Be careful Over and Onward. Mum was a matron. Truck drivers who turn quickly to try and catch something falling off the back of a truck end up in Hospital from twisting their back.
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Spooking and mitigating is a spectrum in my experience. Take the three horses I ride right now. My mare is generally tuned into me so if I tense up, she tenses up. I realized this out on a hack - I was worried about all the stuff blowing around near this house so I started to tense up, shorten the reins; her reaction was to get more worried because if Iām worried, sheās worried. She relaxes more when Iām acting relaxed/confident though there are still things she does not approve of, like major changes in her environment. We moved all the spare/not currently used jump parts from one corner of the indoor to the other and she expressed her discomfort at not being involved in this decision. What works best with her is pushing her into the bridle and telling her to mind her own business and keep working.
Another horse I ride is a worrier but she worries less if sheās doing something so I do more turning, circles, gait changes with her and that settles her better. Also, if I am a bit tense, she does pick up on that. She is very sensitive to the leg and currently still thinks it only means go and gets tense if you hold her mouth to much so what works best with her is to let her go but give her a direction (is - jigging in a circle instead of a line or going sideways - basically telling her she can jig but we are still on the path I pick).
The third is my emotional support horse, so to speak. She does not react to me and my tenseness. She also does not react to most outside stimuli other than to concern herself with who does and does not have treats. She has spooked on occasion but it is more a startle of a something darting past in the corner of her eye and really just a jump. Basically all her (very few) spooks have caught me completely off-guard and she jumps forward maybe one stride so it isnāt something we āwork onā so to speak.
Some horses I have ridden have gotten over their issues while others have not. Some do better with more consistent riding and more direction - like the second horse I mentioned, others need to just figure it out on their own. Some horses you just have to know - like I know if there is a change in the indoor, my mare will be concerned about it so I ride her more in those areas/on those days. Horses like the second horse I mentioned I like to throw more different things at them in safe ways so they know life isnāt that bad. I also rode a gelding similar to her. He spooked the first time the jumps moved and we got through it, spooked less the second time, no spook the third time because he was allowed to look, politely told it isnāt really a concern so he was able to relax and get over it. A kid now owns and rides him and at last check, loves him.
We had a horse on rehab that was supposed to move to lightly riding at one point but we nixed that because he would wait until you were the least bit unfocused and spin/bolt/buck/etc. We didnāt want anyone hurt. He ended up trotting him up and down the barn aisle and he would still throw fits and got away from some people but at least no one was hurt. He would wait until you relaxed and there was a touch of slack in that leadrope. I never had a problem with him because I never let slack in the leadrope but it was stressful for me.
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Also this is cool information for anyone interested. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/19394879/
āEach horse-human pair walked or rode between points A and B (30m) four times on each test occasion. However, just before the fourth pass, participants were told that an umbrella would be opened as they rode, or led, the horse past the assistant. The umbrella was not opened, so this pass was no different to the previous control occasions, but nevertheless there was an increase in HR for both the person (leading, P=0.06; riding, P<0.05) and the horse (being led, P<0.05; being ridden, P<0.05).āĀ
mustāve been fun to be a part of that experiment lol
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@Farosh Thanks for sharing that. Really nice to see that someone managed to quantify the relationship between rider state and horse state.
It is not just your breathing that tell them if you are scared. It is your heartbeat they can feel as well. Your muscles tense that they can feel As I said you can fake your breathing by breathing down into your diaphragm. You can relax your muscles. I have no idea how to change your heart beat!
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So a couple of weekends ago, I was at a western fun day, watching people galloping horses carrying flags, the arena trail stuff with mailboxes and so forth. and little kids piloting ponies through noodle curtains. And I thought āThe rest of us are doing it wrong. This isnāt that hard to teach. We just need to get those kids to explain how they do it.ā :winkgrin:
(not my photos)
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I think it also helps to consider what you do immediately after the spook. My guy isnāt typically spooky but can have a spooky day here and there and heās big and powerful so my efforts tend to be focused on 1) staying on and 2) getting the undesired movement (leaping, scooting) to stop. However, this doesnāt accomplish the task of putting him back to work immediately before he even knows what hit him. Thereās a delay with me. So even if I can prevent a spook or catch it right before it would get bigger, once he does it, I lose the focused ride for enough time that it has less of an impact on his behavior going forward. Enter: my trainer. When he has a spooky day, sheāll hop on, heās dumb enough sometimes to try his shenanigans with her, and sheās lightning fast at making him realize he has a job to do.
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I used to work at a place that had a slew of animals that they would use to do animal shows for nursing homes, the Boys & Girls Club, schools, etc. My first day there I was cleaning the snake cages. I had never handled a snake in my life so I was definitely a bit fearful. Sure enough the snakes felt this and the second one I pick up lunged at me and sunk itās fangs into my hand (non-venomous).
A few weeks later we were putting on a show at a small elementary school and the kids were all handling the snakes and not one got bit.
Kids have an element of naivetĆĀ© that makes them fearless. They donāt see it as fearlessness but they donāt process certain things with fear as we do so in certain situations they do better than we do, especially when animals are involved since they can pick up on your energy.
