intent to spook by grunting. 
So I don’t come off & in fact, got some nice rides.
(he came to me gaiting, hence trainer’s praise for the trot 
)
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Yeah, my spooky horse teleported off a steep cliff side a few summers ago. He kept his hinds on the trail and managed to reel himself (and ME) back up but it was no bueno. I didn’t come off at any point especially when he was hanging off the trail there was nowhere TO get off without falling a long ways onto rocks. That’s when spooky horse volunteered himself to be a pack horse on steep trails instead of a riding horse.
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I agree with your point, but I truly believe that however the horse spooks (except for the dirty shoulder drop!), whether or not the rider comes off is based mostly on their security in the saddle. Riders that can stick on a spook don’t come off even if they get unbalanced.
Some people have the skill an/ or strength and others don’t.
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Have you tried leading her in the orchard with a rope halter? I am petite and my last horse could get really riled up, especially if another spooked.
The rope halter was very helpful to enforce “no blowing past me” and “listen up”.
This is the worst possible time of year to be dealing with this. Maybe just do ground work until April or so? Not like there’s hoards of buyers out there looking for muddy fuzz balls this time of year if you do decide to move her along.
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Yes, weather is cold and unpredictable, horses that respond to weather easily play kite in the wind.
OP did say she was giving this about four months to re-evaluate then where they are.
It is so hard with a horse you like but have questions to see your way forward, to make decisions where to go from here.
OP has been at this long, she will find a way, I think.
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