This message is from: "janet" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cher wrote:
But I can see one lesson at a time is not enough. He needs more time, daily, with the trainer before he's at a stage that I can work with him at home, alone. He's 17 yrs old, with years of driving behind him - and is spooking at everything like an inexperienced 2 yr old. (sigh) That's disappointing - but something that *can* be trained through. ----------- I am not a horse trainer or expert, but I did have a horse teach me about recreational spookiness once, and I really have to wonder why, at 17 years old, Loki is so spooky. Horses usually mellow out, even the spooky ones by their teens, on top of that we are talking about a Fjord, a breed with a very long fuse. The horse I had as a kid, was a remade horse, i.e. had some problems, and a talented trainer remade him, then I purchased him. One by one his 'talents' crept up, and I had to learn how to deal with them. One was what I call recreational spooks. This is where the horse wants to avoid work, or is just simply bored, and spooks at things to manipulate the rider to giving in to his desire. This particular horse was barn sour, and used 'spooks' in hopes it would mean a trip back to the barn. Evidently someone let this work for him once upon a time. Initially I responded to his spooks by soothing him only to find the spooks grew bigger. When they turned into outright balkiness, resulting in rearing over back wards, I saught the help of the trainer who sold him to me. I had to learn how to deal with a rearing horse, and to make him work hard every time he spooked. Eventually he realized that it was hard work to be spooky, but not until I had suffered a couple of significant injuries. Unfortunately it is very hard to figure out what is a genuine spook, and what is a fake spook, so I learned to ride all horses in a way that I give very little attention to spooks, just carry on like nothing happened. I have since then met a horse on a trail ride that was the master of recreational spookiness. He was an arab that I think was simply bored and invented things to entertain himself, and was very inventive in finding ways to sneak a bite of grass. One very unique trick he had, was to pee frequently. I have never seen a horse do this, but he evidently learned that the rider will allow him to stop, scratch his itches and graze a few bites, every time he had to pee, so this horse had to pee a lot. Like maybe 5 times in a 3 hour ride. He also had lots of itches on his ankles, that allowed him to also grab a bite to eat. I have to wonder if Loki isn't a recreational spooker? If so what is really needed is a few techniques to learn how to make spooking unrewarding to him. It is a shame you were hurt so badly. The last thing you want to do is reward a horse with rest that just dumped his rider. If there is ever a way to put him right back to work, so his spook goes unrewarded, it would have been best. Janet
