Looking at a spookie thing

[K S Swigart <katswig@deltanet.com>]

On Wed, 27 May 1998, Cyberpony wrote:

> every spook as a training session.  When he spooks let him go back and
> investigate.  

Just to add my two cents here...
I have found that this is actually the opposite of what you want to do as
this just reaffirms to the horse that he was right to be concerned about
this thing (whatever it is).  ANd while this may teach the horse not to
spook at that particular thing (because he has seen it a million
times...and up close too, he has discovered for himself that it is of no
consequence and is now willing to pass it by without worrying about it),
but this does not translate to the next spookie thing that comes along.

Instead, what I have found works much better is to maintain the same gait
and impulsion (as much as you can) while at the same time using the
opposite rein to twitch the horse's head AWAY from whatever it was to let
the horse know that it is supposed to be paying attention to you.  You
know that the scary thing is there and it is of no consequence.  It
doesn't need looking at, it doesn't need investigating, it can be passed
without giving it a second thought.  Then, when scary things come along
you give a twitch on the reins to briefly draw the horse's attention to
the thing, and then continue on down the trail...all this without breaking
stride.

> But your most important riding partner (your horse) will thank you for the
> time that you took with him to explain the scarie stuff to him.

If you do this, then then extent of the explanation that horses need about
scary things is, "I saw it, I think it is of no consequence, you can trust
me, let us continue on down the trail."

All this, of course, presupposes that you have taught the horse to trust
you...which, btw, this exercise is a great way to develop that in your
horse.

I learned this from a jumper trainer who said, "The last thing in the
world you want to do is show your green jumper every new jump if it stops
at the jump.  The horse just learns to stop and look at every new jump.
Instead, you want to teach it to jump things it's never seen
before...without stopping."

I have found that the same principle applies to spookie things on the
trail.  If you stop, go back, investigate, show your horse, every new and
spookie thing that it encounters; the horse just learns that these are
indeed things that need to be stopped for to investigate.  What you want,
is to teach the horse that it should just ride on by....even spookie
things that it has never seen before.

kat
Orange County, Calif.

p.s.  You can use a little leg (on the same side as the spookie thing)
behind the girth to keep the horse moving forward, in addition to
reminding the horse that it is supposed to be paying attention to YOU.