Assess Your Horse - The Scared Horse

Is your horse tense and scared? Or is he confident and playful?

Answering these simple questions will give you a lot of information on how to successfully train them. If you’ve owned your horse for any amount of time, there’s a good chance that you’ve found some techniques that work for you either because you’ve used them in the past and they’ve worked, because someone else has helped or because you’ve tried something!

If you have area’s where you’re still struggling then it’s probably helpful in the first instance to break down what’s going on and what emotions your horse is feeling about the whole thing.

Horses are one big bag of emotions, they are programmed to be sensitive to the emotions of other horses and anything else around them including us. Most of us know that when we get angry or frustrated is usually when our horse becomes the least compliant!

So let’s start with a scared horse, this horse is on alert for danger and may well see that whatever is happening is anything from a bit worrying to outright dangerous to their existence!! They are often labelled anywhere from a bit tense and a worrier to crazy or psycho!

Some typical characteristics to recognise these horses are:-

• head high

• not blinking

• not breathing

• stiff/tense through the middle (often referred to as stiff through the rib cage)

• tense mouth

• tense tail

• can’t keep still, wants to run off

• feel like they might explode

• freeze then explode (comes out of nowhere)

• claustrophobic

These are all signs that your horse is scared and your best path to success is to help them learn to be confident. This horse thrives on consistency and repetition, they will be more than happy to practise something to perfection but only as long as they are able to find relaxation in it.

Change and new things are a big deal for them. When teaching them something new repeat the exercise until they relax and start to show signs of confidence. If they are still overwhelmed break it down into smaller pieces and building confidence in each piece until the whole thing can be done with confidence.

Signs of a scared horse becoming more relaxed are:-

• lowering the head (in particular below the withers)

• Blinking

• Sighing, blowing out through their nose

• Relaxing through the middle so becoming easier to bend/turn

• Licking and chewing or yawning

• Swinging or relaxed tail

• Less inclined to run off, can stand still

A real life example...

My beautiful warmblood mare Desi was a great example of a scared horse. In her case she would tend to be very tense, tight mouth, stiff through the middle of her body, found it hard to stand still, would get faster and faster, she could also be very claustrophobic.

Training her was all about repetition, repetition, repetition, she had to do things over and over without adding anything new until she was really confident in doing it. If something upset her before she was really sure about it then you'd have to start again although it usually took less time to get her back to where she was.

Riding her I would start by doing lots of circles in walk until she started to relax and bend off my inside leg, she would usually blow out and start to breathe at this point as well. Then we would be ready to go large. I would repeat the process in trot and canter before I did anything else.

The other thing she used to struggle with wass being closed into the lorry. She was easy to load and traveled beautifully once on board but would really worry when the lorry was being closed up. We spent a lot of time getting comfortable inside the lorry with it open, until she was happy to stand while I opened and closed the partition and eventually the ramp. Again, it’s just repeat, repeat, repeat many times until she was happy.

Before trying any training technique it is important to rule out pain or discomfort. Saddle fit, teeth, back, hoof balance and lameness issues should all be checked by a qualified professional before applying any training.

If you have questions or need idea's to help with a specific problem feel free to get in touch with me.

---------------

Lyla has been helping riders and their horses in the UK, USA and Europe for over 10 years. She has prepared horses for crowds of over 6,000 people with no calmers or ear plugs for venues including Birmingham NEC, Aintree, Bury Farm EC and Hartpury.

Lyla specialises in horse psychology and behaviour problems with a specific interest in dressage and has worked with horses from grass roots to Grand Prix across the UK and Europe including international competitors and Olympians from Spain, the US, Canada and the UK.

See www.lylacansfield.com or email [email protected] for more details