I have a 2009 Westphalian Warmblood mare. She jumps a 10 and moves a 9, and has so much scope. I have had her for 2 years and have been trying to move her up to the 3’6" for a while now and she can definitely do the division, the only problem I have is her spooking at EVERYTHING. If I take her to a show she will run straight through the corners, bent to the outside, freaking out at what is outside of the arena. What’s funny is that she will jump anything you point her towards. I have tried everything, and she always gets too out of my hand to try to bend her in the corners. She will balk at judges boxes, stands, etc, and I have no idea how to fix this problem. I have asked multiple trainers (6 to be exact) and they all just tell me to bend her to the inside which doesn’t work. I have researched all over online and can’t find anything either. She is also prepped before shows, which includes hacking in the ring before if it’s allowed, lunging, and she gets perfect prep. None of these seem to work very well, and I was wondering if there are any products to help with this? Or any training tips to help make her braver?? Please let me know because we have a show coming up in November!
What you’re describing sounds like a rideability problem, assuming no underlying pain issues. There’s no easy fix for it and it usually gets worse the higher you jump. So stop trying to move up, and maybe instead drop down. If she’s getting over stimulated at shows, taking her more often may help, or it may make her worse. It’s a multi-faceted problem that requires some trial and error and outside the box thinking and star alignment, so if you want to fix it I think you’ve got to commit to trying to fix it and shelve other designs that you have for her. What happens in a show environment with no jumps? Have you tried a dressage show?
It doesn’t sound like you’re working with a trainer, so you might have to start. Ship to clinics to get real-time help as it’s happening. Or let her be a freak and bend to the outside at the corners.
Were you “in a program” with any of these 6 trainers - taking regular lessons and showing with them? Are you currently working with a trainer that has clients and/or training horses doing what you want?Keeping the horse on the track, focused, and between hands and legs is pretty basic riding 101 (but still freaking HARD, I know!). It’s very common for things to fall apart in the show ring if there are holes in the horse or rider education. I don’t think there’s a magic trick or supplement here, but regular professional help from someone who knows what’s up (aka not just anyone with a trainer shingle) is essential.
How often are you showing this mare? My first instinct for these spooky types is to step WAY down - do 2’ if you have to - and go more often. Schooling shows, clinics, any excuse to get off property and get some zero pressure schooling rounds in. The fences getting higher can really highlight rideability and confidence issues that have been there all along.
Also, it’s unclear how spooky this horse is in ticketed warmup or at home, but typically when things are fine until the horse gets in for the actual rounds it’s a rider issue. And we ALL struggle with that at one time or another! This is another reason why you might want to seek out more/better/different help, it can be really hard to figure out what’s going on when it’s your personal horse.
Between two hands and two legs is easier said than done with some horses; I empathize.
If there is an underlying pain issue, it can make rideability 10x harder.
If you’ve ruled that out, I agree with the person who said maybe bump back down for a few shows for the sake of training safely and solving the problem.
It doesn’t sound like your horse has an energy problem but rather an attention problem.
One of things I have to think about with my horse who can be a bit of a looky Louie depending on the day is riding him up into the contact literally the moment I step into the ring. And from there on out, I am entirely focused on his body and where it is on the track I’ve established. That and canter quality are literally the only thing I pay attention to.
Because spooking in the corners doesn’t just happen suddenly; there are factors that tee it up to happen including not having your horse’s attention. If you get out ahead of it and are riding a few steps ahead of your horse, chances are they won’t be able to fully act out the spook. Or they might forget about it and focus on your instead.
This seems like silly advice, but pay attention to your horse’s ears next time you’re in the ring. If you can’t even get a quick flick back from one, your horse isn’t paying attention to you. They’ve got their brain fixated on something else.
Last thing I’ll throw out for consideration—has anybody else gotten on your horse? Do they have the same problem? I will often compare notes with the pro on my horse so I know what’s a me problem vs. him.
What happens when this horse goes to an outing that is NOT a show? Trail ride, whatever. Same “lit” feeling?
Sometimes handwalking this type in the ring if you can or around the outside parts horses can reach is more effective than riding. Take treats.
Also, you may need a show bit that she can’t run through.
My last horse was like this. Great at home. Felt like I should be at World Cup finals in the warm up. In the show ring…… we called it stage fright. He was tough and looky just like your horse. Judges box, dog calmly walking by, anything could get him even if it didn’t get him the first time passing said object.
I ended up selling him to a lady who wanted a nice horse but didn’t have the desire to show. I was over paying a lot of money to have bad experiences. I wish you luck in your product and training search but some horses just do not enjoy showing.
How does the horse go in the schooling classes if/when your trainer shows her? If you’re not having a pro ride the horse earlier in the week to school through some of this, I’d highly recommend it. Even with a solid seasoned horse, sometimes a professional rider can really help get this done. I saw on another post you are a junior, so having that extra help will probably help you out come weekend time when it’s your turn to show.
If the horse is doing this with the pro too, I’d agree you need to step her down and really work on the issue without also adding in large 3’-3’6 jumps. A spooky, jumping sideways out of the turn horse is not going to jump in to a big line well when she’s bent all out of sorts.
Have you ever tried riding her in a running martingale? They are legal in hunters.
I don’t think there’s any (legal) product available that will magically transform your spooky horse into a compliant hunter. As for training tips, if I were in your position, I’d invest in training with a pro who could evaluate your horse, find the holes in her schooling, and then ride the horse at a show to better “feel” what’s happening.
Years ago, Hilda Gurney told me, “You can train a horse at home. But then you have to train it to show.” Sometimes we skip this part, and there are a certain number of horses that need to go to little show after little show, even if just to hack around or trot the short stirrup course, to get acclimated to all the stimuli.
In fact, it doesn’t have to be an actual show. We had a Dutch WB mare that was hot and spooky, but would jump anything. So it was never the jumps, it was everything else! What solved the issue was trail riding and simply hauling across town to other barns and riding in their arenas. It took about a year, but she learned the world was not a scary place.
In addition to the good advice from everyone else, have you tried having a trusted pro show her? What happens then? I am all about DIY, but my current horse (who I have started from scratch myself), can be a lot, and there are times when I am struggling, either with getting him to understand a new concept, like lead changes, or when I know that I would not give him the best ride (nerves or what have you), when I hand the reins over to my trainer. She’s only shown him twice in the 3 years he’s been under saddle, once early on when we were having issues with a particular line, and once early this year when we were at a new (to us) venue, and it was our first show off farm that year. I was anxious and didn’t want to cause him issues, so I asked my pro to do it. It helped in every direction. My horse got a great experience, I was able to relax and know he WOULD get around just fine, and my trainer got to feel what he does at shows, which helped her train me better.
It sounds like she needs to go back to basics- more work on flatwork, and getting more ridable between jumps at the shows. You need to be more accurate to move up, those issues will only be amplified as the fences get bigger.
They are?!
Yep. Completely legal. And more conventional/less weird than a breastplate IMO
Need more information…how many trainers have you actually had in 2 years? Did you pay for the advice 6 trainers gave you? Does she do the same things when the Pro rides her? Shes 14, what was she doing and with who riding before you got her?
No, theres no magic pill to make this go poof and you are wasting money on PP.
I hate to make a suggestion that falls into the “it’s always mentioned” side of things, but are you giving her anything for her stomach?
I had a young holsteiner mare who was like that. Rock solid over any jump you could imagine from day 1 under saddle. But everything going on outside of the ring at shows absolutely blew her mind. Took me a couple of shows to SMH and go, “oh! ulcers!” Started her on a multi-faceted ulcer prevention program (alfalfa in addition to her free choice hay, Stomach Happy, omeprazole at shows, etc.). Voila, never really looked outside of the ring again. Of course it’s not always that simple, but if the horse gets “undone” at shows, then it’s certainly simple enough to try.
My first question is the same as several others have asked–what does this horse do with a pro in the irons? Is she just doing this with you, or is this something she does with anyone up?
Whichever the answer is, I think my solution would be to firstly make sure it’s not a pain issue and that the horse can bend and listen in the corners (presumably is doing this fine at home?). Then haul somewhere local for a 2’6 or 3’ round, talk to management and let them know you are paying the fees but using this as a schooling experience for a horse to work through an issue. Then do what needs done in the corners to get her attention back. Halt before you go ride through it, make a circle and get her bending, whatever. I had to do that with my young one this summer after she decided that puddle after fence meant YEEEHAWWW over puddles, and thus landing out of all lines was YEEHAW TIME; we were clearly already out of the ribbons so I landed, halted calmly, picked up the canter again to the next line, rinse repeat for one round. Sometimes you need to take the loss to give the horse the educational experience it needs.
OP, re: the ears, I’ve found the Warwick Schiller “ear flick for focus” exercise to be SUPER useful for my unfocused and sometimes anxious young horse. There’s a better video of it on his subscription website but here’s the idea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvJSCCjPSJY. Basically if they fixate on something in one direction you pick up the opposite rein until the ear flicks back to you, then drop the contact to reward that change in focus and show them you are so perceptive you know exactly when their focus changed. Ignore turning, circling, etc. All you are focused on is getting that ear flick. At first it may take a while but if you instill this it can become an easy little check-in-with-me cue. It’s possible your mare is on edge because she doesn’t trust you to look out for the two of you, and it might help to show her actually you are pretty in tune with what’s going on.
I think there are two schools of thought on what to do with a really unfocused horse. What I hear most frequently is to keep the horse super busy and channeled between your aids. That does often work and may be the safest option in some circumstances. Warwick Schiller takes a different approach that I’ve also found useful, which teaches the horse how to focus on the handler/rider but also to let go of tension and anxiety by itself. The ear-flick-for-focus exercise is part of that. Bending for relaxation is another useful exercise he does starting with a walk on a loose rein. If you’ve always done the “get on, take a contact, keep them busy” method, it can be hard to trust the “walk around on a loose rein and guide the horse to relaxation” method. If you’re in a crowded warm-up ring it may not be feasible, but it’s a skill you can build at home. I tend to find that my off-property rides that I can start with the latter method get more relaxed more quickly than if I take the keep them busy approach. Anyway, it sounds like you’ve been trying the more traditional approach and might want to teach her to genuinely let go of the anxiety rather than just containing it. This is something you need to start at home and probably on the ground though. WS has a good online program and I think Tristan Tucker is similar.
Though at one point the USHJA HQC Study Guide said they were not legal. 
How exactly are you attempting to redirect your horse’s focus around the corners? Are you using your hands, your legs, a combination of the two?
I find dressage to be very useful for spooky horses. It doesn’t mean that you have to make your hunter dressage-y, but it can really help to give you the tools needed to ride through it and prevent the spook from happening.
Clear as mud. Welcome to the hunters! 
