Spooky is Misunderstood

One of the things I get asked the most about horses, is what to do about a scared or spooky horse. Most horses are easy to gain your trust as a rider/trainer/owner. Trust is necessary. Once trust is gained from your horse, it makes training a lot smoother . Using a lunge-line, whip, and round pen methods that teach a horse to give full attention on me, is always the first step in ground training and it just easily flows into trust.



A spooky or scared horse is one of the quickest situations that can either turn out in a disaster or it can be easily overcome. Spooky horses lack confidence and experience. You, as a rider must be confident. Your confidence travels right through your body into your horse’s. Your horse is very sensitive to your demeanor and your body language. Make it a habit to check yourself often to ensure your giving your horse the right feedback. Also, a confident, broke horse can help settle your spooky one, it sometimes works wonders for me to have my old horse nearby and going thru training exercises when starting a young horse. My old guy doesnt mind the cardboard piece to be walked across, flapping plastic/tarps, shiny pinwheels whirling in the wind, the big bright beach ball, rock music playing ect.. while doing ground work such as lunging, cones, walking over poles and logs, ect. I make it a habit of placing my soft foldable, plastic lawn chair about the round pen in different places and use it occsasionally during (very) short breaks. Change your horse’s mind when on the verge of 'melting down', like toddler terror on the verge of a tantrum/breakdown. Pull the horse’s mind away from that problem by distracting in the opposite direction. I keep one end of the pen with obstacles but few 'spooking items'. This is where I take a horse if he/she is having a full blown 'spook'. The horse can still see the 'scary object' but its at a distance. I put him/her thru obstacles or paces to keep the horse doing something positive until they are confident the 'thing' they were scared of isint going to harm them, before the horse knows it, we've worked our way back to the spooking object. This is repeated until it becomes 'old hat' and the horse is comfortable. This is all done on the ground before mounting a 'spooky horse'. Once the issues are overcome on the ground, mounting is next, then eventually riding out in the open but with another confident, broke horse and rider accompanying.

It just frustrates me when I see riders who are riding without a clue. Thier horse spooks, they immediately react with "bad horse!". The horse is unsure and scared, the horse is only doing what 'they know and is in thier nature' because no one has ever taught them any different. It is not the horse's fault, so do not blame an innocent animal. They are prey animals afterall. Some people do not like hearing that last statement, these kinds of horse people usually do not care about the well being of thier animal or just do not care in general for why a horse is a horse. All horses, and situations are different but essentially all horse's reasons for reacting are the same.

You and your horse. His strength and beauty. Your knowledge and patience and determination. And understanding. And love. That's what fuses the two of you into this marvelous partnership that makes you wonder, what can Heaven offer any better than what you have here on earth?
-Monica Dickens-