RE: Need Vet Advice-Help?

["Snodgrass, Bonnie" <snodgrab@ncr.disa.mil>]

Gee whiz, this just sounds to me like plain old herd bound, don't want to go
away from home alone, behavior. First you say he doesn't behave this way
while with other horses. Sure, he's got the horse company he wants. Spooks,
actually spins back, always to the same side? So does my horse and most
horses I've ever ridden. They almost always spin or rollback to primarily
one side. That's natural. I'll bet these spins are likely happening while
you're going out away from home. Also, lots of horses are actually more
nervous out in open fields versus the woods, will find more excuses to spook
and spin back towards home. The head slinging is a very common Arab thing.
My mare does it a lot now a days, sort of a fiesty, opinionated, silly
thing. She didn't really do it when I got her but she came from an abusive
situation and was tense and untrusting for quite some time. Now she is a
confident, pushy pill. 
When I got her she was horrendously barn sour and herd bound. She had her
previous, abusive owner intimidated. She would do some really impressive
spins and bolts for the barn. I carried a dressage whip on the side she
would spin towards, to be ready to crack her  one on that shoulder, drove
her forward a lot (whip taps behind the leg helps here) and used a running
martingale to restrict how high she could raise her nose and head. The head
almost always comes up high just before a spook/spin and when it does a
snaffle bit becomes pretty ineffective. Shorten your stirrups a bit, move
your lower legs forward into a defensive riding position and you will have a
better chance of not being pitched over a shoulder. Ride aggressively
forward with your horse on the bit and things will improve if this is a
purely behavioral thing.

Bonnie Snodgrass

> << > Maybe you could help me with a problem I'm having with my 5 yo
> gelding. 
> He's a very forward horse, hard to get him to stand after I mount him and 
> always ready to go off at the trot immediately. I've ridden trails with
> him 
> for the past 2 years and done a few LD rides with him. Now for the first 
> time, we are training alone on roads next to open fields of crops and he's
> 
> started spooking by planting his r front foot and turning 90 degrees while
> 
> we're at a good paced trot which makes me go right over his r shoulder
> onto 
> my butt!!!! ouch. He always seems to spook with his R fore..never on his
> L. 
> When we ride with other horses he's never done this. Maybe this is a
> learning 
> curve thing and a trust issue because for the first time he doesn't have a
> 
> buddy to focus and depend on? He's got all the responsibility for bugger 
> lookout now.
>  
>  Another thing he does is sling his head to the L occasionally for no
>  apparent reason and it doesn't matter if he's in the barn or cantering.
>  He'll just all of a sudden sling his head to the L about 60 degrees or
>  so.
>  
>  Someone has suggested he might have a visual problem. Is there any way I
>  can check him for a field defecit or a spot blindness?
>  
>  Thanks again,
>  
> 


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