My horse is a nervous wreck

[alia]

I am seriously thinking that my horse is too nervous to cope with noisy modern life.My son got a remote control car car for christmas and it has terrified her.It has taken me months to get Missie to hack away from home alone and now I cant even lead her through the gate onto the road.I know the answer is de sentizing her but do you think that some horses are too nervous to ever be safe in todays noisy world.I am beginning to think I am going to have to keep her as a pet before she kills us both.I have nobody to hack out with and she hates schooling.l

[rhillahorse]

Have you tried magnesium? This can be good for calming nervous horses, as sometimes they are lacking in mag which can affect their nerves. Needs to be fed with something else aswell for them to absorb the mag properly, but I can never remember what it is. Someone else will be able to advise you, I'm sure.

[Ryan&Dizzy]

there is a horse at our yard that is now kept just to school and he occasionally goes out for a walk in the field with a bombproof friend (used to be Otto but i said i wouldnt go out with him anymore as he tried to kill us at the site of a fallen branch! he isnt safe to ride out on roads (or bridlepaths where you could meet people) he is a lovely horse, schools fab, fine on the ground but he is terrified of everything! his owner hasnt really done a lot of work trying to teach him but at the age of 9 and standing 17'1 nobody else wants to either!

[kofihorse]

And there you have it, otto - "his owner hasn't done a lot of work trying to teach him" - not that I'm saying it is easy or quick!!

I hate to be hard on you, alia, because I know exactly what it's like in many ways but YOU have to decide what is going to happen, not your horse. For an example, I had a lesson with a very experienced instructor last summer in an unfamiliar arena and it was the first time I had ridden Khan in one. There were jumps lying around and the first thing I said to the instructor was "oh, he's a bit worried about new things and I don't know how he's going to behave in here". She put me right in my place!! What she said is that it is up to ME, not my horse, that he is not an untrained youngster and that he should just accept that sort of thing if I tell him to. In other words, if he picks up from me that I think he might be a bit worried and spooky - he'll oblige! If I am confident and just expect him to take it in his stride, he will.

I am quite an anxious person and I have had to work hard at being confident but we are getting there. I, too, have nobody to ride out with and Khan was not used to any kind of traffic when he arrived last March. I've just had to take it slowly, a little bit at a time. It's boring and quite hard work when all I really want to do is just get on and bumble along on nice long hacks but it is worth it.

I think your best bet is to go back to leading, with human company for you and perhaps long lining to get the feeling that you are in control. If you and a friend just treat it all as routine while leading her out of the gate - don't reassure her, just take it for granted that she can do it quietly, she will.

However, I don't know from your post exactly what her behaviour is like when she gets upset? Are you trying to take her on a very busy road to begin with? Can you find a quiet time?

[mobismum]

My horse is 17 yrs young in January and stands 17.2 hands. He used to be such a frightened individual in traffic and I used to be scared witless as its such a long way down!! He would spin round on a sixpence and try to take off in the opposite direction of ANY oncoming traffic.
I started from the beginning again with long lining and lunging in the school then gradually started to lead him out along a quiet lane near us with another horse, prophet, who is excellent in traffic. Once he was fine with that I started to ride him out with prophet alongside him and it was as though he looked to prophet as a safety blanket as he would be between us and the traffic. There were still scary moments where he spun round but these decreased as he became more experianced in the traffic. We dont do really busy roads but we have lorries and tractors coming past us, normally slow and concientious towards us!
Ive since realised that Mo is really scared of white vans and lorries inparticular as these are the vehicles he reacts most to, and only when thay are coming towards us! But the good thing is the spinnig round has stopped and the worst I get now is a side step which I feel is a great bonus as 18 month ago I wouldnt have been able to take him out and the school would have gotten so boring!!
So perciveer with your horse and if you can, go out with another trustworthy horse who will give yours the confidence and the safety blanket to overcome her fears!!
Good luck!!

[jen1]

i know you have worked hard with Missy, maybe a stint on our farm next to the busy rd might be what the DR ordered, and maybe some spook busting, i would try the cal mag too, your not short on riding skills as we have seen, but i think maybe back to basics for a while might be good for Missy and your self, maybe feed her just out of the gate, and-maybe put the car in the middle of your school and let her decide if she wants to say hello to it, everyday, i get the impression she has seen it played up and then its/or her been removed, making her think that if she makes a fuss she will make it all better by doing so, , i mean the first time my lot saw me on the quad bike they all went ape! so i set to work on doing join up on it, to a point where they were trotting after me while i was riding it, the made the decision that it wasn't so bad after all, i also feel that Missy could benefit from being worked in the company of clam horses that are used to other being worked in there company, that is one of the breakthrough we had with SAM, the biggest being barney and his laid back attitude,if you would like me to help i will, maybe a stint here might help her to grow up a little, as in getting her away from home will make her stand on her own two feet, plus we could always hack out together on the farm, jen x

[anon]

You owe it to your horse to teach her to be more confident in many many situations - getting her on Mag Ox would be a good start - then get the parelli DVD "spooky horses" and any other de-spooking DVDs too (let me know of any other good ones?)

The more they are used to finding out that potentially scary things are OK really, the more they find that there is less scary new stuff out there!

allowing a horse to stay scared of normal things is a bad idea

[emmalouise]

My previous horse was just like this.
What breed is your horse?
Daisy was welsh sec D and was a night mare we came to a very hard decision to put her out on loan as a brood mare because she was not old or young but if we had kept her her life would be dull and she had such a clever head on her!
it is no bad thing to decide to keep her as a pet and maybe you might not be suited to each other or she like daisy is not suited to being riden and this is true! and it does happen so dont feel like you have let her down or given up it happens and now my daisy is having the best time of her life and that is a all down to not being ridden!
has your horse ever been abused ?

[jen1]

I'm sure Alia wont mind me answering , Missy is one heck of a clever beasty,who Alia bred her self,and has done well with,and has never been abused, she is by the humorist witch is like saying she is the harrier (hunting dog) of the horse world, humorist stock are known to be highly intelligent , and if that isn't put to great use they put there energy into being stubborn,or go into high alert, not that I'm say Missy hasn't had a great start in life, just that most of humorist stock go onto be great eventers,

[emmalouise]

right thanks for answering was waiting to find out what breed she is because many sec Ds are not suited to riding work and wonderd whether she was one!
however i think the fact that she has so much energy not just physicaly but mentaly then she wont to use it in anyway she can so this may explain her scattyness!
regards to the abuse i did not mean with your friend but by a past owner for example because things like bad experiences stick with horse for a long time and some (for want of a better word!)stew over them!
therefore making life difficult for the present owner!
please wish your friend the best of luck and she must remember that it is her decision and that she is not weak if she decides to keep her as pet and that she may be happier but then again because of breeding she may just get more worked up and frustrated?!

[alia]

Thanks for replying for me Jen.I was feeling very low when I posted yesterday.Missie has been a challenge all her life.I think she has a great survival instinct and if something bad happens she remembers it for a very long time.I seem to make some progress with her then something scares her and we are back to square 1 again.She is fine with light traffic but has had a scare with a cement mixer so I dont take her on busy main roads.She has recently been making progress with her schooling until last week when she started to ignore leg aids again so I gave her a tap with a schooling whip and she reared,she has been ridden by an instuctor who is also a very experienced event rider and she said that when Missie dosent want to cooperate there is nothing you can do to force her .I am going to get the physio and dentist back just in case there is another physical problem but I guess she has just worked out that I cannot make her go if she dosent want to.Ground work is good and she has been on a magnesium supplement but i didnt notice any difference.Thankyou for your replies.