Who's fault when your horse spooks?

I keep getting lots of questions about
spooking. So, I think I'm gonna give you a
dose of "anti-spooking" antidotes for a day
or two.

That being said...what is spooking?

In it's basic form spooking is a perfectly
natural reaction of a horse feeling scared or
threatened.

Although it's almost always "not" a threat
in the eyes of us humans, the horse's perception
is a very real threat.

Why? Because horses have a self-preservation
instinct built in their DNA. Their instinct is to
escape danger as they perceive it.

Unfortunately, fear can motivate a horse to
escape and therefore run away fast without thinking
because they are simply reacting - which can be
harmful to the horse and his rider.

Interestingly, a tarp flopping in the wind
will spook horses at different intensity levels.
Two horses seeing the tarp for the first time
may react very differently from one another.

One horse may quickly raise his head and
watch it for a moment then walk past it. Where
the other may jump sideways and try to escape
it with the rider hanging on for dear life.

You'll even run across horse's that'll
freeze in their tracks at the sight of a flopping
tarp, immobile despite the rider's demand he
move on.

If the horse is reacting in a way opposite
of what the rider wants, there's a tendency to
think the horse is purposely disobeying what the
rider wants.

But that's not the case.

So we gotta teach the horse to be brave.
How do we do that?

Well, there are lots of things you can do.
For instance, in my Jesse Beery CD set, there's a
section on how to teach a horse to be brave. In fact,
you can teach your horse to walk right up to the
very thing that frightened him with Beery's methods.

Aside from that, we have to be brave if we
want our horse to be brave. If he's gonna trust
the envrionment he has to gain confidence from the
rider.

A good goal to have is to have the horse check
with you before he should be spooked about something.
The rider should be aware, alert, and proactive. He
should direct his horse and ease him through his fear.
The rider keeps communicating his horse doesn't have
to spook to survive.

And that takes patience because it takes time.
You gotta develop a keen awareness of your horse while
you ride. Watch his ears and eyes. Feel his body
muscles under you. Feel his reactions.

Tomorrow, I'll give you an exercise you can do
with your horse to s-t-r-e-t-c-h his "comfort zone"
and learn to be braver.

So with that, see you tomorrow.

Sincerely,

Andy



=================================

Horse Training Secrets

See This Accidentally Discovered
108 Year Old Horse Training Guide!

http://www.horsetrainingandtips.com/Jesse_Beery.htm

=================================

Have you missed any of my tips? You can see
a gold mine of tips at my blogger.

Here are 7 reasons why you should check it out:

1. It's FREE!
2. It's got hot tips you won't necessarily find
from other sources!
3. Just one tip could solve a problem you've
been having with your horse!
4. It's entertaining!
5. You can put comments and questions on it!
6. It's fun!
7. It's FREE !