06/10/2023
Addressing Spooky Items 👻
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve ridden a bad spook or taken a nasty fall over the dumbest things like a tarp or plastic bag blowing in the wind. Instead of addressing the scary item, many people will avoid the spooky tarp or ‘evil corner’ of the arena to save themselves the trouble of a blow up. Unfortunately that only solidifies your horses stance on the item or area…avoidance becomes the correct answer.
The trouble is that many people think big $$ will = no spook. They either don’t have the time, understanding, or the desire to train spooking issues. A lot of horses we ride (even the very nice, expensive ones) are not desensitized to basic barn items until it comes time to put a saddle on them at the age of 2 or 3. By that age, many young horses have their mind made up about certain things and a large part of their general personality is developed. They may have experienced traumas in the pasture or stall that leave them worried about otherwise normal things. They may have gotten caught up in fencing and now panic when they feel pressure or slipped and fell in some water and now they are convinced that’s where dragons live. Whatever it may be, it often is out of our control until they are in our care years later.
Bodhi is the first horse I’ve raised since he was a baby. Because I have spent the better half of my riding career ridding everyone’s spooky, flighty horses, I promised myself that I would one day find a way to either buy or make my own horse…my way. Well this boy fell into my lap after an vendor couldn’t pay me for lessons (which was sadly a common occurrence) and I traded 2 weeks pay for a stringy little grade c**t she didn’t want. If you know me this isn’t shocking at all to acquire other peoples throw-aways. Since he was weaned, I have spent months exposing him to everything I can think of. Trucks, chickens, bouncy houses, broken shade awnings (Thanks Otto), tire swings, kites…the list goes on. Bodhi is a naturally cautious but curious horse and he often shys away from things before he makes an effort to investigate. I would consider him one of the more level headed horses I’ve owned. One thing he has been, to my standards, overly cautious of is tarps. Typically when I am working through a spooky item I will have the horse in hand and guide them towards it the item and allow them to investigate it. If they try to leave I have some control to help redirect them when they are ready. But with Bodhi and tarps there was no way he was going near a tarp in-hand. Being a strong yearling c**t I knew I needed a new strategy that wasn’t going to traumatize him or get my hurt.
I put the tarp on the fence and left him alone in the round pen. He spent 20 minutes avoiding it and spooking any time it moved. Once he relaxed, had his head down and seemed unbothered by the flapping blue death tarp, I started to lunge him like I do every day and eventually he made an effort to get closer to the tarp. I never put pressure when he was making an effort. I lunged him like it wasn’t even there. If he wanted to stop and walk towards it then that’s what he was allowed to do. Within 10 minutes of me allowing him to do his own thing at his own pace, he had picked it up with his mouth dragged it around and and then walked over it on his own. Shortly after this was the result…happily cantering over the blue tarp of death.
The moral of the story is that young or old, cheap or expensive every horse is going to find something scary at one point or another. It’s our job to react accordingly to make them feel heard and safe. Avoiding an issue will only solidify your horse’s intuition to be scared of that item and reinforce that behavior. When in doubt, let your horse figure it out on their own. Put them in a small round pen or paddock when they can’t hurt themselves and put the item in there with them. I find that we often spend too much time forcing them to not be scared when really they need to figure it out for themselves. There is no learning in force.
-TM
