My almost-8yo OTTB (new to me as of November) is a lovely guy. He came to me known to be a bit spooky (primary reason for sale by prior AA owner, who said she just didn’t have the confidence to deal with it) – he was chilled out during my trial ride and his vetting, and I was told by the trainer who had him for sale that the spooking was nothing serious, just tended to have a look at things and was fine if ridden forward and confidently. That seemed manageable to me, so I was happy to bring him home.
Having now had him for four months, I would overall agree with the trainer’s assessment of him. He’s a laid-back, affable dude with a great attitude toward work, is very companionable and connected/engaged with me as his person. When he arrived at my barn he was a bundle of nerves: didn’t handle his two-week quarantine particularly well, and was eyeballing and spooking at pretty much everything for the first 2-4 weeks. He was boarded at a small barn, and ours is large and busy – an adjustment, I think, but going from a pretty small world to a bigger one has probably been good for him. We took things slowly, expanding his bubble in small increments and doing exclusively groundwork for the first month post-quarantine until I was confident I had a horse that was relaxed and trusting enough to get on without concern. Everything has been pretty drama-free since then and he’s chill and accepting of more and more as time goes on: standing tied calmly while a tractor goes behind him or construction is going on around the yard, greater relaxation in places he was previously nervous about, etc.
That all said … he’s still the sort of guy who has a good spook in him. He’s naturally curious and trusting enough of me that I can introduce him to strange objects and he’s generally fine with them – he’s not the sort of guy who loses his mind on trash day or can’t cope with arena banners … his spooks are not so much about STUFF. For him it’s more of a sound and movement spook: too much wind in the trees, a squirrel, someone popping into view pushing a wheelbarrow, an object being dropped, the farrier at work on the other side of the arena wall. The spooks aren’t horrendous; he’ll lose his feet or go out the side door, but he comes back quickly and is usually able to get back to work within seconds. And in general I don’t find he’s constantly tense or worried. But he’s the guy who’s kinda always low-key looking for stuff to spook at, easily distracted, and harbors strong feelings about “scary corners” and things.
My approach thus far has just been to keep him engaged and ride forward (off the leg and into the bridle) and not make a deal of spooks when they happen, but that seems more of a band-aid than an actual cure. What I’d really like is to have him be less reactive to these things in the first place, because while they aren’t unmanageable, those kinds of spooks still aren’t fun (especially as I get older and bounce less well now), and I’d say happen on about one-third of our rides. Particularly as I start feeling more ready to take him out and about, it would be nice to help him relax more and spook less.
He was on magnesium when I got him, and as of a few weeks ago we switched over to Quiessence once the mag he came with ran out. The Quiessence hasn’t made a difference thus far.
So … suggestions for things that might help to reduce this kind of reactive spooking? Thanks in advance for any ideas that have worked for you!
