Calm and collected in the field, hot, hyper, spooky and nervous on a ride.

by Connie
(Mississippi, USA)

I bought my TB paint mare - Allie - last January. She stands 17 hands, will be 9 in April and is an absolute BEAUTY! Allie had been used in the jumper/hunter world for a long time. BUT, I was assured she had also been rode western, bareback, had children as well as inexperienced adults ride her. I grew up riding horses - from 5 yrs of age till I was in my early 20's. Being out of the saddle for so many years didn't alarm me and trusting what I was told at the time of purchase definitely didn't make me feel I needed to be alarmed.

So anyways, when I got her home and acquainted with my freebie filly, and had all these dreams of riding of into the sunset and LOVING every minute of it. Well, the first day out, she threw me....ok....probably my fault, laughed it off, checked saddle, bridle, etc. all is good....get back on and off we go. Next time, we did better...next time here she goes again. At this point I'm beginning to have some SERIOUS doubts regarding this horse so I started asking questions. Back to the previous owner who of course stated "NO, she never bucked" then onto a lady who had her for 6 weeks prior to me (which was TOTAL news) and she confirmed yes she did buck (raising eyebrows now) then to the trainer that trained her and as soon as I mentioned the horse she just had to go...but promised to call me back. She won't take my calls and has yet to return them. And last but not least I tracked down the lady who bought her as a two yr old from the breeder in Texas who laughed at me when I told her I was using her as a horse.....no jumping....no running...no being confined to the arena...just riding, camping, trailing, spending time with the family and teaching my children the love and thrill of having horses.

I have taken her on trails....the first couple of times she acted as though the trees were going to eat her and the birds and leaves were ground monsters just waiting to pounce on her. We've taken her on organized rides and she does fair as long as there are no wagons, donkeys, mules, music, other horses....etc...you get the picture. She is very nervous, anxious, seems to forget EVERYTHING she has been taught and just goes into plain overdrive! I've never seen a horse lope in place till I saw her doing it! Very pretty, but not so nice while on her back!! I'm sure some has to do with her breeding...she dates back to Man O War and her sire is still in competition today and has won World Champion many times.

I do warm her up before riding. It consists of flexing, disengaging, lunging, making her change directions, backing, making her stand still. I've tied bags and bells to her saddle, played loud music, let a lead rope bounce off her butt, have her go over a huge blue tarp...she does all this very well.....but as soon as I get on her, she's a total different horse! She constantly chomps the bit, swishes her tail, has started bobbing her head and the list goes on. The only time I can remember that she did not do these things was when we rode in the woods and the terrain was very hilly....she had to work more, but that was about 2 1/2 hrs from my house.

I rode her last weekend for about an hour in our property then down the road...she shied at makings on the blacktop, at trees, at shrubs, at paper at water...basically everything out there! She has bolted with me before and that is one of my biggest fears with her because she is so big and so quick! She's quick to flee then check it out.

I've heard about horses being right/left brained and introvert/extrovert. Based on what I've read so far she is DEFINITELY RT brained Extrovert!!

So how do I get through to her? I have my suspicions she has been abused in the past and has a trust issue. I've had a guy work and ride her and he says she just needs lots of miles put on her, well, if I can't get her past a foot, how do I get her past a mile? My husband is pressing me to sell her, but I don't want to give up on her. I'm lost here and not sure what I need to do, what I can do and what can be done.


Please help - both of us!!

Sincerely,

Connie and Allie


Hi Connie (and Allie),

You are correct in deducing that Allie is a Right Brained, Extroverted horse that has experienced NOT to trust people. Now combine that with her sensitivity and fear level and you have a bomb ready to ignite at the drop of a hat (which you have unfortunately discovered while flying through the air!).

What I hear in all of this is Allie being subjected to a lot of traditional (do it or else) training methods to MAKE her do the tasks set upon her. She lacked understanding the entire way thus created the means (behaviors) to escape, like bucking, jigging, spooking, anxiety etc. On her part it’s all about information overload which created tons of fear in the end. We can’t undo her experiences of the past but we can put better information over top of old bad information. Once the new information and experiences outweigh the old ones she will react differently. It’s time for you to do the opposite of what everyone else has done.

When I come across these types of horses I have 2 main goals in mind. One is to assure the horse that I am not going to hurt them whereby gaining their trust so that they will look to me for safety and comfort. The other is to help them become brave in the process. The only way to accomplish this is through good quality time spent on the ground and using positive reinforcement methods only. The entire time I am building a new language for this horse to “learn” to make decisions on their own. In other words I need the horse to believe it was their idea and not mine. That is how they learn to become confident and brave.

Offering more consideration as to what horses want to do rather than what we want them to do solves many dilemmas. Riding off into the sunset is what we humans find wonderful, but for a horse, staying close to safety and food is what they would like to do! Making a game out of what we want to do rather than making them “do” lunging, standing still or putting miles on them is not building a trusting relationship. Chomping at the bit (we do not advocate bits of any kind); tail swishing, bobbing heads are all indications of training gone in the wrong direction with misunderstandings. Poor Allie is running primarily on adrenaline caused by her past fearful experiences.

Getting back to basics and finding the holes in her training is necessary. Discover all the things she can do well and concentrate on those often. That way you have something to ask her that is easy for her to do which brings calmness and confidence back for her. Introduce and learn Clicker Training and particularly targeting. Then I would make a game out of it while taking her for a walk (you unmounted) down the road and seeing all the things she can target with her nose. (Don’t go any further than the first thing she finds scary. Then go home and come back again (it could be the next day) until you see her confidence build)

Never scold a horse for being afraid. Horses are born skeptical and some are bigger cowards than others (in our eyes and definition of the word) but these qualities are what helped horses survive over all these centuries. So do the opposite. When a horse shows fear to an object I comfort them, stroking their neck, speaking softly and then retreat from the object. Reintroduce targeting something they are familiar with and then re-approach when their confidence has risen.

Here’s the best secret of all. Often times we try to solve a behavior by looking only at the end of the behavior, for example a horse that’s bucking. We think it’s the buck that is the problem. But the truth is that’s the end result not the original problem to address. The original problem would be the understanding and confidence of the horse not the behavior itself. So when I help a horse to become more confident and targeting does just that, it’s not about the horse touching things with their nose, it’s about the “confidence” to touch something with their nose (hear the difference?). Then what often happens is the behavior to buck falls away on its own. I see this time and time again.


Elaine Polny
Training Horses Naturally