# Trail riding the easily startled horse...



## kiltsrhott (Mar 11, 2012)

I haven't had a lot of opportunity to trail ride in the past as previous boarding stables did not always have trail access. Where my horse is now has plenty of options for trail rides and rides outside the area. For those of you that trail ride on a regular basis, how did you go about desensitizing your horse to the unexpected on the trails? My horse has been on a few short trails rides before, and she's generally very good away from home and outside the arena. She's not really afraid of things that I present to her, but if she is startled by an animal jumping out in front of her or an engine backfire, or something that is completely unexpected for the both of us, she just leaves. She sits down and bolts and there goes my horse. There's no time to react or one rein stop her, she's just gone in an instant. What methods can be used to get a horse used to unexpected sights and sounds (without them completely stressing out or becoming wary of you)? I have heard that it is possible to train your horse to "spook in place". Is this true and what exercises would you recommend to get my horse to keep her cool when something unexpected happens?


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## amberly (Dec 16, 2012)

With my horses I take anything and everything I can to work with my horse on. Plastic bags, ribbons, flags, weeds, tarps, sticks, water bottles, etc.

On Chocky's first trail ride ever we found out he was scared of water bottles when my mom took a drink and the bottle went, crackle crackle! Chocky skittered sideways and my moms water was suddenly empty, ahaha!! As she rode she made the sounds more often and when he least expected it and also worked with him in the arena a few days after and he got pretty good with it!!

There were some logs and the water and rocks and sand and such that he was afraid to walk over, but when another horse just waltzed on over it he saw that he didn't get eaten and walked over it like it was nothing.
When we came across something he was unsure of, we would either 1. stop and let him investigate or 2. ignore the object and make him keep walking on.
We went trail ridin on the reservior beach and there was a place where ever step the horse took he sunk to his knees and hocks. He was unsure but we kept him moving and he didn't mind it too much. We walked long side them instead of riding.

So just bring anything you might see on the trail and work with him on it. If you ride the trail and come across a scary object then 
1. ignore it and ask him to continue walking on. If he doesn't want to walk on, make him work more by doing circles and backing. My horse wouldn't go forward once, so I turned him around and we backed the trail for quite a while. Then he said he would be good and we walked straight again.
and
2. Let him stop and investigate.

Good luck and I hope this helped!


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## Oreos Girl (May 24, 2011)

Going with a seasoned trail horse is a big help to start out.


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## BornToRun (Sep 18, 2011)

My gelding is like that, except he's scared of everything ... 

I do a lot of ground work with him on the trails. I lunge him, I bring things that makes noise and it has helped a lot. I know quite a few people may think it's all quackery, but I've also been getting into aroma therapy with him. Two that re supposed to be good for calming horses is Lavender and Cedarwood. He likes Lavender the best, but the Cedarwood seems to give off better results.


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## Darrin (Jul 11, 2011)

Work on desensitizing your horse in the stable. There are both videos and books available that show things you can do. These are generally easy to do and wont cost much like sacking them out and making them walk over a tarp. As your horse settles down and gains trust you can get more involved like tossing a tarp over the top of them and dragging it back off again. 

Now for the trail. First and foremost your horse is watching/feeling you in that saddle. That means she's taking clues from you so if you expect your horse to jump and prepare yourself for that jump your horse will look for a reason to jump because you think there's a reason to jump. Got that? Ok, so you have to force yourself to relax no matter what the situation. By relax I mean show no outward signs you're prepared for anything. No tension in your legs, no tension on the reins no tension in your butt, no tension. The trick is to be ready for anything but not transmit that readiness to your horse. The second you tighten up because you spot something that might spook your horse is the signal for your horse to spook. By not tightening up it tells your horse nothing to see here, move on.

Also they are watching where you watch so if your head is on a swivel, stop it. When you are rubber necking going down the trail your horse starts thinking there's a bad reason your on such high alert. So your horse starts looking under every brush, tree and blade of grass for monsters. The trick here is to look with your eyes but not your head. Keep your head pointed down trail at all times.

So we move onto desensitizing during rides. I start small and move up using whatever happens to come my way on the trail. See a branch hanging over the trail, pull it a bit and let it snap back. As she settles down with that pull branches harder. Break off a small branch and start swinging it around in small motions. As she settle down with that get bigger branches and bigger motions. Grab a small dead branch, break it off in small pieces and toss them past her head. As she settles down toss bigger pieces and toss them farther. See what I'm doing here? Use whatever comes your way on a trail, start small and work up in size/motion until your horse no longer reacts. 

Another thing to work on is leadership. When a horse is out front of a "herd" or alone they are the lookout so are more alert to what's going on around them. So you have to work with them both in front and behind other riders.


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## Herosbud (Dec 14, 2013)

I like the post from Oreos Girl about going out with a seasoned horse on the trail. I would go one step further and recommend that you avoid going with another horse that spooks a lot. Spookiness is transmitted from one horse to another in my opinion.


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## bsms (Dec 31, 2010)

I recommend this sticky thread (now at 139 likes):

http://www.horseforum.com/horse-training/how-we-train-fearless-trail-horse-99776/

"_There's no time to react or one rein stop her_"

There generally is time, but not much. Sometimes there is a slow buildup of pressure, when you are going toward something the horse is aware of and not happy about. Sometimes it is pretty much instantaneous, like a garage door opening at a house, or an invisible pink rhino spotted by your horse. But even then, there is a brief moment where the horse gathers itself and either leaps forward or spins around. By some magical method I've never quite figured out, you need to be relaxed enough to give your horse confidence, but alert enough to catch the horse in that brief moment of time.

A hard 180 can help if done before the horse is fully moving forward. Lots of folks like a ORS, although I'm not a huge fan. I think switching to a curb bit helped me, but a lot of folks will tell you that means I'm a terrible rider/person. I think it also helps to work on your horse's stop while in a non-threatening environment. After all, if your horse's stop isn't immediate and correct when trotting in an arena, you can't expect him to stop well when scared almost out of his mind. Practicing stops by the hundreds and even thousands - and good stops, not sloppy ones - can eventually build up a habit of obedience that even fear won't overcome. If the horse has to think 'this means stop', then the response isn't automatic enough to help you with a spook. It needs to be such a strong habit that the horse will do it without any thought at all. In a true bolt, IMHO, horses don't think - but they will respond to very strong habit patterns.

At that point, when your horse stops in spite of its fear, it soon learns that the scary thing goes away when it stops...and thus it learns to stop instead of bolt. At least, that is my experience with ONE horse who bolted a lot. Cherie's advice in the thread linked above is based on vastly greater experience. The first time I read it, I thought it was hooey...but that hooey keeps looking better and better with time...:wink: ...to me and 138 others!


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## kiltsrhott (Mar 11, 2012)

I really like that sticky thread! And the aroma therapy idea is interesting. I've never thought of it before. Maybe I'll try it out of sheer curiosity!

I'm pretty sure the inevitable is just going to be exposure, even if I end up on the ground once or twice. The thing is, I have desensitized her in an arena, at shows, and even on trails. She's not afraid of tarps, blankets, water bottles, hula hoops, kids, dogs, cats, people running around in bright crinkly rain coats, and big hats etc etc. She's been totally sacked out with that kind of stuff. She has never not gone where I asked her to on a trail. I walked her down an embankment and into a creek without a hint of hesitation on her part. We've only gone alone at this point, and she'll even go where she can't see or hear her friends. We've ridden on the road for short distances and traffic is not an issue. This horse doesn't do the Arab, look and snort, then bolt. The only time she's really spooked violently have been, some sort of loud bang that came out of a trailer park, an animal that jumped out of the woods beside us, gun shots (which she's actually okay with now, as long as one doesn't fire too unexpectedly close) and a bee sting. None of these have been things she was able to think about or tense up about before hand. When I say there is no warning, I mean there is no warning. It's these kinds of things she needs to not explode about. Would it be appropriate to just bang some trash can lids together in the barn when she least expects it, or have the neighbor fire blanks near her paddock, or do you think she'll just get upset and jumpy? I'm not even sure where to start on getting her not to completely sit down on me the next time she gets stung by a bee. I've ridden plenty of horses in the past that would flinch when startled, but not immediately bolt. Though perhaps this is just her instinctual way of reacting to things and there's nothing that can be done...?


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## BornToRun (Sep 18, 2011)

You may find these of help to you


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## kiltsrhott (Mar 11, 2012)

Hm.. those videos were informative, but still not quite what I'm looking for. The problem I have with my horse is that she doesn't spook often but when she does, there is no warning. It would be the "pheasant jumping out of the brush" situations that the man in the video mentioned that are our problem. And I agree with him that "any horse would spook at that" but my horse's instinctual reaction in this situation is to sit down (literally sit), and bolt. It is near impossible to stay on when your 17 hand horse suddenly becomes 15 hands and then rockets out from under you. Granted, I've only hit the dirt once due to one of these spooks, but my riding instructor's daughter and my husband have been victim to them as well. Like I said, this isn't a regular occurrence. She's not the type of horse to avoid a corner of the arena or refuse to step in a puddle, or snort at something in the distance. She's the kind of horse that is calm, cool and collect 99% of the time, but when something does scare her, it's like a bomb going off. Instantaneous, no warning, your horse has left the building and you are sitting on the floor before you even realize what just happened type of spook. I like to call them "teleportation spooks". One second you're riding along, having a grand old time, and the next, there's no horse under you, and you have no recollection of what happened in between. I don't know if there's any way to prevent these kinds of spooks or gain control of them, considering the horse is gone before the rider has a chance to register what's going on, but if anyone does have any miraculous tips, I would love to hear them.


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## Shropshirerosie (Jan 24, 2012)

_ It is near impossible to stay on when your 17 hand horse suddenly becomes 15 hands and then rockets out from under you._

Velcro?!

The only thing I can suggest to is put on some Velcro pants/jeans/jods and then take yourself out into a planned spook. Maybe go so far as to ask a friend to hide in the bushes, or plant some plastic bags or pink elephants on the way. 

Sit to the spook, then firmly take your horse back to the spooky object. However long it takes, get your horse to understand that YOU know that it is not scary and your horse must learn to trust you.


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## kiltsrhott (Mar 11, 2012)

Haha! Velcro! I've heard that one before! I wonder if anyone's ever tried it... 
Maybe there's a reason my mom refuses to buy saddles that aren't "sticky".

But seriously, I am considering calling my neighbor who does cowboy mounted shooting to help me out. I'm sure if anyone can get a horse to calmly manage unexpected sights and sounds, it would be her! I'm not sure if this would completely fix the problem, as there will always be a "pheasant in the brush" to catch horse or rider off guard, but if I can get her to stop ducking down and leaving whenever she's startled, then maybe our rides in and out of the arena will be a bit safer...


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## iRide Ponies (Aug 10, 2012)

What she needs to learn is to not freak out. What she needs to learn is to stop and think when she is scared. So you should manufacture some scary scenarios on the ground, with tarps and rattling chains and barking dogs or whatever. Then you need to progressively desensitize her to these things. The aim here is not to get her uncared of the scary. The aim is to get her to slow down and listen to you. Your whole problem is that when your horse panics it switches off its brain. You don't want your horse to switch off its brain. You want your horse to wait and listen to you.


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## gdolapp (Dec 12, 2013)

As others mentioned I would start out on the ground desesatizing. Tia a grocery or garbage sack to the end of a lounge whip and make it like it is blowing across the ground. Brush your horse with a crinkly crunshed up plastic sack specially over the neck and back, get a blow up beach ball blow it up and start bouncing it off your horses leg and under belly, sides, neck. lay a smallish tarp on ground and lead over it, once you get that accomplished pick up an end of it hold it in your hand pull it in close to your horse and rub your horses legs neck with it in the same hand eventually you should beable to throw the tarp right over your horse, on your horse ect. Light off small fire crackers around your horse, work your horse with a radio playing. Lay a piece of plywood on ground and walk your horse over it. 
All of this simulates things that can happen on trail, in camp, at a show, a leisure ride. Kids love to play ball and if you are passing someone in camp and a ball rolls out your horse won't be bothered by it. Covering your horse with a tarp if a storm comes in and the person you are parked next to has an awning, if that awning rips off and lands on or near your horse, your horses reaction could be "Oh it's no big deal and just stands there." Fire crackers can simulate gun shots. I always do this with mine. I have a mule that is 12 I haven't been on his back yet because he is new to me we are in the getting to know one another and bonding stage. I sure have had fun working him with all this.


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## kiltsrhott (Mar 11, 2012)

Thanks, gdolapp, the firecrackers are a good idea! I have done a lot of arena desensitizing already. She's not afraid of plastic bags, tarps, empty water bottles, blankets, etc. The boarding stable I used to board at had a radio playing in the barn 24/7, so she's fine with that. She walks through water, over bridges and stuff too. We compete obstacle trail in an arena and she's great with it. Like I said before, she has never refused to go anywhere I directed her. She'll walk into/through anything I ask her to, and she's not afraid of anything I present her with. If I walk her into an arena with a bunch of stuff in it, she may look at it, but she won't spook. She's good with kids, barking dogs, cats etc. I even rode her in a pasture with a bunch of turkeys. I've ridden her on the road and she doesn't mind traffic. She doesn't care about it if she can see it. It's only the unexpected stuff, like sudden, loud noises, animals jumping out of the brush at her, and that one time she was stung by a bee. I expect her to be startled by this stuff (heck, I'm startled by it). I just want her to learn not to teleport out from under me when it happens, so I'm looking for tips on how to stimulate these unexpected situations, and how to handle an explosive spooker so she doesn't just get away from you when you're stimulating these situations.


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## Rocco boy (Oct 27, 2013)

Like you said- it's impossible to stay on- so defiantly would be easier to attack the root of the problem- 
How we desensitise our mare-
We have myself or my partner lead her around (so preferably the main rider but we switch it over for variation) then we have the one that not leading her gently roll a gym ball in her path - rinse and repeat until she dosnt avoid , or chuck her head or jump side wides .. Basically until he calmly listens to the person leading ...
Then once we are done with that we continue the leading expect now the gym ball is bounced out in front of her or behind her until she begins to accept its presence and be calm and just progress like that.
That way she is dealing with an unexpected sound (bouncing noise) as well as a sudden movement ... Just an example of one of the exercises we have used on her ...
😄😄😄
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## redrose1 (Jan 17, 2014)

What I have found..... I can desensitize all I can in an area but the trail - everything changes. Smells, sounds, everything. So I agree it's good to do stuff with them beforehand but it's not a cure all. We have chickens and pigeons at home and they are always flying around the horse or getting under the feet out of no where. What happens? NOTHING! On the trail, if a bird flies out, SPOOK!!!!! So I think you just need to somehow prepare your horse for some sort of calming exercises when it does happen.
I"m working with a trainer now and that is what she is going to work on with me. I sort of have the same issue. Mine will go into a crow hopping fit or rush forward when spooked. One time a HUGE rattler rattled in the bushes and OMG, my horse instinctivly knew what it was and bolted forward. My horse went forward and my husband's horse went straight up a hill!!! We finally got our horses controlled but mine was shaking so bad, I just got off and walked for a while. 
I'm looking forward to my trainer working on this with me because the circling doesn't work half the time. My horse knows how to give (like the video showed) just great in the arena or when nothing is happening but when something blows his mind and he goes into pure flight mode... doesn't work so great. 
I know I"m NEVER going to get him to not spook, he's a horse and it's going to happen and if I expect him not to, I should just stop riding. So, I need to be able to either calm him fast or know what to do when he blows. So far the things I have tried are not working so great.
The best thing that has worked if he starts crow hopping is just bringing his head around and not really circling him but just letting him calm himself down til his feet stop. The rushing forward - not sure yet. I"m really cautious to one rein stop him because I'm afraid he's going to just fall over. i let him move his feet and slowly bring him down slower and then bring one rein over, bringing his nose in. 
I had a non horse friend ask me one time, "why on earth do you ride a BIG prey animal?" LOL!!!! I had to laugh and say, "doesn't make alot of sense does it to a non horse person. ha, ha......


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## AnitaAnne (Oct 31, 2010)

I had a mare just like yours Kiltsrhott, so I totally understand what you mean by "no warning". She was a 16h Appy/TB cross and had the fastest reaction time I have ever seen! She didn't sit-n-bolt though, she would buck-n-bolt, a manuver that almost always left me sitting in the dirt watching her tail disappear...

She didn't care one bit if another horse was there or not, she'd run right through anthing in her way and return to the trailer. Once there, she would dart back and forth in a panic until I returned, at which point she would whinny hysterically and race up to me. She would not let anyone else come near her if I wasn't there. 

I thought that mare was going to kill me, and no-one wanted to ride with me because of her insane behavior. 

But, she did get better and better, and her reaction time got slower too. 

Several key things I used to help her:

1) I rode at least an hour a day (arena work mostly, as she was my Dressage horse) 5 days a week. If I couldn't ride, I gave her a good workout on the lunge line.

2) I always rode her hard at home the day/night before a trail ride or show

3) I would give her some hay before riding, because I discovered she was much calmer with a little something in her belly.

4) I carried treats with me all the time. Every time she stopped at a scarey object, I gave her a treat. She soon learned to stop and look to me for a treat, and I would focus on being calm and then just ask her to walk on. 

5) I never made her face a scarey object, as this just made her worse. Instead we would just walk calmly past and I would tip her head very slightly away from the object.

Over time, she became calmer and calmer, and reacted much slower. I also got better at noticing when she was going to panic, and I discovered she would twitch one ear right before she exploded. The trick was spotting that ear and telling her to forget acting the fool before the dreaded spook-n-buck.


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## AnitaAnne (Oct 31, 2010)

One other thing I would suggest you try, is to retrain her brain into a reaction that you can control. 

By that I mean since she does the sit-n-bolt, that is very much like a western rollback manuver. Maybe you could practice doing a rollback, cantering off fast, then slowing into a spin or something you can control. 

Since horses are creatures of habit, she would soon learn that every rollback is followed by a spin, so then you could stop her. 

It is impossible to recreate every situation that a horse may encounter, but you can train the horse into reacting the way you want them too. 

I had a gelding that would rear up everytime I asked him for lateral work. I used to spin him when I felt him starting to go up, and after a while he would start to rear then spin himself! hahaha 

I thought it was funny, most people watching thought he was a dangerous animal and tried to convince me to send him to a professional. That horse even scared some professional trainers, but I understood him and knew he wouldn't flip over with me.


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## thenrie (Sep 10, 2012)

Like a couple others have commented, I'm not a true believer in arena desensitizing. Things are different out on a trail. Desensitization in the arena has value in teaching a horse that it needs to do whatever you ask it to do without hesitation and without trouble, but as for cancelling its fears of the unknown, I'm just not so sure. I'm sure it doesn't hurt, and just may help for some issues, like dragging a log or walking over a tarp. 

Cheri once posted some great information about trail training a horse, which I think is that link that was posted for the sticky thread on the first page. When I first read it, I thought it was a bunch of hooey, but after thinking about it and then giving it a try, I found it works and is gospel to me now. It's pretty simple: If the horse spooks at something, you make him walk right past it (not toward it) and just ride it out. Then you turn him around and go past it again, and keep doing it until the horse settles down. The horse learns to trust you and will learn to keep on going no matter what (horses hate going back and forth). The part that surprised me was the she taught that you should NOT make the horse walk up to the object and inspect it. That teaches a horse to stop, snort, and look before proceeding. With that technique, the horse learns that that one particular object wasn't so scary after all, but does nothing about the next scary thing. Every time it will be spook, stop, snort, look, inspect, then proceed. You want to teach the horse to just ignore every scary thing and just keep on going. That way he reacts the same every time, no matter what it is. It works, just like Cheri said.:wink:


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## womack29 (Oct 30, 2011)

The more you go out with this horse the better you will know the horse too. I have learned over the last 5 yrs the little things my mare does before something peaks her interest. Such as a sudden stop, ears perking or refusing to go forward. Once I learned to pay attention to her it seems that the trail spooking has lessened. You can never prepare for all the what ifs. For example our neighbor drives 18 wheelers and my mare is good with the noise but coming back in the other night one of the trucks was parked and not a soul around and the air brakes made this noise. Scared her and I both. She took a few steps sideways and now when we walk by the truck she has ears perked


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## Slave2Ponies (May 25, 2013)

In addition to desensitizing and going out with another calm horse (and read the great sticky by Cherie), something that can keep your horse more relaxed and using her mind on the trail is to keep her busy. Work on sidepassing, leg yields, etc. Backing, circling, or anything you're working on, just keep stopping and doing little exercises - often. This especially works when your horse is a little tense or in the spring when they seem to have pent up energy. When I first get a horse, I develop all these little exercises at home, and then just keep doing them all along the trail. After a while, it really does relax them. I think it keeps bringing their mind back to you and teaches them to trust you. It boils down to a leadership thing -- if they really trust that you can take care of them out in the big world, they won't run, they'll trust you...even though they may give a little jump/spook. But I think once a horse starts bolting in fear it can become a habit really fast, so you are wise to make a strategy to deal with this.


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