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Re: [RC] spooking - Diane Trefethenosberg wrote:Gee, I was thinking that more consistent time spent working with my horse would really lesson the fear of spooks. Now I'm wondering.While there are horses that have been so traumatized by a specific object, animal, person, whatever, that even after years of work there will still be legitimate fear/anxiety whenever that particular object is present, the VAST majority of spooking is a training issue, not a deep-seated psychological one. When a person honestly believes that their horse is afraid of something, they will invariably cut the horse slack whenever that something is encountered. Unless you KNOW your horse is genuinely afraid, this approach is a mistake. At best the horse will only shy at the object for the rest of its life; at worst he will spook right off a precipice some day because he reacted, AS TRAINED, to the object without thinking. My basic approach is the same as that of another horse. In pasture, when a lower ranked horse does something a higher ranked horse doesn't like, the more alpha horse will usually just pin its ears and swing its head around at the lower horse. If the lower horse doesn't react, the higher horse will repeat the message but add to the threat, perhaps by swinging its rear towards the lower ranked horse. This escalation continues till the lower ranked horse stops its "misbehavior". When my young horses have shied at logs, boulders, benches by the trail, people with huge backpacks, etc, the first few times I just laugh out loud and make them face and fully take in the "threat". Often that is enough, especially if you and your horse are fully bonded and your horse trusts you. After a few times, if the shying continues, I start to growl in disapproval and just like the alpha horse in pasture, progressively ramp up my negative reaction to the misbehavior. It never occurs to me that continued shying will be the outcome and so far, it hasn't been. Keep in mind that spooking/shying IS a misbehavior, needs to be addressed as such and should never be submissively accepted by you, the rider, the ALPHA member of the team. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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