Do you own a nervous spooky horse?

My Grey Icelandic used to be a total nutter..anything and everything would scare her..be there people about or not! Her reactions were exsplosive.
Nor would she take comfort from older well seasoned horses.
I would of sold her if I could but no takers. Can't just leave any thing be, so her training started.

Taking lots of tiny baby steps and not pushing her past what she can mentally handle, has worked the best for her. After 6 years of training, she is becoming a really nice riding horse. Still a little funny at times but not like she was before.
Also would never ride her on the road with cars,,nor can I take her to shows..as it is just too much for her to handle but she makes a great in the country trail horse.

Just like people.. some horses are not good at some things.

Another thing you can do is have a blood test done and see if they are low in B-1 and/or Magnesium. I have found over the years many truely spooky horses are.
Dyfra had that problem but the right supplements do help... along with all the years of training.
So there is hope!;)
 
When we first got Lantern he was a nightmare, you'd be walking a long and suddenly he'd spook SO badly. In company or not. Then eventually he was ok aslong as he was right next to Nimby.

Then came hacking on his own, absolute nightmare. He would call constantly, weave in the road, spin round because the air looked at him funny all sorts.

I just perservered hacked him on his own all the time, gradually going further and introducing new routes etc. At first i would often be seen stood in the middle of the road with Lantern snorting or cantering in the opposite direction to where i was going. But i never shouted etc just sat reallly quietly and showed him nothing was guna eat him.

Today i hacked out for just over 3hours, he will shy at things but spooked once and that was only going from a relaxed trot to a flat out trot until i asked him to slow up again!
 
I certainly do. You can walk past something 10 times but on that 11th time it is cleary scary! :eek:

Obviously everything is scary and you must be wary of everything! Trust nothing! lol :cool:
 
The horse I used to ride spooked at times when we were out hacking. I have a bad habbit of tensing up and letting myself get 'panicky' because the horse is - not good! I know I need to build my own confidence up more (had a few scares in past few years).

But something that did help was to sing while I rode :rolleyes: , if I felt him tense up I would start to sing to force me to take deep breaths. Ok so the horse and the general public around my local bridleways thinks I'm a nutter :D but it seemed to calm him down :) Not be entering the X Factor any time soon though tone deaf :D
 
One of our most interesting days was spent in the school for an hour and a half riding a 10metre circle past the same object again and again and again, each time shooting off, leaning and snorting!! I stopped loads of times to allow her stretch and touch it, check it was friendly, then we'd ride passed and AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! run its going to eat me, all because of a polly block!!

Bless she brings some spark into the rides (cant have me falling asleep!!) and i love it really. Ive had her 3yrs and yes there has been times when it hasnt been fun but she's getting better. And when she's really scared or nervous it does upset me a bit as i wonder if its fair, however those times are so few and far between i dont think its a problem anymore,

I also ride a TB who has on occasion lept the width of a double width road and yes i love that 2!!
 
My horse used to be scared of leaves, white lines on the road, road signs, carrier bags, his own shadow...basically pretty much everything. He used to jump ten foot across the road and run and spin.
Although combine harvesters right next to us, motorbikes coming past at 100mph are not worth spooking at (silly boy)
After a lot of reassurance from me we have almost cracked the problem. He will only spook now and again now. I just perservered with the problem and never put any of us in a dangerous situation and now i can pretty much take him hacking anywhere and trust him to behave. xx
 
Oh yeah. He's a right wimp. Yesterday I went out for what was meant to be a quiet scenic hack...but my dear little coward had other things on his mind. He jumped around, tried to break into gallop everytime her saw a grassy strip and then, in one field on the way home from our 4 mile circular ride, he spied a bucket in the grass.:rolleyes:

Now buckets with food in, or water in are all fine, except salt licks. This one was like the bucket he had in his stable. He stopped...looked at it...trotted sieways like a crab around it...and then decided the best way to deal with 'mutant bucket' was to kick out at it and bolt. Instead of bolting up the hill, he went down it, followed the track all the way round and ended up back on the other side of the bucket.

Of course I told him off and made him stand next to 'mutant bucket' until he gave up being such a ninny. He never bolts in other more scary situations. I just think it was a one off really. I haven't had much time this week to ride him and he was just bursting with energy. Any excuse for a bloody good gallop!:)
 
I can generally tell when Storm's going to spook now - like if I'm riding her past the neighbours and they're having a concrete mixer / bonfire in their front gardens - I generally know she'll spook and we'll gallop past with the full blown tail up like an arab and snorts ......(she's a connie but a frustrated closet arab me thinks!!!!) Now and again she spooks out of the blue - but we generally laugh it off and I've developed a glue bum!!! hehehehe. OH swears I make her worse when out hacking - I probably do, even tho I deliberately do lax legs on her sides and stroker her neck etc, sometimes I think we wind each other up........
 
jay can be fine one day and a total nutter the next right now, hes really stressed if you ask him to eat inside just now, keeps trotting outside and looking about:eek:
 
Jo is a spooky horse! one day she spooks at a car (think its colour but i dont know!!) then the next day she doesnt. She spooks at everything and just bolts! Neally went over a wall the other day when a farmer flew past in a tractor!!!!

It hasnt put me off thou.. she's slowly getting better, she hadnt been ridden for about a year before me.. so can maybe understand it!

took a 4 year out the other week for the first time, was first time she'd been on th roads.. didnt like the white road markings, gate posts, cars etc etc but can totally understand that!! Other ones 8 lol

ooooooooo we do love em thou!
 
Well I thought this was a funny one tonight. Ive moved my ponys water buckets from one side of the stable to the other. You would of thought there was a fire eating dragon in his stable, once I had encouraged him to come in he literally galloped into the stable. I then fed him and put his feed bucket right near the mysterious water buckets and you could see his eyes literally bulging out the side of his head looking at it!!!
 
:eek:I have had mine for 13 years, the first year I was regularly in tears as he was my first horse and spooked at the daftest thing. Horrid as we always rode in heavy traffic. as a taste of things to come the first time I hacked him out ALONE which was also the first time I had ever rode outside of a riding school class he threw himself across a road in front of a car cos he saw his reflection in a bus shelter!

i often sang when hacking out to calm us both down, 375 men went to mow wasnt unusual!:eek: Amazing thing was I managed to get mine fit enough for advance endurance all just on road work in rush hour I must have been mad:p.

he is a bit better than he was though I lost my nerve big time about 7 years ago when the invitable happened and we got hit by a lorry when he spooked into its path. I ended up nervous riding out and strangely schooling as well. Had no affect on horse at all.

I did regain my nerve but was always on edge hacking out. I have finally realised my dream and moved from 7 miles from Bham town centre to a rural area on the edge of the peak district national park, with off road hacking. so now I can hack out and relax as when he sees terrifying objects such as shiny farm gates, sheep with particularly aggresive faces etc:cool: it doesnt really matter if he spooks or runs of:D!

Shame hes now 18 as otherwise I would be aiming for 100 mile ER rides with him now....
 
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