Training Tips

QUESTION: I have spoken to you about my horse several times and am looking for some advice here. My horse and I have worked thru your 12 steps and he did very well with the exception of being spooky and I feel I haven't done a good enough job in this area and was hoping you might be able to offer some advice and it might just be that I need to go back to the ground and do more desensitizing to various items. While out riding, my horse spooks at things; he doesn't bolt, but he literally jumps right out from under you. Some horses just skittish sideways, but my horse actually jumps with all four feet sideways and I don't have a good seat and end up on the ground. The bad thing here is that you really don't know what he even spooked at. Over the weekend I was riding him and he spooked and reared up and off I went and I have no idea what scared him, he has never reared with me before, usually just scoots out from underneath of me. I have gotten to the point with him other things he is afraid of he will try to smell from a distance, like while riding there was a cement drainage thing he was afraid of, he didn't jump away from it but was curious. So you just don't know when he is going to actually spook to the point of jumping out from underneath you. So should I just go back on the ground and desensitize him to anything I can think of and be creative here to just continue to raise his confidence? And if this is something you suggest, can you make some suggestion of items to desensitize to. Just hard when you don't really know what he is spooking at! I do appreciate any help you can provide here. I feel like I have let my horse down in this area because of maybe not enough desensitizing and maybe him not looking to me as the leader here? Not really sure. My husband wants to sell him, says I am going to get hurt but I have taken him thru all the 12 steps and we have come a very, very long way and I just hate to give up on him when I feel responsible for not helping him thru this. Any help you can suggest would be much appreciated.

REPLY: Yeah, returning to desensitizing ground work should help. But I also wanted to direct you to a video you can get that might help you further there with this issue, because it deals with totally bombproofing a horse, which could be very helpful when dealing with super-spooky horses where routine desensitizing just isn't enough: http://www.positivelyriding.com/catalog/item/2643181/2136196.htm

Also, this might be helpful to you as well: http://www.horsesjustwannahavefun.com/video.html

You also might think about searching in your area for police-type bomb-proofing programs that you and your horse could participate in. Maybe using the internet to search for that around you, and networking with others around you, as well as contacting any nearby police mounted patrol units to find where such a clinic might be, would help.

Here's a bulletin board link with a string of ideas too: http://www.horsegroomingsupplies.com/horse-forums/help-bombproofing-ideas-needed-46579.html

And here's a book on the subject that might help you there: http://www.amazon.com/Bombproof-Your-Horse-Confident-Encounter/dp/1570762600

Hope this helps!