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Need Advice- Horse spooking at the same thing all the time.

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  • #1

    Need Advice- Horse spooking at the same thing all the time.

    I need advice. I'm riding a horse (5 yrs old) and there are barrels in the corner of the arena. He looks at them every time we go past them, and it's at least a hard look, sometimes a shoulder thrown out, sometimes a full on spook then bolt. I've been riding him for 3 months, and he still makes a big deal out of them. He also does this to one of the corners in the indoor arena. Both arenas have stuff in all the corners, but he picks one corner to be his designated spook corner, and he'll act up every time.

    A little background- the owner is a first time horse owner, bought an unbroke 2 year old. He's part Frisian, Arabian, and pinto. The owner is just a super sweet young girl, and thus he has never been disciplined. He does scare her a bit, and learned he could act up and then he would get out of work. He figured that out last year, so he's had a good 8 months or so to refine his skills. So in summary, he's a spoiled brat with no work ethic, no manners, and bad habits. His owner went to school and asked me to help her with him, so now I am his only rider. I am no means a trainer, but I have brought along a couple babies and OTTBs, and the one thing I'm good at is putting calm and quiet on a horse. So I'm not a professional, but I'm not completely clueless either.

    I've come a long way with him, but this spooking issue is driving me crazy! He has improved a lot, both on the ground and in the saddle, but my one sticking point is I can't stop him from using the barrels as an excuse to act up. And it's not all the time either. He will go past them 2 times with just an ear tilt, then the third time he'll try to take off after we pass them, throw out a shoulder, etc. I always have my whip to the inside, so if he pops the shoulder I can pop it back. He's never been disciplined, so he also doesn't completely understand that and turns into a drama king. Like at the mounting block, he would move, so I growled at him and gave him a smack on the neck. He flew backwards like I just beat the daylights out of him. I'm very consistent with praise if he passes without incident, and correction in accordance to the level of misbehavior, i.e. a ear and head tilt get a rein wiggle to remind him to keep working, a popped shoulder gets a tap with the whip, the bolt gets a CTJ meeting. It doesn't matter, as soon as we turn the corner, you can see and feel him lock onto those stupid barrels. How can I get him over this?

    I'm sorry if it's a bit rambling, I'm just trying to cover all the different factors I'm dealing with to give the full picture.

    Thanks in advance for any advice!

    Edited to add: He's not scared of the barrels, he's jumped them before. When they're out in the arena, he's fine. It's just when they are in the corner. He'll walk up to them in the corner, no problem.
    Tags: None
  • #2
    Just random thoughts:
    Lots of ground work to fill in training holes.
    Set up barrels in the arena, no pattern, and ground drive about them until he is bored. Then move 1 barrel into the corner and repeat until all are back in the corner.
    Repeat when mounted if necessary
    Feed him or provide snacks or grooming sessions at the barrels
    When he shies make him move, one option is to go back and forth in front of the "monster", don't try to get closer at first, just keep him moving. As he begins to relax and pay attention, decrease the distance ever so slightly.

    Good luck!
    "Never do anything that you have to explain twice to the paramedics."
    Courtesy my cousin Tim

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    • #3
      Put carrots on top of the barrels and have occasional rest breaks with carrot eating there. The rest of the time act like the barrels do not exist.

      That is what I would do.

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      • #4
        yeah.... been there done that w/ 3 different horses - all related - mom and 2 sons...

        W/ mine - I believe it's because they are bored or tired of working in the indoor... it's a good excuse to come off the aids and dink around. In case some folks don't believe it - spooking gets worse as winter progresses. They often to "forget to spook" on jump days. Now that i have it somewhat under control, mine will often be FINE at the start of the work and start spooking when tired or bored.

        My advice if its boredom...- ignore it as much as possible. No praise. Just keep working as nothing will happen and keep him on the aids as much as possible. Go back to work as soon as possible if he gets off the aids and disengaged. Mix up his work as much as possible - including trot pole days and trail days. Hate to tell you this, but I've been at it for YEARS with these guys. It gets better over time due to increased focus, harder work and being more on the aids.

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        • #5
          Work, if he spooks at the barrels, that is now the WORK corner, immediately ask for a small circle with correct bend and engagement. Make sure he understands that spooking = harder work right by where he spooked.

          Christa

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          • #6
            My horse does this too. With him, it is only when he is fresh and/or bored. He's not afraid - will in fact jump the barrels he spooks at with no problem - only spooks when we trot past them during flatwork.

            What works best is putting him to work, and keeping him focused. I ignore the spooking (well, other than making sometimes heroic efforts to stay on), and just keep on trucking. If he's working correctly and connected, the spooking is much easier to prevent or manage.

            He also does it when he's got some kind of discomfort, so keep that in mind too.

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            • #7
              I would try Christa's suggestion, every time you spook, you work harder, a lot harder. I would probably take the ignore tactic on the ear swing or shoulder pop and just ride on, but a jump/bolt true spook would result in more work.
              www.michelesfindinghappiness.com

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              • #8
                Longe him in that corner
                Approach the corner in shoulder in
                YOU need to Georgetown about the imaginary boogie monsters in the barrels too. They pick up on our prep work
                www.destinationconsensusequus.com
                chaque pas est fait ensemble

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                • #9
                  I have a mare who spooked at the water trough in the pasture next to the arena (her pasture:sigh) every single day for 8 years. It seems that finally, at the age of 17, she has decided that the water trough really isn't out to get her. During all of this, she would jump literally anything you pointed her at (though she'd spook going by several of the jumps), and was great in every other way.

                  I tried battling it out (which NEVER worked), I tried putting her to work every time we got close, I tried rewarding her for going by, I tried transitioning down at the trough, transitioning up at the trough, letting her look at it when we started, not letting her look at it at all.....in short I tried pretty much everything, and nothing got her to stop the spook. I finally decided to use the "up" steps she would give me for good instead of getting frustrated, and would start a lot of dressage movements at that spot

                  Most horses I've had were more willing to figure out there was no boogie monster, but I've had a couple of others through the years that you could not convince to ignore something. My general approach now is to ignore it unless I'm trying to work over the obstacle. That usually means bending the horse so they're not looking at whatever "it" is until they've been past the spot several times, sometimes starting 10-20' off track and leg yielding to the rail as we pass by it. Most horses will figure out that they've been past the scary thing several times and chill pretty quickly.
                  __________________________________
                  Flying F Sport Horses
                  Horses in the NW

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                  • #10
                    A couple things. The carrots on the barrels is a good idea, he would be rewarding himself for being curious and walking up to the barrel. Not a bad idea at all but it won't fix the shying. I do this in my horses turnout area to encourage one horse of mine to walk up to "new" objects and investigate them. Her gut reaction was to avoid weird stuff at all cost but this has changed that with her.

                    When he spooks at the barrel I would do a swift repair- circle, serpentines in the area then move away. I would work his fanny off in another part of the arena and always give him breaks standing in the corner with him facing the barrels and not looking towards the other end where he wants to be. Correct the disobedience on the spot by redirecting his feet (and mind) and then use the space as the "happy zone". One of my mares does this at home at one spot in my small dirt area where I ride and this is how I deal with her disobedience. It's not perfect but it's workable.

                    The other thing I do is this: if I am working through a problem spot like barrels in the corner, then I would cut my corner short by 3 strides and go across the arena. If riding up 4 strides would put me in the zone where he spooks I'm not going to ride there for awhile. Does that make sense?? I would hack around that shortened path and then when I had a nice relaxed pace at the "shying end" I would still cut it short but I would toss in a circle or serpentine to get me "closer" the wall/corner and then go back on the rail. I'm going to be doing things with my horse's feet (and mind) asking for changes of direction, speed, stride and if I do it right for long enough, eventually my horse is paying attention to me and forgets that we have just trotted by the shying corner.

                    Good luck!

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                    • #11
                      My horse does the same with a big log in the corner of the arena. I find the more tired he is, the less he spooks.
                      I'll warm him up, avoiding the log and little by little we come closer to the log. Any reaction, we work at the end of the ring where the log is. I keep him busy and paying attention to me. He's also afraid of the deer in the woods an the log happens to be near the woods, so I have a double trouble!

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                      • Original Poster
                        #12
                        Lots of great suggestions! Some I've used, some I haven't thought to try.

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