ridecamp@endurance.net: Spooking and Bolting

Spooking and Bolting

Ruth Bourgeois (ruthb@tdsi.net)
Tue, 15 Jul 1997 20:04:03 -0500

The first year that I rode my 3/4 Arab gelding, he was a fruitcake. Out
on the trails, he spooked at blades of grass, pebbles, the wind in the
trees, butterflies, you name it. It was a challenge staying on top of
him! The solution to this problem came unexpectedly, and in a very
pleasant way. I was chairing a competitive trail ride, and on Friday of
the ride, some competitors came up and asked me if I had time to show
them some of the trails for the ride. I said sure, and saddled up my
horse. A group of six or eight of us headed out, with me towards the
back of the group on my spooky, green-broke gelding. Just out of camp,
he thought he saw something move in the bushes. He did one of his
spectacular leaps and spins in the air, ready to bolt the other
direction. But, none of the other horses even seemed to notice something
scary in the bushes. So he settled down and we proceded on down the
trail. A little ways later, same thing. He kind of perked up and noticed
that he was the only one being spooky. A little further down the trail
and I felt him tense up, ready to spook again, but this time he
hesitated, looked around at the other horses, then jumped sideways a
little bit. I kind of laughed at him, and I swear he actually felt some
embarrassment for his actions. A bit later, another rider came out of a
side trail, enough to normally scare him into the next county, but I
felt him "measure up" the situation, take a big, deep breath, and with a
great deal of control, didn't even flinch. By the end of that short
ride, most of the "spookiness" behavior had disappeared. It was like he
needed to get out there with other horses and see how he was supposed to
behave. Then he seemed to feel pretty silly when they didn't react to
the things that he did. He seemed to grow up a lot that day, and has
never been bad about spooking or bolting since then. Sure, he does the
occasional spook, but he's not a problem. I really think there's a lot
to be said for using other, well behaved horses as an example with one
that's got a problem like this. That's how I taught all my young horses
to trailer well, just put them in with "old babysitter" and down the
road we went. They learned that trailering was nothing to get excited
about. On other occasions, it's helped greatly also. Sometimes other
horses make much better "teachers" than we do.
Ruth

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