Training Tips

QUESTION: Hello Sylvia. I have owned a silver white Arabian for 1 1/2 years. Arabians are high strung horses. He had not been ridden for two years and was spoiled for that time. In the first 3 months we danced A LOT. Now he has been for the rest of the time, a very good riding animal with a few spook episodes upon riding. He has never tried to buck, kick, bite or dislodge me from the saddle. He is now 13-years-old. I rode one week before Thanksgiving with my niece and her horse, who are always together. He was his usual self. My niece commented that she believed of the 3 horses we have, my horse was the best behaved when riding. On Thanksgiving weekend, my sister-in-law brought her horse so we could all ride together. My horse acted like a crazed animal. He jumped at everything and nothing. I've ridden 4 times more since then and he is still the crazed, spooked hunting horse. I don't know what to do anymore after trying some tough love and other tactics I could think of. Sometimes in the past the crop would straighten him right up. At other times, it's like it makes him crazy. I don't know what else to do. Do you have any suggestions? Thank you very much.

REPLY: Hi. Thanks for writing. Yes I have some suggestions for you there. You need to raise his "fear" bar there by backing up and doing some desensitizing of him, safely on the ground first. Nearly all problems in saddle can be traced to holes in the horse's foundation (ground) training, including the problem you're having there. I get horses like this all the time and I back up and fill in the foundation holes which indeed involves despooking them/sensitizing them, raising their fear bar there. So...it's back to ground work there, but the right ground work. Let me direct you to some specific links on my web site which will teach you extra desensitizing lessons you can work on, and which I highly recommend you do there --- and out the other side will come a calmer, more rational horse:

Then work on planting into her foundation the one-rein stop/safety-bonding zone (on the ground first) which I teach how to do here -- I plant this into every horse's foundation before ever riding, so it's crucial to have down, to use it to draw upon when needed to settle a horse down and bring them back to rational mode:

And work on the ground for a start, using some of these relaxing/bonding techniques -- especially teaching the horse to drop the head and your finger in the mouth to relax the horse...more about that here:

All of the above (and much, much more) is taught in my Whispering Way 12-Step Total Training System DVD set. Usually it helps to see this natural horsemanship art taught visually, to really understand how it is all done. You can get that DVD set here: CLICK HERE

And incidentally...my Whispering Way Complete Training Package contains all my videos and training tools that you need to train or retrain your horse yourself the natural horsemanship Whispering Way. You can check out/order the Whispering Way Complete Training Package on my web site here: CLICK HERE

Don't punish when a horse is spooked like that, that will only make things worse, as they are flight prey animals who feel the need to flee when afraid, instinctively. So don't abuse as your method there (hitting a horse with a crop when they are frightened is abuse to me) because that will only increase the fear, escalating the situation, but use prey animal psychology know-how instead to fix them, which is what natural horsemanship is all about. To learn a little more about NH and applied prey animal psychology, read my What is NH? link here: http://www.naturalhorsetraining.com/WhatIsNH.html

Back up and work on all the above, because this is about foundation holes you just don't realize are there, and they need to be plugged up -- safely on the ground first following the above routes. And you should get on better ground there quickly. Hope this helps and do let me know how it goes.