My horse is afraid of everything! --> Trotting poles

[victoriaseb]

So I have a naturally nervous horse, and I get that. It took forever to just get her into a shower stall and she got so scared of the water that i couldn’t actually bathe her. I deal with that. I lose my patience a bit sometimes but she’s only 5 and hopefully she’ll grow out of the super nervous temperament.

But our issue now is that she’s terrified of trotting poles. Either she refuses them, does a 360 in front of them and freaks out or she’ll take them but only if we’re trotting and she literally jumps them as if it was a cross rail. She simply doesn’t understand that she can just trot or walk over them.

I can absolutely NOT lead her over them off saddle, she refuses to even approach them. As I said, she’ll only take them as a jump in a really quick trot and usually picks up the canter afterwards.

Does anyone have any ideas on what I can do about them?

Thanks!

[Ticker]

I have a horse that was absolutely terrified of ground poles. Took me about 15 minutes to solve the problem…permanently.

Put horse in arena with ground pole. No saddle, bridle or equipment on horse.
Give reward to horse. I fill my pocket with his favorite grain.
Added: I actually used a small bucket and put a handful of grain in it , from my pocket, for each reward. Big visual aid!

Stand on other side of pole and offer reward. He will go around the pole to get the reward, but I just step back over the dreaded pole…
to the other side.
He will stretch his neck as far as he can over the pole…but alas…I am just…out…of…reach.
Then…he will step over the pole with one foot …and SUCCESS …he gets a reward.
If he wants another reward…his whole body needs to come over.

Repeat as needed.
Now, that he enjoys stepping over the ground pole… because I made it fun and easy to do…I ride him over the pole.
The end

[Scandias]

My mare is young and nervous too. (We just got over the whole wash stall thing.)

I had to introduce her to trot poles very slowly. I put down only 1 pole at first and lunged her over it. Then we walked over it under saddle. Then we moved on to two poles. Lots of praise in between. Next, we’ll try three poles.

[GoForAGallop]

I have one of those high-strung, overthinking, nervous mares. Things do, in general, tend to take a little longer, particularly in making sure that she always has a good experience.

That being said, it sounds like your mare is over the top about things. Life should not be so difficult! Even for a baby! Perhaps it’s time to start looking into some supplementing for her. I have had great luck with Smartpaks SmartCalm Ultra. (Although I know other people use many other things with good luck.) It doesn’t dull my mare (because I LIKE that she is sharp, and a thinker), but it has just chilled her out a bit.

She’s gone from someone amped up on eight cups of coffee to just a little nervous. Things like the door of the barn being opened while we’re riding no longer ruin the whole ride due to the meltdown and the inability to get over the door that was opened 20 minutes ago. Instead, she spooks, I pat her, and we go on with life. She doesn’t OBSESS about things anymore. :lol:

This makes her, overall, a much happier horse. The presence of a single bug within 50ft of her no longer drive her INSANE, and she is able to just take a breather and enjoy her outside life, instead of pacing constantly. Other horses going in before her don’t trigger a gallop/buck/rear meltdown, instead she just stands at the gate.

She has only been on the supplement for a little over two weeks now, and she has packed on the pounds, lost her constantly stressed out look, and just seems like a happier horse. I am very pleased with the results. Mine is six, and she was slowly getting better with age (have had her since three), but she just seemed unhappy so I looked to things besides time to fix her.

And she wasn’t even nearly as bad as your mare sounds!

[victoriaseb]

My mare is actually already on a supplement! Peak Performance’s Solace Magnesium calming supplement. I’m pretty sure she hasn’t ran out or anything so yeah I’d definitely consider it, but it’s already been done. Thanks though!

[Coanteen]

[QUOTE=Ticker;7604795]
I have a horse that was absolutely terrified of ground poles. Took me about 15 minutes to solve the problem…permanently.

Put horse in arena with ground pole. No saddle, bridle or equipment on horse.[/QUOTE]

…awww.

When I was reading that, the picture that formed in my mind was: put horse in arena littered with endless ground poles. Ground poles EVERYWHERE! Chase horse all over arena until ground poles no longer matter to horse.

Which is probably a bad idea. But that’s what I was imagining when I started reading

[Ticker]

[QUOTE=Coanteen;7605336]
…awww.

When I was reading that, the picture that formed in my mind was: put horse in arena littered with endless ground poles. Ground poles EVERYWHERE! Chase horse all over arena until ground poles no longer matter to horse.

Which is probably a bad idea. But that’s what I was imagining when I started reading ;)[/QUOTE]

That’s really funny! That would be a lot of poles.

[Countrywood]

I like the one pole on ground idea, walk over it till she is bored. Then add two poles, etc. Take your time, let her sniff it, etc, perhaps can put pole where she grazes and walk her around and over it etc. Does she know how to lunge? Can lunge her over a ground pole to let her figure it out without a rider on her back.

[victoriaseb]

[QUOTE=Countrywood;7605355]
I like the one pole on ground idea, walk over it till she is bored.[/QUOTE]

that’d work if she would approach the pole, but she won’t. She’s terrified of it. But I’m going to try to lunge her over them on thursday, see how that goes.

[Countrywood]

Start lunging close to her, so she can’t escape. One pole, at walk. Let her jump it or do whatever she wants to get over it. Over time, she’ll get bored, conserve energy and step over it. When she’s calm enough, on next session or whenever she is calm, can approach it at trot. Then eventually add a second pole. After that she should be okay to ride over them.

[GaMare]

I think you need think about a broader strategy of how you’re going to introduce new things to your girl. Think about whether you can create a “routine” to how you introduce new things. Laying the groundwork can be slow going but if you always do x-y-z when you introduce new things and mare learns that x-y-z always end up ok, it should make your life easier when it comes to scary jumps, shows, etc. Sorry it’s not a specific answer but the approach has been a huge help with both of my over thinkers.

[mp]

[QUOTE=victoriaseb;7606012]
that’d work if she would approach the pole, but she won’t. She’s terrified of it. But I’m going to try to lunge her over them on thursday, see how that goes.[/QUOTE]

If she won’t approach the poles, how are you going to longe her over them?

You need to stop thinking “must get horse over poles” and get the feel of adding pressure in small increments and backing off BEFORE she becomes terrified.

[Finding_Serenity]

my 11yo GELDING is like this. thankfully he’s very talented and a dream jumping. :lol:

I initially created (clicker/treat training) the command “touch”. Of course he’s an appy and sasses me at times but honestly it’s helped things a lot.That scary helium shiny balloon? It’s now a game for him to play and he bops it all over the place.

Our current tackle? The dreaded hose. The sight, sound AND feel of the water all freak him out (he flinches with the spray bottles too but we no longer run from those!). I have no idea why, what happened in his past to create this fear but now I have to address it.

First he wouldn’t even approach it (if I went to touch it he was backing up a mile a minute) so we did a lot of “Step forward, stand, treat.” as I’m also having to instill forward as the answer to the question, not backward.

Now we can “touch” the hose but if the water is running we’re still at the “Stand, Treat” or if he starts to move backwards, “Forward, Stand, Treat”. Instilling bravery in a nervous horse can take a lot of patience and there are days where I feel like we are moving backwards but we’re making progress Each time we go through the process it takes a little less time.

[enjoytheride]

You don’t have a groundpole problem, you have a groundWORK problem. Your horse is in charge of you both on the ground and under saddle and someone good with ground work will probably be your best bet.

[victoriaseb]

[QUOTE=enjoytheride;7607124]
You don’t have a groundpole problem, you have a groundWORK problem. Your horse is in charge of you both on the ground and under saddle and someone good with ground work will probably be your best bet.[/QUOTE]

She really is a very nervous horse though. Like she goes w/t/c in a frame, moves and lunges nicely, cross-ties and stands for the farrier fine. Like really she’s not so bad. It’s introducing her to new things that’s a really big issue. We’re working and progressing very well in everything that’s just flat work though. And I’m working with a trainer - I just wanted some insight from people who may have the same problem.

To be fair, she may just be taking advantage of me just because she doesn’t want to do them but I will be working with my trainer to see about that.

[victoriaseb]

@mp;7606759

If she won’t approach the poles, how are you going to longe her over them?

We’ll be in a lunging ring so she likely won’t have a choice.

I probably should’ve mentioned; she’s done them before. She just ran into one (once, it really wasn’t that bad. She knocked her hoof) and since she absolutely refuses to do them. So like, I know she can do them.

[alto]

Groundwork :yes:

• she will gain confidence in you & learn to trust that you are asking her to do things that she CAN do … for a very nervous horse, I’d not be setting her up with the lunge over the pole as you have no where else/no other choice, instead start with Ticker’s method: horse gets to choose to be brave, horse gets fabulous reward for being brave … of course, I rather suspect that Ticker has good ground skills
  ( & appropriately yummy treats :lol: )

[Countrywood]

Lunging her over a pole will either work, or it won’t. It certainly can’t make her even more “afraid” of these poles. It might work as she already has forward momentum and is listening (we hope) to commands from handler…preferably in a caveson and not just a halter…let us know how it goes.

I think it is two things with horses, genuine fear, and then, to a degree, habit. I bet she would follow another lead horse over poles, for example. Horses can and do get over their fears when it makes sense to them. Thus, as another poster said, it is not just a pole problem, it is a ground work/obedience problem

Horses are creatures of habit, and they either get in the habit of listening their own instincts (fear), or they can get in the habit of listening to the rider or handler. It can’t be both , it is either /or. Thus, the real issue is about training them, over time and repetition to pay attention to our commands and aids, and their fear might be present but it is subservient to habit/confidence of following rider direction. .

De sensitizing them to new or scary things is one aspect, but paying attention and obeying rider/handler is another. We can spend time de sensitizing a horse to scary things , but if they do not have obedience and attention to aids, the problem will persist . ( has taken years for me, I am not a natural alpha rider lol)

[Flash44]

What enjoytheride said. Your horse does not have confidence in you and is literally taking you for a ride. Check out some of the natural horsemanship clinicians and get with a program. It’s OK for a horse to be nervous and hesitant about new things - but you need to work through it with the horse, and something like trot poles should not be THAT terrifying for a horse.

And the key is not rewarding with treats, it is pressure and release. Pressure to encourage the horse to seek the correct response, and the release when the horse makes a move in the right direction. That is how the horse learns.

[Countrywood]

Agree with above post. NH does have value, even though some give it a bad name and the groundwork is great, it teaches horse to move feet and respond to handler, AND, more important perhaps, it gives confidence to the handler that there is a way to interact with horse that gets results.

Every time a horse has a problem, we have to look to ourselves and see what role we play in the problem. If we keep repeating the same thing with horse and not getting progress, we need to change something, usually ourselves !