My outdoor is beside a very busy road.... and am starting a young horse who is very reactive

[carmanah]

Have started numerous difficult horses, but this guy is very hot and is particularly worried about things like large tandem dump trucks, motorcycles with open headers and modified street cars with turbo blow back etc.

Can anybody who has the same kind of set up offer any suggestions? Especially if you have been successful with starting an explosive youngster and having them somewhat accept this reality while minimizing the already usual risks. He is walk/trot and starting to canter now but will bolt sideways if something very loud screams by. He is genuinely afraid, as he will race around even in his paddock when he hears this stuff.

My road used to be very quiet when I bought my property, but over the last couple decades or so, urban sprawl has completely surrounded my property and the traffic noise now is beyond ridiculous. ;-(

[Hawks_Nest]

1. Noise cancelling ear bonnet, I’ve had great results for super noise sensitive horses. It doesn’t solve it but it helps.

2. Spend some time doing some counter conditioning to try and help him become less afraid of the noise. I’d start with treats to help get him to look to you when the scary noise happens and then move to giving him things to do. In general I find that addressing reactivity like the panic disorder that it is results in a far more confident and happy horse in the long run.

[Djones]

Yes, ear bonnet coupled with conditioning to the mayhem. Treats noise treats…maybe someone with clicker experience will chime in. Do not build a bigger fence or visual barrier, that only makes it worse ime.

[luvmyhackney]

Is he the same during ground work and/or on long lines? My hackney pony is a spicy potato chip, but he can self regulate and it sounds like this horse can’t.

I’d use an ear bonnet and do lots of ground work to get him settled before I got on.

He’s hot, what’s he eating? Hope it’s grass hay and low nsc feed?

[OverandOnward]

Your horse isn’t just ‘reactive’. Your horse is a ‘sentinel’. One that lets the herd know that something is out there, we all need to pay attention. The extra reactivity isn’t needed in every horse in the herd. Just one or a few. So, some horses have it to a greater degree than others.

Second the suggestions above.

I feel for you and the horse. This is not an easy fix – but maybe it is an opportunity for both of you. Even though it is probably going to slow your initial training as you take the time to address the reactivity.

If it helps, look on it as helping your young horse become as impervious to outside distractions as you can help him be. You will have a much more solid partner as a result. With luck, not much will bother him at any kind of show, in future years. This is the payoff to the extra training time now.

My approach has been that of course the horse is going to notice, as horses do. I can’t look on that as ‘the problem’ because there is no stopping that. What I’m programming into the horse’s mind is ‘this is what to do when suddenly hearing a scary noise, or seeing something weird’. If the excitement comes, the adrenaline spikes – we calm ourselves, right away. We know that it’s ok. It’s not ‘being calm’ beyond their individual capacity, it’s ‘becoming calm in spite of things’ that counts.

The way I choose to think about this process helps immensely not to become too discouraged when progress seems slow. We are working on how the sentinel responds, over and above the instinctive reactivity.

The result may not be perfect. The horse may still be one that notices things - I honestly think there is a genetic component to stronger ‘sentinel’ horse behavior. It’s how rideable the horse remains that counts, more than that they are a noticing horse.

[GraceLikeRain]

I know it might sound eye roll but if there’s been more than a singular bolt sideways type of deal I’d spend more time on the ground. TRT method has some good stuff but I’d get him way less noise reactive on the ground first. Maybe even one of those cop clinic type of deals. Having a horse where the safety of a ride is contingent on noise canceling ear bonnets and a prayer sounds miserable. Some definitely come way more sensitive but I feel like most can ultimately learn the self regulation to not explode. Jump, sure. Invert, totally. Leave the premise, no thanks

[Djones]

I just see the bonnet as a way to dial 10000 down to 500. From there, yeah I’m going to hang out with him and let him learn bangbangbang means chill me and yummy treats. I’m surrounded by rednecks, hunters, and competition snipers…none of mine flinch at anything.

[exvet]

We have our horses turned out in pastures that border a very busy road that constantly has sirens going up and down it due to being less than 1 mile from the fire station and police department. I have found being turned out and exposed to all that really helpful. I do or have used ear bonnets which seem to help as well but I was out there today lunging my 3 year old with the sirens and what not going by including some yahoos honking. He’s no where near as reactive as he once was.

[red_mares]

I’ll echo exvet. Turn the horse out in the arena and let him get used to traffic. Lots of horses live in fields next to busy roads and ignore the traffic. Remember Black Beauty - he was turned out in a field with train tracks running through it to get over trains. A couple barns ago, we had an informal track around a field, with part running parallel to a fairly busy road. Our Saddlebreds got over it. They were a little squirrelly to begin with, but learned traffic wasn’t going to kill them (even the suicidal gelding I drove). Having them learn to deal with traffic was great; there’s a couple showgrounds that are near busy roads and they didn’t care.

I’m not sure about the treats. I did that with my goofy gelding at a state fair w/fireworks. I ended up quickly teaching him that if he circled the stall, he got a cracker.

[SonnysMom]

I work at a farm with 30+ ponies and horses. We have 2 horses that seem to benefit from both ear poms and the titanium mask. Most of our equines use ear poms in the indoor ring and at horse shows. But two of the critters seem to benefit from the batman mask/titanium mask.
We are very close to a gun range. As in less than a 1/4 mile. None of the horses seem bothered by the gun fire. Snow slides off the indoor roof are something else…plus we have windows so they can both see hear the slide.
I am at a hunter farm. I personally try to avoid ear poms since I sometimes show dressage and eventing in addition to hunters. I will sometimes throw in ear poms depending on how long it has been since I last rode and weather conditions- wind, rain, etc…
Ear poms or ear bonnets may help you get over a hump.

[Festivity]

This may sound odd/suicidal but do you have an experienced horse that isn’t bothered by the traffic and wouldn’t be bothered by a youngster running around like an idiot? If so I’d suggest turning the youngster out in the arena while you ride the experienced horse. That way he can see that it’s no big deal and work can happen. I’ve had really good luck with youngsters learning from experienced horses in a pasture/turnout, out on trails, shows, and in the arena that life isn’t as scary as it seems. It also has the benefit of making the experienced horse even more boom proof to warmup ring shenanigans.

[OceansAway]

Sounds like the field is also next to the same traffic because they said the horse freaks out in the field the same way.

[anonevent]

Is he more comfortable with a friend around?

[suzyq]

I read an article a long time ago about a police group that got horses used to noises by playing them near feeding time. They had a cd of random noises and would start very quietly and build up the volume over time. I never tried it though!

[Bluey]

Horses are funny.
We used to show at the State Fair, the warm-up and show arenas by so much going on.
Right by the arenas hung some strings of flags fluttering that most horses warned were dangerous and were wary walking close to them.

We had the bright idea to get some of those flag strings and hang them all over the horse pens, there fluttering wildly.
Would you know, not one horse noticed them, looked at them.
All went by there and stood under them from the first day, not a care in the world.
Once back to the fair, again those were dangerous horse eating monsters to beware of.
Whatever was scaring the horses was not the flags or their fluttering.

One way to get a horse used to most everything is to teach a horse to work with you in quiet places, then slowly work to working in more distractions and still keep their attention on you, if that is your goal.

We had one super quiet and gentle horse that was spooked in our miles long pastures full of wildlife and was getting worse, bolting and running right over anything there, other horses also.
After several months of that, we finally sold him to someone in town that kept horses in pens and small turnouts in the middle of other houses with horses and he was his own super relaxed and quiet horse there, no more nervous bolting.
Some horses are basically nervous and need to find their own comfort, not the same for everyone.
You want to work with them where they can learn. Flooding with worrisome things may make them worse.

[poltroon]

@red_mares

I’m not sure about the treats. I did that with my goofy gelding at a state fair w/fireworks. I ended up quickly teaching him that if he circled the stall, he got a cracker.

This is where you have to be pretty careful for sure. Your timing matters. A clicker helps with this because you can mark the calm moment and then give the treat, and you’re not inadvertently reinforcing the problem behavior.

If you can’t get your timing precise, taking the horse to feed with a bucket or a flake of hay in a noisy area may be more effective, to get them focused on the food and even associating the noise with pleasant feelings.

[Hawks_Nest]

To elaborate on the timing:
The key is to reward BEFORE they are over threshold. So before they run away or otherwise spook. The idea is that you create a positive stimuli (eating something yummy) for them to associate with the stressful thing (in this case, loud noise).

For OP’s situation it would look a little like this:

• Stand in arena not right at the fence
• When you see a vehicle on its way, give a treat
• Try to time it so the horse is busy eating said treat while the scary thing happens
• When they no longer react to scary thing, move closer to the fence
• When they can be right up at the fence and cope while eating, start replacing the treat with a little bit of in hand work - still reinforce with treat/food/clicker occasionally
• Start over with the whole process under saddle

It is important to note that every time the horse spooks/bolts/runs off they are reinforcing that behavior and practicing being afraid. The idea is to not practice what you don’t want.

[Incantation]

@poltroon

This is where you have to be pretty careful for sure. Your timing matters. A clicker helps with this because you can mark the calm moment and then give the treat, and you’re not inadvertently reinforcing the problem behavior.

While this is usually the case, I remember going to the Mystic Aquarium many, many years ago. We watched the dolphin “show” (more educational than performative). She explained that for one of the behaviors they trained, she had to send one of the dolphins to perform it X seconds before the others. While they mark the behavior they want, that particular dolphin remember the 6 other things it did right before the marked behavior and treated them all as 1 behavior. It was cool to watch.

OP, I agree with the others that suggested you need to work on the horse’s self regulation. If he can’t do it when in hand, start there, using whatever methods seem best for you and the horse.
Warwick Schiller has a flow chart pf ground exercises for helping the horse learn to bring itself down when excited.
John Lyons teaches his horses to drop their heads when they get anxious. Not as useful for an English horse at times, but is the same idea.
Once he can regulate himself in hand, then try transferring the skills he has learned to under saddle work.

[OverandOnward]

Also, sustaining the rider’s expectations to not feel too perfectionistic about the future results …

… this is mean of me and I probably shouldn’t admit it on social media …

… but nothing cheers me up on a youtube video like a Grand Prix dressage horse spooking at the flowers.

You are not alone, OP. You are not alone. This is a large boat to be in.