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MARCH 2007 • VOLUME 19 • © HORSES For LIFE™ Magazine
>>In general, spooking occurs when the horse has decided to take matters into his own ... errrr ... hooves. This says a couple of things: he's thinking outside the training, and then there is the opportunity (I'm pretty sure you ruled out pain). I believe that 99% of spooking occurs because the rider has stopped riding and the horse's attention has drifted. Lots of people talk to me wondering why we horses spook. There are lots of reasons, but truly most come down to either pain and tension from equipment, or the riding/training, or the other big reason is that we horses get bored with you humans really quickly. You may think you're pretty dang exciting, but snore… you really can be a bore sometimes. Sometimes horses are just ignoring you and just day dreaming. Sometimes you just need to get their attention. There is nothing wrong with a quick "Hellooo, I'm here" kind of response from the rider. I had one rider who use to literally lean off the side of the saddle, wave her hand in front of my eyes while riding, knock on my head and go "Helloooo.., anybody in there?" “WHAT! Who? Oh its you”. She scared me out of a winter's growth of hair each and every time she did that! So maybe just check on a regular basis to see if your horse is bored during your ride. Are the two of you a working unit or is he spending a lot of his time, with his body with you but his mind on Mars? Horses are phenomenally smart creatures, we just don’t let you know that, but you know how many times one of us poor dumb creatures have outsmarted one of you!? But we also have the attention of a two year-old some days. And really a lot of that comes from how you ride. If you ever watch a two year old watch TV, they watch the fast paced snazzy commercials and miss the main program that to them moves slowly and is dull and boring. And just requires too much effort to follow. I know some people suggest that you should vary what you do, go trail riding, jumping and arena work. Just for this reason. To be honest, the horse can be just as distracted outside paying attention to birds as they can be in an arena.
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