Tip of the Month
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I have been asked if I would do this month’s tip on spooking, which , as you will see, is related to all the previous tips. Spooking is something that we have all been told a lot about, and the story varies from person to person. Let’s start with what I truly believe. You can not stop anything, or anyone from being startled. This is a normal reaction for all of us, and was given to us for our own protection. With that said, we must realize that we will never stop a horse from being afraid. We must also realize that it is a necessity for us to help the horse to handle his fears, so here we go. Let’s say, we are walking our horse down the trail, and he spooks at something that he thinks is in the bush. Now if we look at the bush, we have helped him confirm the fact that something is really there. Remember, we are to stay focused on where we’re going. Now, since we are alpha, we cannot allow ourselves to play into his fears. We will surely lose him, if we do. So what do we do? Let’s start with what we don’t do. We don’t look at what he is looking at, and for goodness sake, do not pull back on the reins with both hands and yell whoa. This will trap the horse, and will not allow him to go forward, and his fear often does not allow him to go backwards, so the only place left to go is up. Often, straight up! Or what ever fun thing that he can come up with. I think you can pretty much get the picture. Okay, what can we do? The horse has a brain very much like our own. We’ll just say, a brain with two sides, and we will call these sides a logical and a reactive side. Once a horse’s brain gets on the reactive side, we might think that the horse has a one track mind, because it seems very difficult to get him back on the logical side, but that’s exactly what we have to do. Since we have spent a lot of time getting our horse to respond to cues, this is our perfect chance to get the horse back on the logical side of his brain. When a horse is given a cue that he understands, it registers on the logical side of his brain, which then of course switches him from reactive to logical. That in turn takes the boogeyman away for a least a moment. So here’s how we put it to work. If the horse spooks at something in the bush we do not react with an emotion. In other words, we do not play into his fears. We do not trap the horse by pulling back on both rains, we simply give the horse, a gentle outside rein, (outside turn) which takes the horse away from the boogeyman, and puts a cue into the logical side of his brain, which takes his brain off of the boogeyman. He is allowed to keep moving, and this will relax him. Since you didn’t become fearful of the situation, the horse respected your position as alpha, and helped convince him that there was nothing to be afraid of. Do not try to make your horse stand and look at the problem. This could be the biggest mistake of your life, and the last. Be good to your horse Dennis | |||
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