HELPING THE HORSE THAT SPOOKS

Now that we understand the horse that spooks we can help him/her overcome the fright of every little thing. In doing this we can work on introducing the horse to working past the idea that every scary thing is a horse eating monster.

Horses eye sight consist of both binocular and monocular vision.
Binocular vision is the same type of vision as humans have -focusing on one thing with both eyes at the same time. We cannot see two different views at the same time, we can only focus on one thing at a time.
When we are working in a round pen or a familiar area the horse will use the monocular vision ,which means that each eye sees a separate view at the same time. Monocular vision is why the horse cannot see directly in front of him or directly in back of him. They can't even see their own feet let alone yours or mine. This is why our horse are so comfortable in the round pen or a familiar area where we work him every day . It is almost like the effect of blinders on a horse and then we have problems with him spooking at the same things on the trail that he didn't spook at in the arena. This is in a sense a cause and effect type of thing.  In the arena he sees that he is surrounded by a fence or wall at all times .walls or fences don't move all of a sudden out of the blue. Out in the open the same bag or object we use in the arena could all of a sudden blow up under the horses legs or flap in the unexpected wind that kicked up causing a start of reaction to it flapping and the leaves moving at the same time or even the grass or weeds along the trail moving.
Now we know why our horse doesn't spook at home but spooks out on the trail , so we start working with him like we did in the arena out on the trail and in doing this we help him understand that the same bag or object isn't going to eat him just like it didn't eat him at home.
I like to work my horse in the arena and when he is exposed to different things and has built confidence within himself that it isn't going to hurt him then I take him out in the open and work with him out side where he can see every thing going on around him . If we teach the horse to keep his attention on us at all times and we teach our selves to be calm in sticky situations or when the need arises our horse will first look to us to see if we are calm and if we didn't tense up then the horse will stay calm. Horses can also feel us tense up and if we stay calm then the horse will stay calm,. He might keep one eye and ear on the thing that has him worried as we pass it by but he will listen to us and walk past it , when this happens give him words of praise or even a treat for a job well done .
I don't like to stop and let the horse look at the object that has him worried. Why because if I make a issue of it then there is something really wrong and the horse will think well maybe I should spook at it and get out of here.

1. The first and for most thing is to teach the horse a calm down cue and work on the calm down cue when you have the horse to the place of if he gets up set and all you have to do is say its ok ,or a rub on the neck with the verbal command of Its ok in a sing song voice, (I use a command of walk on this way if I'm on the trail and he gets up set all I have to do is say in a deep voice Walk On) then and only then proceed to the next step.

2. The best thing is to first teach the horse in a controlled area say a arena/round pen .

3. The next thing is what dose your horse usually spook at and go from there . Lets take a plastic bag ,Put it in the arena and work your horse like it wasn't there . Put the bag were you can walk around it coming from both directions. Remember horses can only see with one eye at a time so we have to work on both sides at all time so he can see it with each eye and you have to ignore the object at all times so you have to also teach your self to ignore things , the best thing I have found is always look ahead of me to see what is coming up and if I see a bag,rock,limb on the side of the trail I make my self ignore it other wise I can make my horse spook if I think he will spook .

4. Dogs barking , as I'm working my horse at a walk I will all of a sudden bark like a dog watch your horses signs. Ears come up first - head follows. You have to do this in a millisecond when you see the signs give him the command of Walk ON.
Use your imagination at deferent sounds . I keep a tape recorder and have dogs barking ,horns blaring . Kids yelling, you name it record it.

5. I take a rope that is 20 feet long and tie a plastic tarp to the end and take the other end and loop it around the saddle horn (don't tie it to the saddle horn)You want to be able to let it go if need be.
I start out at a walk dragging the tarp .
Horses reaction to it ,Head and ear and eye on that side will tilt toward the tarp. When this happens give the command walk on pause Walk on Walk on until he takes his head and looks forward again. Now if by chance which this should not happen if we worked on and got the calm down cues down pat and the horse responded 200 times, is if he should spook drop the rope go and give the command to walk on only this time we are going to say it in a deep mean voice ,why I say mean is it drops our voice to a deeper octave and gets the horses attention back on us quicker.
When you can pull the tarp with no reaction from the horse take up some slack keep doing this until you can drag the tarp right beside you , When you can do this go back to the first step and work on the other side of the horse,
Dragging the tarp will help the horse in realizing that if something comes up or blows across in back of him it isn't going to eat him and it also helps with a horse that when you walk behind him to get him not to kick out at every thing.

Article by Connie Beckner of Lafayette, IN

Ms. Beckner would love to hear from you! Please e-mail to her at: pocosonny@msn.com