I bought a new horse about six weeks ago. He was calm in try outs and we were told he could be “looky” if not jumped in awhile. He had not had extensive training and had not been shown as he was the breeders, back burner horse. She had some gran prix ones she was working on. He is 8 and super easy, great ground manners, calm in barn and most of the time pretty relaxed guy. Then on days (like 1/4 rides) he is anxious with head up, shaking in legs at things and balking at stuff he has seen a thousand times. When he spooks it is a big balk and spin, quite scary. He will easily circle around and then go back over it like , that silly thing, I’m not scared. He will drop head and looked relaxed five minutes later. It’s so strange. He had normal vet check at purchase but I’m wondering about eyes, back or ulcers now ? He does not spook at sounds and things we assume he would like booming oil drills, four wheelers, dogs out of nowhere, trailers , clippers. But a fence he had jumped three times the third he balks. Even with my trainer he has done so I don’t think it is my riding. She is wondering about ulcer bc of move. I have done lots of ground work with flags, tarps, cracking whips on ground near him and he stands relaxed head down. No reaction and no stress . I started doing the same work at a walk to make sure he wasn’t “shut down” and he has done great. Any thoughts would help. Hot anxious spooky makes sense but calm and easy going who spooks has me confused and I feel like I’m missing something and may be pain. No lameness and full set of rads six weeks ago
Only one I have known like that had a lameness brewing. He started even doing that at ground poles or different colored dirt in the ring. Turned out to be stifle for that one. I imagine any kind of pain (such as ulcers) could be a trigger, although there then started to be other signs that it was pain related to jumping because in addition to the weird behavior, then he started losing his lead change then started rushing jumps, more typical signs. But at first we thought he needed his eyes checked, it was so weird. I think it was a soft tissue thing that wasn’t really apparent on Xrays. IRAP cleared it up and he went back to normal.
I just talked to trainer and am going to have our university based vets do full check. Want to rule out pain and medical causes first- he just seems so chill in all other regards
I’ll also throw out…did you happen to Xray the neck on PPE? One of the first signs of neck arthritis in my horse was spooking at stuff that wasn’t there. Worse out of one eye which becomes his “bad” direction for his neck. (We also did double check his eyes, although they had just been checked on PPE). His spook is a tuck tail and bolt for 5 strides kind of thing, but I could then circle him around and he’d be like, huh, where’d the monster go? He can still be spooky, but he doesn’t much jump at invisible things with his neck being treated/maintained. I also bought him from the breeder, and the vets told me that a big life change like that can be enough to cause something like the neck to start to be symptomatic. Of course, ulcers were also a thing for us, which we treated, and that helped, but there was still some behavior change that remained.
The calm one with the big spook is the hardest. Hard to sit, and hard to sort out. Sounds like you are on track to find the cause of the behavior if it is physical. I feel for you. Just be careful and try not to get dumped (because you needed to be told that). Give him some time off if you think it’s a risk. A broken arm won’t get you any closer to answers, but it’ll sure make carrying groceries suck!
I thought it was normal for horses to randomly spook at things they’ve seen a thousand times?
I think you are doing everything right, doing groundwork exercises and checking for any possible health problems.
But if it turns up nothing, I guess I personally wouldn’t be overly concerned. I’ve had horses that were pretty calm horses overall, but for some reason, they would "routinely " spook or shy at something they go by every day. It almost seems like their familiar surroundings contain the scariest objects! Of course, that doesn’t make riding out the spook any easier!
IPEsq that is great idea. That is exactly his spook. He does also seem to have a “side” that is worse which got me thinking about eyes. I have started approaching fences at sitting trot so as not to loose my seat if he spooks and so far have sat through them.
He’s a horse.
I have hot and insane, never spooked. We jumped cars on XC. I have dead quite that would lose it at a grasshopper sneezing 2 miles away. Not every bad behavior is some sort of veterinary issue. Horses are not machines.
Do you get afraid every time you hop in a car? No. Are you the same emotionally EVERY SINGLE DAY? No. Neither are horses. And it can even change in the course of a lesson or time of day.
I have a 4 year old that won’t spook jumping OVER a log on the property, but if I ride by it on the flat, he will lose it. Oh, well. And this is a horse that is so mellow, he takes a nap right after waking up because it is so tiring. He walks slower than a kid going into the doctor’s office for their vaccine shots. I cover more ground laying down than his walk. Flapping tarps, construction, riding in the pitch black with a herd of horses in the pasture? dead quiet.
one of mine will spook at nothingness when he is bored or thinks the work is too hard. If you can’t find anything medically wrong it may be something like that.
I agree with these comments above.
Certainly rule out pain first.
Sometimes their level of fitness isn’t what we think they are ready for. Horses have ways of telling us things that we read as another issue.
I would honestly asses the level of fitness you horse is currently. Example: Did the prior owner hurry to get him “sale fit” in order to get him jumping around a 3’ course to be sold? Or has the horse been at that level for a long time?
I would probably put down the jumps and go back to basics and try to work him back up. If you only jump bigger 1x a week, maybe see if you can jump smaller jumps more often. Boxes and poles can still help just as much as the bigger stuff but it would help with overall strength.
Mine is kind of nuts, but still dead lazy/quiet. If you move a chair 2 feet, he will notice it and react. Now if a jump blows down while he’s jumping it, that’s ok because it’s normal that jumps could fall… But random chairs moving? That is NOT normal in his world. Oh, and when dogs are lying down then sit up? Loses his mind over that lol. There isn’t anything physical related to it at all (for him), he just notices everything and when something moves, he can see it right away.
We were in a clinic recently and a horse in his group hit a flower box and one of the flower bunches flipped out to the side, so someone nicely picked them up and put them on the side of the arena sandwiched between stacked jump poles. He would not go past there because flowers just don’t appear like that! Took a couple of rounds before he figured out they weren’t going to move again, then he was fine. The clinician was laughing over how crazy observant he was all the time, doesn’t miss anything.
This is a good point to make. Sometimes horses spook because they are ready to advance. If some horses have too much time to think and look around, they have time to spook.
For example: I primarily barrel race. My younger horse is a good boy but he is looky - doesn’t really shy, but looks. I do like to ride in the arena before a run or do an exhibition. I actually stopped doing that because if I would go slowly during the pattern, he’d be looking and balking at everything : shadows, dirt clumps, arena banners, etc.
But if I send him in there at a run to do his business, there is no looking around at all. He doesn’t have time!! So in some cases, work them harder and let them do their job, and the “looking” will go away.
I wouldn’t necessarily leap to a pain/veterinary issue, but it’s certainly a path to pursue.
My mare is very lazy and quiet naturally. She’s actually spookiest when she’s laziest because she’s not focusing on her job and is looking for excuses. Horses are smarter than we give them credit for. I’ve had to learn to discern between her “I’m spooking because I don’t really want to work and I’d rather mess around” and the “I’m actually really scared of that” and finally the “I’m pretty convinced there’s something living in that corner…but maybe not.”
I get the first type of spooking about one ride a week with her, and that’s the toughest one to deal with for me because I tend to want to loose my patience because of the BS - and because she’s lazy and not on the aids, it’s harder to correct. The second type I get maybe 5% of the time - she can be legitimately spooky in the scared sense, but not regularly. And the third probably 50% of the time. Particularly if she’s fresh, she’ll be convinced this one corner is going to eat her, and her spookiness with this is entirely unpredictable. It is worse when she’s fresh but sometimes she’ll have had 3 days off and go right through the corner. shrugs
Her spooks used to be gigantic explosions with all sorts of acrobatics and now they tend to be pretty tame (although I try to stay prepared just in case). She’ll also tend to spook at a jump going past it but will jump it no question. She also notices if something in the ring changes (perhaps where the jumps are stored, for example). She also is always, always the least spookiest in a new situation. Shows are the easiest for her. I can relax more at a show than at home. Go figure! I assume it’s because everything is new and she has plenty to keep her mind on.
She’s just a silly, spooky mare. Now, she will get spookier when her stomach is uncomfortable, and I keep an eye on that for sure. I’ve also pursued the veterinary angle with her and haven’t found anything to really support it being a physical problem.
I think the hardest thing in horses is knowing when to pursue the veterinary angle and when to accept that horses are just horses. Particularly nowadays with the sophisticated diagnostics available, the vet angle can be a rabbit hole. Our horses are athletes, and they’re going to have aches and pains just like we do, and one can drive oneself mad (and broke) looking for every pain. Horses also have personalities and can be naughty or spooky for many other reasons than pain that should be addressed with proper training. And yet on the flipside, the last thing one wants to do is address an issue with training that truly is a pain issue. Like I said…tricky business.
But I’ve known many lazy or quiet horses that spook. Many warmbloods are this way. They aren’t self-motivated enough to want to focus and work. So they’re either distracted enough that they spook or they spook as an excuse to get out of work. So I wouldn’t let that in and of itself convince you it’s a pain issue.
Horse can for sure be weird about what they spook at and what they don’t. But it sounds like this is the biggest problem for this horse when jumping. If the horse is happy to jump, I’d consider that unusual. Taking a peek or having a baby over jumping moment is one thing. Spin and bolt another. It sounds like anxiety which IME often stems from a physical issue if the horse is largely not anxious in most other situations.
I’ve had the one that snorted at water coming out of the hose. But when working, he was generally fine. My horse can be quite spooky at certain things but it was when he got spooky for no reason that also seemed to confuse him, I got concerned, and my vet confirmed that the spooking was a symptom of his neck stuff. I’ve also had the hot at home / worker bee at the horse show horse, but she spooked at the same thing every time at home—very predictable. And once really going to work and jumping, could not have cared less about the deadly corner.
The ones that seemingly randomly stop and spin at the jumps or suddenly levitate over ground poles, etc…99% of the time physical IME.
@Mac123 I’m pretty sure we own the same mare :lol::lol::lol:
Mine will also jump things that are the devil to ride past and is much easier at shows. Struts around like she owns the place.
I have a horse like this. He uses his spooks when he has too much energy–in other words, instead of acting full of energy he acts quiet and lazy and then spooks. More work to tire him out helps. He is funny about jumping, though. He’ll jump around fine out foxhunting, but isn’t as reliable in the ring. He has a spook at fences in the ring that he shouldn’t have. He’s gotten better over the years, but has been primarily relegated to a hunt horse (where he is fine) rather than a show horse.
I adore her :lol: but she isn’t for everyone. She’s excellent for teaching one to remain in the moment 
Always more of a challenge on the flat, especially at home. Gave me back my wings jumping and makes competing a joy. Makes me laugh everyday, never boring.
My mare is just like this. She’s about to be 5 and has been U/S for nearly a year. She’s sooo lazy, but her spooks are not! lol She will spook at a spot in the arena she’s been past ten times on that ride already; act like the chickens at the neighbors are very scary even though she had turkeys and ducks at the last barn and she was fine.
I just always have to be prepared and luckily she’s only bucked me off once - her very first ride out last year - and I can handle her spooks now!
Especially since he’s new, it wouldn’t hurt anything to treat for ulcers for a bit and see what happens. I have one that spooks at the canter if her saddle doesn’t fit quite right…that took a while to figure out.
But I also agree that sometimes they get bored or are testing. Getting him truly between the aids may help. Does he spook less when you approach in sitting trot, or is it just that you can ride the spooks better?
