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My arab was a "spook without warning" kind of guy.  I hit the ground many 
times before I even knew he had spooked.  I broke my shoulder really badly 
once from a spook on the trail at a walk?

So, when I would work him in the arena, there would be times when he would 
be leery of one of the corners?so I stayed away from there so we could work 
safely.  Then he became spooky with another corner?so I stayed away from 
there.  I really didn?t want to get dumped and hurt.  He was like that on 
the trail at times and so I avoided that part of the trail or really hung on 
tightly going through there.  This didn?t happen all the time, but enough 
that I modified what we did based on his spookiness.

Then I was shown how to retrain a horse?s reaction to spooking.  The spook 
is still there but it is safer for the rider.  I trained him to react to 
scary things by putting his head down and holding still.

First step: I put him on a lead, and from the ground I took a lunge type 
whip and smacked the ground near him, never hitting him.  I stood in a 
casual position, sometimes pretending not to look at him while I was causing 
this ruckus. (But I kept a close eye on him.) He moved all over trying to 
avoid the whip, while wondering what I was doing.  (For really sensitive 
horses, start small, but enough to get an uncomfortable reaction.  Hold 
their head close enough so they won?t spin and kick you, but loose enough so 
that they can react and try to avoid the stimulus.)

   Once he sort of dropped his head, I IMMEDIATELY stopped. (For the horse 
that just squirms and never offers to drop his head, you might have to pull 
down on the lead rope and reward the instant he drops.) If he lifted his 
head up, I started again.  TIMING is really important here.  Then once he 
figured out that the way to avoid the scary stimulus was to drop his head, I 
waited until he dropped his head lower before I stopped.  This is tricky, 
it?s easy to erase what he has learned if the timing is off.  Once he would 
drop his head to the ground, he had passed step one.

Next lesson I reviewed the above, and he was quick to drop his head.  So, I 
started swinging the lunge whip over my head and slapping it on each side of 
him whenever he lifted his head.  I would slap on the left of him, then slap 
on the right without a pause.  Scary stimulus continues when his head is up, 
peace when his head is down.  I would stand there for 5 minutes waiting 
quietly as long as his head was dropped.  When it became clear that he was 
not going to lift his head, I would stop the lesson.  Or I would try another 
stimulus like slapping the whip against the metal barn wall, or flapping a 
plastic bag, or tarp against his side or neck, moving with him as he tried 
to avoid me.  Again, the instant he dropped his head, everything stopped.

Next step: I would lunge him in the arena and work him hard.  Once he looked 
like he would like to rest.  I would walk him, still lunging him around me, 
to the area of the arena in which he usually spooked.  If he was calm, he 
stopped and rested.  If he got excited and silly, he would continue to lunge 
until he was calm enough to rest.  Once stopped, if he spooked, instantly 
back to work on the circle.  If he was calm and stood well, I would stand 
casually and let him rest for 5 minutes, then start the slapping game.  If 
he dropped his head, I would IMMEDIATELY stop, praise him, and then put him 
away.

Last step: Once I felt safe enough, I would ride him in the "safe" part of 
the arena, and when it was time to rest, take him to the spooky area and 
stop.  If he spooked or acted up, then back to work in the other part of the 
arena, then later we would try again to see if he would rest quietly in the 
spooky places.   I would be sure not to slow down until we were at the 
spooky rest area.  If he was quiet, I would get off and put him away.

I found that this work really translated to his being safer on the trails.  
He is braver and thinks things through, rather than being reactive.  This 
took us some time.  It?s not an instant fix, but it didn?t take months 
either.  Instead of spooking every month or two, he now spooks every year or 
two and he spooks with his feet in place rather than the shoulder shattering 
spin of yester -year.

Hope this suggestion helps.

Nina Vasiliev

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