SPOOKING

At sixteen years of age I quit normal school and entered the school of hard knocks (don’t get any ideas kids, I now have two degrees). August found me on a small dirt and stone cat trail that wound its way through central Yukon to who knows where. A semi load of horses had wound its way up from a horse sale in Saskatchewan to a remote staging ground on the Canol road. The cowboys and guides had spent the last few days breaking and shoeing horses. In those days ‘breaking’ was the accurate term as ‘join up’ had no relative meaning between people and horses. Maybe with miners, trappers, and guides at the Whitehorse Inn Pub.
We saddled up and packed up and hit the trail for some high mountain passes and base camp at a remote lake. If I’d known what was in store I probably would have walked. The outfitter gave me a sturdy palomino mare who had pretty round eyes, but the devil in her heart. I have had an aversion to blondes ever since. An hour or so into the trip I removed my cheap poncho rain slicker from behind the saddle seat and attempted to put it on. A breath of wind lifted it like a sheet of newspaper, rattling it alongside the horse’s head. Well, I did not know a horse could jump so high, like flying without wings, and when it came down just space between me and the horse and the rocky Yukon trail. It hurt. And I don’t care what they say about keeping courage and showing the horse no fear and getting back on again, I would have walked all day and the next but for the fact that I had lost face with the cowboys, what little I had, and so I got on again, and got bucked off a couple of more times that day. That horse looked for reasons to spook, and it was a major problem for me, but no problem at all for the horse!
Problem solving with your trail horse’s faults can be a challenging and frustrating experience. I am both an optimist and a skeptic when confronted with a horse and its problems, depending on the problem, and more important, depending on the nature of the horse and the person trying to solve the problem. Horses are like people, they come with all sorts of mental and emotional baggage.
I wonder if a therapist after a couple sessions working with a serious claustrophobic offers a money back guarantee that they will not fall to pieces if they happen to get locked in a closet.
I have successfully helped horses though all sorts of difficulties from spooking to crossing water to bucking and pulling. I am not ashamed to admit that I have given up on some horses that seemed to have their problems deeply seated. There comes a point when a horse convinces the trail rider that it will improve to a point, or hide the problem, but that it will not entirely lose it, and for our purposes trail horses must be completely reliable. It is no fun riding while sitting on pins and needles wondering if your horse will spook, buck, or pull back the next time you tie him.
First, we need to remind ourselves that we are working with the mind of a prey animal. Genetically installed fear and flight is a matter of survival. Before getting involved with round pen work and training to remove spook, we need to build trust. Friendly contact in a controlled environment, particularly if the horse is fresh off the field and has not had much human contact. And second, true join-up, the horse needs to have truly submitted to our control.
You absolutely must be the dominant being in the trail horse’s life, otherwise why would the horse respect your command when you ask it to cross a stream? Why would it follow your cues and ride past an object it is afraid of? If a rider does not control a horse in the round pen, on a lunge line, or with riding and other groundwork, why would that person have control if the horse is in a stressful circumstance where its mind is telling it to react in order preserve itself? Trust, confidence, and responding to your demands is the result of providing a comfort zone with your presence and you being the dominant being. Of course, what we are saying is that you must have completed true join up.
So again, before trying to cure any problem make sure that the horse is comfortable with your presence, that you have enjoyed complete join-up in the round pen or on a lunge line, and that the horse is responding softly when you apply pressures (cues), even if these are simple cues like asking to give its face softly, moving over, backing up, etc. Now, you have really got the horse’s mind on your side and half of your problem should be solved. If you tie objects to horses and chase them around or tie noisy objects to the horse and let them buck it out or ride them to buck them out before creating a soft mind, then you are asking for trouble, and worse, you may create problems that may never get fixed.
Horses find a surprising number of ways to spook. Some do not like white rocks, some do not like black stumps or roots, some are terrified of vehicles and bicycles, some freak out at a chocolate bar wrapper or a pop can, and others are just paranoid of everything.
Some horses seem to have moods where they ignore an object one day then become convinced that it is the death of them the next.
Once you have completed round pen work and the horse is calm, soft and under your control, it is a good idea to completely desensitize the horse at home before hitting the trails. This should have been done when the horse was two years old or sooner. In a sense, you are working the ‘spook’ out of your horse before you ride.
First, be sure that your horse accepts your touch and gentle rubbing over its entire body. Begin at the shoulder area and rub the shoulder, neck, and back, before proceeding to the girth, groin, tail, and ear areas. Be gentle and use common sense. Do not get yourself in the way of danger. I like the horse to accept the blunt end of a whip as a friend by gently rubbing them with it on their shoulders and back. Then, when you progress to the groin and rear area, you can work at desensitizing without getting kicked. Once the horse accepts a few rubs then quit, as a reward for accepting the procedure. Don’t keep pushing it on them. Continue in another area. Be gentle around the ears and under the tail. Once the horse is calm with your hands or the blunt end of a whip or a soft jacket, you can progress to something noisy like a piece of plastic. See Blue Creeks Trail Riding. Packing and Training manual for a complete description of desensitizing.
Hanging noisy objects from the saddle like a plastic jug with stones in it or dragging a piece of plastic behind the horse to get the horse used to spooky objects should never be attempted unless the horse is already desensitized and familiar with those objects. It needs to be done in stages and in a controlled environment. Dragging an object can be a fearful experience but the truth is that, sooner or later, a trail horse will have something dragging off it on the trail, maybe a coat or a pack tarp or a rope or who knows what. I want the horse to get used to the experience at home, so that there may be some surprise but no mad dash. If you drag an object behind a horse for the purpose of desensitizing the horse, then do it in stages and in the controlled environment of a sturdy round pen. Start with soft friendly objects like an old coat. Be sure that the rope you use to drag the object is at least ten feet long behind the horse, so that it is not kicking at the object as it walks out. The object needs to soft and as nonthreatening as possible.
When your horse spooks or shies at an object on the trail you are better off continuing to ride past, or slightly around the object, rather than trying to force the horse’s nose into the object. When the horse rides past he feels a sense of relief from his successful passing and his confidence rises because it did not attack him. In other words, you are focusing beyond the fearful object rather than on it, and the horse will sense this. Now, ride a loop and go back past the object, slightly closer. Continue until you ride close by with little or no reaction from the horse. If you ride directly at the object and force the horse into it, you are setting yourself up for a battle. If the horse wins the battle, it is confirmation that fighting was worth it as he was able to find a release by leaving the object. These types of battles also help to create a stiff mouthed trail horse.
In time, the horse realizes that he is made to do more work if he shies, and he learns that an object is never as bad as he thought. If you forced the horse straight to the frightful object it escalates the fear and sets up a battle between the rider and horse. When you do finally leave, the message may be that his resistance has paid off because he was allowed to leave the object. If you feel that you need to bring him to the object, then dismount and lead him there and spend some time there until he gets comfortable.
Many riders like a dominant horse up front on a trail ride. If the dominant horse has confidence and is a good lead horse then a horse following behind, who normally would have shied at an object, will often ride along with no fear. However, dominant horses who have unreasonable fears can give their riders big battles when they spook because they are used to being in control.
The rider’s body language is important when riding a spooky horse. A fearful rider is tense, and the horse can sense this tension and fear. Because the horse is looking for the rider to be relaxed and provide control, direction and security, and because it is a fear animal and you are alpha, the horse depends on you for confidence. If you do not have it, it will become confused, lose confidence, lose trust, and may take control and react to the fear full situation in an exaggerated manner.
Trail riders need to remind themselves that the reason they trail ride is to enjoy the trails and not to problem solve with difficult horses, and work to that end. If the rider lacks confidence, then finding a confident trail horse is the ticket. Simply getting out regularly and riding our horse will do wonders for their confidence and yours. Taking your horse on a one week or longer pack trip can do wonders for your trail horse and they often lose many fears including a fear or crossing water and a fear of strange objects, providing that the horse is not simply high maintenance and foolish. You know what they say – horse like rider! It must be true, looking out the window at this moment I cannot see any blondes.

Happy Trails!

What has spooking got to do with round pen join up? Everything! If you are not alpha, dominant, with the horse willingly responding to your commands, then why would a horse, a prey animal whose survival depends of fear and flight, behave or respond properly when you ask it to approach a scary object, stand while a tarp is rubbed over its back, stand still with lash ropes wrapped around its legs?
Also read the article INSTINCTS

HAPPY TRAILS!

I have no idea why Christine is smiling as they drape a tarp over my packhorses head, except that she finds it funny that our bombproof packhorses are just that agreeable. Your horses need to be completely desensitized before you head out. I cringe when someone says, “…. it's not trained yet but we’ll just use it as a packhorse this trip….” It happens more often than you might believe.

Desensitizing is a process that you should practice for the life of the horse. It can be fun. Having your horse get used to a variety of scary situations will make the next scary item just become another toy on the farm.

Desensitizing is best begun when the horse is a foal, part of the imprinting process if you wish, but it needs to be done properly.

The list of what spooks horses is long and varied, including dogs, bikers, autos, grouse, pop cans, candy wrappers, wasp nests, tarps, rain gear, stones and boulders, other riders, sticks that look like bears, mules, dragging ropes and clothing, your cell phone ringing, etc. etc. But worst the worst spook ever, in my lifetime, was when our string of 12 horses rode along a remote trail, with me at the back. They all went crazy - exploded in all directions …………. guess what?????? Two Llamas led by two nice older ladies!