Working with the Spooky Horse

We’ve all known the horses that launch in the air over a fluttering leaf and that always see a monster in every shadow. We’ve also all known the horses that are mostly calm but have not infrequent days when they are looking to spook. Others just are bubbling over with energy, feeling a bit like an over-stuffed suitcase that will burst at any moment. These horses can be frustrating and nerve-wracking to ride, putting riders on edge that they might lose their seat and fall over the least little thing. So how can we work with these horses to have calmer, more productive rides that still keep the horse happy and in a good mental space?

Why Horses are Spooky

To work with the spooky horse, we have to understand their nature. Horses are prey animals, and for horses to have survived in the wild, they needed to be spooky. The ones who didn’t react to a legitimate threat (lions, wolves, humans, etc.) got eaten, so their genes didn’t get passed down. However, if they spooked at everything that moved, they wasted a lot of energy and risked hurting themselves, so the average wild horse will react quickly but will learn what not to react to. Now, we have bred horses to have different levels of reactivity. Working horses, like drafts and quarter horses, tend to be less reactive because you need something calmer for working the fields (drafts) or working cattle (quarter horses), while racing breeds tend to be more reactive so they can accelerate faster and win races (like thoroughbreds and Arabians). Baroque breeds, like Iberian horses and Lipizzans, tend to be somewhere in the middle because they need to be reactive to the aids for battle and bullfighting but not so reactive they were unrideable by the nobility that rode them in parades. This said, I’ve worked with hot drafts and calm Arabians, so you can’t really stereotype the breeds, but there are genetic tendencies with certain breeds, and knowing these genetic tendencies can help one be more compassionate for the horse.

Horses can also be spooky because they’re herd animals. A solitary horse is much easier for predators to pick off, whereas in a herd, the responsibility for watching out for predators is shared among multiple horses. New places also bring new threats, and while horses in a group can check it out and make sure it’s safe, a solitary horse is naturally much more on edge because of the perceived threat to their life. Over time, they can learn that we’re their token predator bodyguard and to trust us to keep them safe, but because we’re predators, it takes a lot longer to build that trust than if we were also a horse.

Equine anatomy also has an influence on spookiness. Their eyes take in a lot more data than ours do, but not at great focus (like our peripheral vision). In order to focus on something to really see what it is, they have to turn their heads to it and let their eyes focus. We’re the opposite: we have more “tunnel vision” and less peripheral, so we can very quickly look at something and evaluate it. Horses also have much better hearing and smelling than we do, and they will react to those just as they would to something they see (if they smell a lion in the wild or hear a branch crack, they’re not going to wait until they see it before they get away, as lions are great ambush predators). Wind adds a great deal of white noise and a lot of ambiguous motion, so horses naturally are going to be more anxious or reactive in the wind than they would be on a calm day.

Neurologically, they have the same basic sympathetic fear response we do (see Building Confidence). However, it’s easier for them to go into fight/flight/freeze than it is for us, and that switch can become overly sensitive. Thus, it’s easier for a horse to feel constantly stressed and as if they cannot relax, so they get ulcers, decreased immunity, and other problems (such as stereotypical behavior like weaving, pacing, cribbing, etc.). However, because they can be constantly flooded with stress, they can also go into a state of learned helplessness, in which case they become dull but can randomly re-awaken, so a horse that is in a state of learned helplessness is just as “untrustworthy” as a horse that is openly spooky.

Working With Nature

So how do we work with this? Well, the Old Masters figured out out of necessity that building trust is key. As Antoine de Pluvinel wrote: “You can never rely on a horse that is educated by fear. There will always be something that he fears more than you. But, when he trusts you, he will ask you what to do when he is afraid.” So, obviously punishing the horse for spooking is useless, just as yelling at a child who is crying because they were scared by something. Flooding the horse into learned helplessness made the horse unpredictable for battle, as it might suddenly awaken and panic. The Old Masters discovered that if a horse is truly terrified, no amount of pain will force it to obey, as adrenaline can make them numb to it. Thus, with fear, learned helplessness, and pain being out of the question, teaching them to trust us is the only option left. This can be difficult if a rider struggles with confidence as well. Imagine if you had a terrifying, giant pet dragon; you’d be pretty fearless if the dragon was calm, as it could handle most things that would come your way. Say, however, that the dragon reacted if you reacted (but you didn’t know they would), and you started to panic over a strange noise, leading the dragon to panic. In your mind, your fear is validated, because the big scary dragon is also scared, even though it’s only reacting to you. In case of horse and rider where the rider is scared of the horse spooking, the rider is the dragon.

Therefore, the first step is to get ourselves out of fight/flight and to practice doing so in order to strengthen that ability to get back into parasympathetic mode. The next is then to consistently reassure the horse calmly when it does spook or at the minimum ignore the spook. Try not to overdo it; if you start going over the top with reassuring, it can make things worse. If a child falls on the playground (uninjured) and you react with “Oh no! Are you okay? Oh my goodness! Oh, dear!” the child is going to cry because you’re making a big deal of the fall. If they fall and aren’t hurt and you just calmly say, “It’s okay; you’re alright,” they may sniffle from the fear but will get over it faster. Same with the horse.

One mistake I see a lot of riders make is they keep the horse from looking at things. This keeps them from evaluating the potentially scary thing, and they tend to panic harder because they didn’t get a good look at it. It can also have the paradoxical effect of making them want to look harder because you said not to (I sometimes call this the “What’s in the box?” effect… if you’ve seen Se7en or at least the memes from it, you know what I’m talking about). Let them look! Pat them, reassure them that it’s not a big deal, and move on. Over time, they’ll realize nothing bad happened, and they’ll learn to move on faster and look less often. Remember, if you punish them when they’re afraid, you’re only validating the fear.

If your horse consistently spooks at one area (like a chair in the corner of the arena), don’t force it to stay by that area. Their distance vision is a lot better than their near vision. Instead, go to a safe spot in the arena and gradually work closer so they can see the spooky object at different angles at a distance they can feel safe at and see better at until you gradually ease yourself closer to it. Work at a certain distance until they relax before shrinking that distance. Once you conquer one object, start adding others and start the process over. You’ll find that your horse starts to react less and less, not because he’s desensitized to everything but because he’s starting to trust that if you’re not scared, he’s safe.

In case of a total meltdown, try to resist the urge to keep them still. This will shift them from flight to fight. Remember, they’re not thinking at this stage: they’re reacting. You’re not going to make them calm down by getting rid of a fear response option. That doesn’t mean to let them bolt, but it does mean to try to direct that urge to move. If you’re in a dangerous place with it, make yourself safe by whatever means necessary. However, if you have some control, start distracting the horse by letting it move but in a pattern. Patterns are powerful for calming both horse’s and rider’s minds. This way, the horse can still move and still kept at a safe distance, but it will start to think about what it’s doing instead of what the scary thing is. Certain movements also have a neurological effect to help the horse be confident. Remember how we can do that ourselves (see Confidence)? We can with the horse too. However, to go into those specific postures is complicated and requires a lot more detail. So, while I’m touching on these ideas here, there will be an eBook posted in our store soon that goes into greater detail about specific patterns and exercises that can help horse and rider overcome spookiness.

In Summary

To put it in one sentence: fixing a spooky horse requires earning its trust. While this sounds daunting, it is entirely possible. If you feel like you’ve already messed up and the horse doesn’t trust you, it’s okay! Horses are incredibly forgiving and can learn to trust you, even if you’ve made mistakes that damage that trust. The simplest way to develop trust is to learn to control your own sympathetic response and then to calmly reassure your horse that everything is okay. Adding patterns to distract your horse can help speed this process up, and over time, your horse will react less and less, not because it’s desensitized to everything but because it trusts you. I am putting together an eBook that goes into greater detail on specific patterns and tools to help with building trust and decreasing spookiness, both on the ground and under saddle, and if you’re looking for more detailed assistance in this area, please check it out! Your horse will thank you, and you’ll start enjoying your riding journey so much more.

-Emily Wright