ridecamp@endurance.net: Re: Spooking

Re: Spooking

Elisa Eshbaugh (eshbaugh@avicom.net)
Thu, 04 Sep 1997 08:12:38 -0600

Who can resist this topic? As I read through the answers one thin that
struck me is all the different approaches. I would have found the
preponderance of advise very confusing had I not been addressing all sorts
of problems, spooking among them, with my new mare. In my case, I bought a
stunning 1/2 arab whose deep palomino coloring had won her considerable
favoritism in our area (i.e. she was spoiled). I was told she was the
prettiest horse in the valley by several people who couldn't believe I had
been able to buy her. After years of having my old horse laughed at for his
shaggy appearance I kind of believed the press on my horse and over looked
her misbehavior. Besides, I thought she was "well trained". She had always
done very well in the show ring despite being an Arab in QH horse country.
The judges liked her because she didn't look "too Arab". Her previous owner
had so many horses that she literally took Golden out just for shows. I
thought I was buying a horse that, at eight years old with a lot of show
experience, would easily make the transition into distance riding as a
welcome change. What a fool I was!
I began to call her problem Equine Attention Deficit Disorder since she
mostly ignored me. Then she began these uncontrollable spooks. I felt very
powerless because my training experience was with starting young foals and
when I tried my lots of love approach it failed. I eventually realized that
this horse had always gotten a lot of breaks because of her appearance and
she was only going to get worse. Having been through a year of nurturing my
old horse before his death, I desperately wanted to get back on the trail.
Realizing that under the scrutiny of the previous owner (who owned the
boarding facility) I had to fight a lot of expectations and that this mare
had a strong attachment to her herd, it seemed logical to move for a few
months.
At the new stable I met a young trainer who started working VERY cheaply
with me on teaching me how to train my horse. I hate to insult him in the
wake of the up & coming Redford film, but he is more or less a "horse
whisperer". Well to make a VERY LONG story short, after a few months
working together I have moved that wonderfully beautiful horse back to her
old stable (and scene of the crime) and she is doing great. She fusses
about being separated from her old pasture mates, but when I get close to
her, she stops her nonsense and listens to me. I learned from this trainere
that there are times to face the "spook" and times to ignore it. The
numerous pieces of advise that proceed this message are all so right even
though they seem different; it just takes some experience to know what to
apply when. I for one, lacked that experience because I had ridden the same
reliable sweet horse for 23 of his 30 years. If the author of the original
message is still in a quandary, I suggest they seek out someone like I
found. Here in Bozeman, there are many good trainers to learn from think,
so don't limit yourself to John Lyons, no offense to him.

Good luck! e2

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