Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Warning:  this is long.

I know there have been some light-hearted discussions about how our Arabs spook but 
as Jennifer and Mary Ann have indicated, trying to ride a big spook can be dangerous. 
 Instead of looking to a metabolic reason for the spooks, and thus a chemical cure, 
stop to consider that a spook is a behavior and like any other behavior it can be 
modified and often eliminated.  If spooking is a big problem with your horse, ask 
yourself, "What do I do when my horse spooks?"  The answer may surprise you when you 
realize that YOUR behavior could be contributing to your horse's MISBEHAVIOR.  Am I 
saying that all spooks are misbehavior?  No, but when a horse ROUTINELY spooks on 
most trail rides, especially at things it has seen before, then the spooking IS a 
misbehavior.

I have a friend who bought a 4 yr old Arab mare.  Cricket stumbled and as the weeks 
passed, her stumbling became worse and worse.  We all know that Arab + Walk = Stumble 
(just like Arab + Log = Spook), but this horse was stumbling so much, on every ride, 
that my friend was afraid that her Endurance horse-to-be might have a neurological 
problem, or a subtle leg deformity.  Then the truth dawned.  She, my friend, was 
teaching this horse to stumble.  Every time Cricket stumbled, my friend would lean 
forward, pat her on the neck, tell her not to worry, she was a good horse, blah, 
blah, blah.  By sympathizing with her horse she was rewarding the stumbling BEHAVIOR. 
 She changed tactics, and when Cricket would stumble, she would growl at her and 
bang the mare's sides with her legs.  Within a few weeks the stumbling was gone.

Do you empathize with your horse when he worries or gets nervous, even if there is 
nothing there that is a real threat to him?  Do you try to calm him with a gentle, 
loving tone of voice?  Do you offer him a carrot or other goody to relax him in a 
"tense" situation?  If so, then you ARE rewarding him for his behavior and there is 
no way on God's green earth that a smart Arabian isn't going to continue a behavior 
that gets him rewards.  T'aint rocket science.

Even if your horse is wired a bit tighter than others, he should NEVER get a reward 
for behavior that is inherently dangerous to his rider.  When a young horse starts 
with the spooking, often just laughing at him is all it takes to stop the behavior. 
A human laugh is relaxing to horses (if he really is nervous) and the fact that you 
are laughing AT his behavior is not lost on the horse.  However, with a horse that 
has been rewarded for misbehaving (spooking), the better course is to follow my 
friend's lead... growl at him, smack him, show displeasure at what he does.

I have a new horse whose previous owner said was bold and great on the trail except 
he spooked at logs.  I live in a National Forest.  We have logs... everywhere.  I am 
too old to ride spooks every 50 feet!  So from the getgo, when he STARTED to sidle 
away from a log I growled at him, got after him with my legs and if he continued, I'd 
stop and put him almost on top of the log.  Then I went back down the trail, turned 
and trotted him back up PAST the log again.  Now he LOOKS but just keeps trotting. 
He knows that if he hesitates, Mom is going to make a federal case out of it.

So if you are being understanding, empathetic, NICE to your horse when he spooks, 
STOP IT!!  Holler at him, put him on top of whatever he spooked at or if that is not 
feasible, dismount and walk him up to it and around it and if it is inanimate, smack 
it.  Do it every time he acts foolishly (spooks) and do NOT let him get one ounce of 
joy from spooking; give him grief.  When he realizes that his behavior is just going 
to get him a lot of hassle, he will stop.  Will he WANT to spook?  Probably, but if 
you TRAIN him not to, he will learn.  Police horses learn to put up with aggressive 
people threatening their riders, firecrackers, waving banners, surging crowds. 
Certainly our highly intelligent Arabians can learn not to spook at NOTHING.











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