Oh blimey....!!

[SarahC]

Hi,

Many of you may have read my previous posts and know that I am a nervous rider. Also that my nerves have been getting worse with my new (ish) horse who is not quite the 'confidence giver' he was sold as as since he has been moved, he is so spooky. We are having lessons with an excellent teacher and I'm not too bad when he's there but as soon as I'm on my own I'm useless!! Its not always possible to ride with someone else at my yard, but I do whenever possible.

So anyway, he is on a calmer, which doesn't seem to have made the slightest bit of difference (been on it for 5 weeks or so now). I am aware that a riders nerves transfer to the horse and can make matters much worse, however he is exactly the same with a confident rider on board and still spooks like the wotsit.

I have sort of worked out why I'm nervous with him, and its the unpredictability. All horses are unpredictable I hear you scream!! But, what I mean is you can lunge him and go past something in the menage (ie. a chair for instance) and he doesn't pay any attention to it at all...then you can ride him past it a couple of times and he's fine...then all of a sudden he starts jumping like crazy at it! I hope I've explained that well enough?

Anyway, ..I'm now thinking of trying hypnosis. So my question is, has anyone ever used this form of therapy particularly for horse riding?

Oh and sorry for droning on again!

Thanks
S

[lisae]

Haven't tried hypnosis but I had good luck reducing my horse's intake of grain. Eventually I gave up on that horse and bought a Haflinger who is solid as a rock.

[Stella2]

I've heard it said that sort of spooking tends to happen because the horse has either gone past the thing, looked at it and accepted it or has been concentrating on what was being asked of it so didn't notice, then later it will be going past it focusing on something else or kind of day dreaming, when it suddendly catches sight of the thing out of the corner of its eye and jumps "Oh, what's that ..", then "Oh, yes, its that ,,,".

[SarahC]

That seems logical Stella. My boy hates schooling and doesn't really listen to any aids...he's usually too busy looking around the yard and adjoining fields! But occassionally he does and I suppose thats when he's at his least spooky.

I've just looked at his feed intake and what he has lisae. I'm now putting him onto a Fibre pencil (which actually has less sugar, cereal and other 'fizzy' ingredients than a cooling pencil!) and an unmolassed chaff in case he has too much sugar etc in his system. Apparently the grass over here was really high in sugar content this year!! Worth a try I guess...but I really want to get myself sorted out...I'm determined but as soon as I get on and he starts spooking it sort of goes out the window!

Anyway thanks for replies.

S

[Stella2]

I agree about the food, many horses are very sensitive. Some also react badly to hayledge and are much more chilled out on hay.

Also I've pm-ed you

[CBay]

I know exactly how you feel. I bought my boy because he was described as 'quiet'. He turned out to be the biggest wimp I've ever met and spooked at leaves, rocks, puddles - anything really. Any excuse and he'd whip round and run away or go really fast backwards if I managed to stop him turning round. He really scared me at first but I kept going with him. If things got too hairy, I got off and led him until we both calmed down and then got back on again. It gradually got better but there were times when I nearly gave up. We now have a great partnership and go out for long hacks on our own. He still spooks and naps occasionally but I can usually deal with it now. I suppose I've got used to it.

You're the only person who can decide whether to keep going with him or not but I'm really pleased I kept going with mine.

[denise42]

My mare started off very qiuet, and then got spooky.
I found it was a number of things.
One: The barn I had her at , at one time, was not letting the horses in at night. They had no shelter and were never able to rest with out worring about horse eating rabbits appearing at night. They also got no releif from the bugs. And ther was no schedule to the feed times. Hence she was always over tired , jumpy & hungry.
To cure that I moved her to a barn where they do what they say they are going to do when you take the grand tour and sign on the dotted line.
Two: The next time she got spooky was when I became a better rider & I asked her to work harder. Well she decided that the best way to avoid schooling was to scare me to death , thinking I would get off and she could go back to the chit chat club in the pasture.
Once I got to the point where I decided that I was not going to get off everytime she did a sit and spin, and she got booted forward regardless & had to continue to work, she decided it was to much work to spook and work at the same time, so stopped spooking because she knew by then that she was going to have to continue to do what ever it was I wanted from her before the spook.
She is still a horse and once in awhile she thinks the hose reel is out to get her, like last night , she went a little side ways past it but her spooks now are nothing like the ones she use to toss at me. :cool:

[cazrider]

Hi Sarah C


Anyway, ..I'm now thinking of trying hypnosis. So my question is, has anyone ever used this form of therapy particularly for horse riding?

I tried hypnosis with my last horse, who was sharp and, like yours spooked and spun round with me and left me feeling very nervous with her. The hypnosis was great. It really did make a difference and I could hack her out and deal with her behaviour. She was basically stubborn and would regularly try me out, objecting to where she was going, napping etc as she knew I was nervous.

The upshot was, however, that once I realised I could deal with her spooking, I realised I didn't want to, and really needed something quieter. I ended up selling her to a really good home where she is hunting, showing and doing pony club camp. None of this I would ever do, and I bought a much quieter cob who has never tried it on in the way she used to, and I'm enjoying horse owning again.

So, hypnosis does work. I hope it works out for you. It didn't in the end for me, but it's definitely worth giving a go. Best of luck :)

[SarahC]

Wow...thank you so much for all the replies. There's one or two things I can look into now.

The thing is...I'm not getting any younger and I'm spending a fortune on a horse that I just can't get on with (which is my fault and not his). However, I've only had him 4 months so am not going to rush into selling him...it just disappoints me that I can't deal with this (and that I have to in the first place anyway!).
Cazrider...you hit the nail on the head with the phrase..."I'm now enjoying horse owning again".

Anyway thanks again guys....I'm sure this won't be my last post!!!

Sarah

[TWH Addict]

Hi

Well Im also a nervous rider so i contacted Frank and have been trying his methods which work for me. Mabey you could read a couple of his articles Ive found them very helpful..

http://www.horsewhisperer.com/contact_us.htm

Ive just bought his first video which ive been trying out with great results.

[SarahC]

Hi,

Thats interesting...I've just looked at his web site. You say you contacted him...did he reply with suggestions? Which video have you been using?

Sorry for all the questions...I'm really interested!

Sarah

[TWH Addict]

The one I bought was called Discover the Horse you Never Knew. It basically teaches you his 7 step safety system, which covered:

Bonding, Take and Give, Intimacy, The Dance Begins and The Wind Down, Desensitizing, Ballet on the Ground, In the Saddle.

Im very impressed with him as Lacey has responded well. Especially impressed with the desensitizing, she now eats happily from a carrier bag and will happily ignore any flapping bags on wire fences that we pass (she used to think they ate horses).

The bonding, take and give and itimacy were great fun. Unfortunately i have discovered that her fav. spot to be scratched is up her nose!! eerg.

[TWH Addict]

Oh and forgot to add, yes he did reply with suggestions for me. Twice in fact. All very helpful. Thats what prompted me to buy the first video as his advice proved to work perfectly.

For example, i wont attach the full 3 pages he sent me but :

All communication requires the use of pressure which is sometimes exceedingly subtle; sometimes at the opposite end of the scale and very intense. I first teach a horse to drop his head, which accomplishes two distinct goals.
· Yield to pressure
· Get relaxed. A horse cannot have his head down and not be relaxed.

I apply downward pressure from the halter or my hand. The moment the horse drops his head one iota, the pressure ends. To my way of thinking this communication needs to be firmly entrenched to teach most anything.

Continue with the take and give until the horse's head is near the ground. Lavishly reward him each step of the way. Make sure he's working his mouth during the process-use your index finger over his tongue if necessary. A chewing action means he's relaxed, understanding the mechanics of take and give, and enjoying the learning process.

[cazrider]

I should also add I stuck it out for a year and a half with my mare, so certainly didn't give up on the first hurdle.

However, talking about enjoying horse ownership again, I went out this morning on Sennie, straight from a night in the stable. He was forward going, tried a couple of jogs, but that was it. The new lady with the horse in the stable next door to his and I rode round the farm chatting for about half an hour, lovely!

Then I came back and did some practice with another friend on the yard for a little pairs event they are running in a couple of weeks time. (our yard often runs small competitions for yard people. They're always fun and very non threatening) We are highly unlikely to win, but that's not the point, we had a real laugh practising our very dodgy no canter freestyle! In other words, a lovely couple of hours with my adorable horse. It might not sound very exciting, but its what it's all about I think!

That video sounds fab by the way, and very doable. I must give it a go.

:) :) :)

[Trevpuss]

Hi!

I also bought a 'confidence giver' who frightened the life out of me! He tried to jump out of the menage once while I was attempting to lunge him, would regularly drag me to and from the field, was terrified of EVERYTHING (including carrots) and tried to kill me in the stable. I would ride for 5 mins at a time and get off trembling.

I tried hypnosis, unfortunately the hypnotist thought I was frightened of horses generally (obviously I'm not so it didn't help).

What did help was moving to another yard which didn't have such lush sweet grass and where he had a much bigger stable, spending time with him - sitting in the field while he grazed and then sitting with him in the stable. Lots of grooming and a good few months getting to know each other.

I've still got this 'demon' horse who I hated so much at the beginning. He's now the confidence giver I was promised, is well mannered, laid back and a yard favourite. He canters to the gate when he hears my car pull up, follows me everywhere and will lie down and have a snooze on my lap. I've even put my 18 month old son on him!

I think it just took him a long time to settle with me. In his previous life he was at a big racing stable till he was 6 and then at a riding school, so he'd never had a one to one relationship with an owner.

I was seriously tempted to give up on him in the first few months - I'm so glad I didn't!

[SarahC]

Interesting about the change of yards Trevpuss, my boy was previously only with one other horse in a tiny stable block and now he's at a large yard with 30+ horses so I'm sure that he will take some time to settle. I also think this may have something to do with him bolting when I lead him (won't go into that here as have posted previously about that little problem!). I guess I was spoiled with my last horse, after 1 night in his new home you'd think he'd been there all his life!!!

I am going to stick it out with him, 4 mnths is just too soon to make any decisions, I guess I just need to put my fears etc down here cos not only do I get to get it out of my system, but you lot are all so friendly and helpful, it helps to know I'm not the only one!!

I'm also going to email Frank and am certainly willing to try the videos, they sound really interesting.

Thanks guys.

Sarah