Episode 11: De-Spooking

Basic de-spooking exercises for our young filly.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Horse training
• natural horsemanship
• colt starting
• round pen
• Flip That Horse
• Aeron Mack
• Sundance
• palomino
• spooking

[lunanightwolf]

I have a 10 year old spotted saddle horse mare that is very spooky, we have put down a tarp & her winter blanket down in her stall so when she would go eat, she would stand on it. It would spook her at first then we would take it up & she loses her mind! I have plastic bags tied to her fence line but she won't go near them. How can i despook her without losing the trust she already as with me.\ (if there is any) What i think is spooking her more are the noises and sounds they make.

[AeronRiding]

This is a tricky one... sometimes you inadvertently end up teaching the horse to spook, instead of NOT to spook! This is a fairly difficult process, and would take too long to go over here... when you just put plastic bags around, some horses do like yours and just avoid the area all together. They don't end up learning anything. I will try to put some more info about this on my website, plus I'll put some links to some other trainers who have addressed this issue.....

[lunanightwolf]

Well, when we first got her, she was pregnant so we didn't know how she would act. We didn't even know she was pregnant. So nothing really spooked her while she was pregnant. Now that we have the filly away away from her. (Sold her) She's showing how she really truly acts. Sometimes I get so upset at her I cry.

[AeronRiding]

Don't give up! She IS fixable, I promise! Is there any certified Natural Horsemanship trainers in your area? Either John Lyons certified, or Parelli, etc.  It would really be worth the money to have them come out and spend a couple hours helping you. What you and your horse would learn in that amount of time would last forever and help you with any future horses going forward. Good luck!

[BeatlesFan8091]

my horse is scared of her shadow so i would have no hope in trying to despook her

[AeronRiding]

You can teach any horse not to spook if you have time, timing, and patience!

[BeatlesFan8091]

i have the time and lots of patience we have tried despooking her for almost 2 years and no progress has been made thanks thought for your thoughts

[ridingisasport]

A major spooker for some of my horses was an open umbrella being pushed towards them by the wind (my instrudtor laid it down for a moment) Maybe you could do something with that.

[shkinglis]

What happened to Episode 10?

(amazing set of videos by the way; I sent you an email)

[AeronRiding]

don't give up on your mare.... start small and work your way up.... like maybe try a fly whisk or the end of a lead rope... or, start at the point where she WILL tolerate something, and then slowly proceed toward the rear. Always keep in mind "right thing Easy, wrong thing Difficult..." in other words, make her do a little work when she gets the "wrong" answer, then take the pressure off and reward when she gets the "right" one.