Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Spooky?  Hah!  I have worked out a way to deal with my horses spooks, and my 
anxiety/fear associated with it.  I have made it a game on training rides.  
If he is acting goofy I intentionally spook him.  I jump, I scream, I mess 
with his ears, make funny noises, whatever it takes.  1) this acts to 
de-sensitize him to such things (like screaming, I found that he will bolt.  
Hmmm, not a good thing if I have something to really scream about).  2) he 
starts to think that I have put spooky things around the world just to mess 
with him, so he has begun to ignore stuff.  3) it gives me something 
positive to do and puts me in control of the "spook" when I would otherwise 
be concerned with what he is going to do.  And I get some good laughs out of 
it.  (My neighbors think I am nuts)

On a ride I balance the above (no screaming... I save the really weird stuff 
for training rides)  with focusing on the trail ahead.  If I happen to see 
something that may cause him to spook I time a transition of some sort just 
before or at the time I think he would notice it.  Like canter to trot, or 
vice-versa, or leg yield, etc.  It distracts him and by the time he does 
notice, we are usually on our way past it so he doesn't bother with it.

For reference, I could not even ride this horse a year ago becuase he had 
unseated me with so many spooks that we both had developed complexes.  This 
helped us, but we started small, and on the ground.

Jena & Temba


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One would think that logic would prevail. But then, if logic did prevail,
men would ride sidesaddle. 
~  Bob Morris

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