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[RC] Spooking Again - RHightshoe

Many people seem to have problems with horses that spook.  When the subject
comes up on Ridecamp, quite a few people chime in with, "Me too that's what
my horse does."

So much has been written about teaching horses to better handle situations
they perceive as scary but the problem persists.  The common denominator in
the lessons appears to embrace the general ideas of ground training for
respect, sacking out, bomb proofing and ultimately creating a herd of two.
i.e. Getting the horse to trust the rider and look to the rider for
guidance whenever trouble presents itself.

A week ago I took, Sundance, one of my gaited mules to a trainer to have
him help me develop a better running walk.  I said to the man, "While you
are working with Sundance see if you can get him to trust the rider more
and not see so many spooks."  The trainer said to me, "I don't do it that
way.  This mule is ten years old and it is time he learns to trust himself
and not look to me to keep him out of trouble.  When he learns to trust
himself he can keep us both safe."  He didn't go into detail about how he
accomplishes this but I'll admit, I'm intrigued.

If you have a handle on what he is saying and how he might approach that
training I'd appreciate it if you explained the techniques to me.  I've
always used the herd of two approach but it hasn't always accomplished what
I hoped it would.  This reminds me of the popular optical illusion of the
young woman and the old woman.  One person in the picture may be obvious to
some people while someone else can see an entirely different person.  This
guy has me wondering if maybe I've been missing something obvious.

Anybody use a different process to despook their horses other than, "herd
of two" and all that it implies?  Thanks.

Bob



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