Dealing with a nervous horse

[Dakota Sunrise]

For once I'm not asking for advice really, I'm just curious to see who else has a nervous, sensitive horse and how you deal with it.
I'll warn you right now that I got carried away and typed a LOT on this subject, so if this isn't a topic of interest to you you may wish to leave now.:D lol, jk:innocent:



Beauty has always been nervous, over sensitive.. a horse with anxiety issues almost. Even my farrier said so, he referred to her as "a worrier". She gets herself all worked up over minor things, or sometimes over almost nothing at all.

It could be because of the way she was treated before (neglected when I bought her, and is terrified of the farrier, vet, and pretty much any stranger that comes into her territory- abused at some time maybe? I don't know), or it could just be her nature. She is sweet (though she is also Miss Attitude:p) and can be extremely calm sometimes (this is the same horse that allows me to stand up on her back and slide off her butt), but she scares easily, and it takes her a while to trust people.

Does anyone else have a horse like that? If yes, what do they act like and what sets them off? How do you deal with it? Do you have different routine for them then you do do for your calmer horse (if you have one)?

I can always tell when Beauty is starting to get nervous. The first thing she does it flare her nostrils and starts snorting softly, and her breathing speeds up. It can start when something as major as the farrier approaching happens, or something so simple as the wheel horse tractor trailer sitting in a different spot than it was before.
The trick to Beauty is to to go slow, remain calm, and if all goes well I usually can get her to forget whatever is was that scared her.
Once she goes from nervous to scared though, she can't learn anything and is hard to calm down (like with more extreme situations- the farrier, etc), but I've found that simple things can keep her from getting to that point.

Her biggest issue is the hitching post. I'm not sure why it scares her. I don't know if she remembers that it is where the farrier/vet/ etc always is (nothing really bad has ever happened there--my farrier/vet are very nice to her--, but in her eyes), or if she feels confined. Or if she knows that we are about to go out and train and it's anxiety over that. I wish I could get in her head and find out, but since I can't, I've figured out ways to make her relax.

The key is to go slow, even with simple, every day things. I talk to her when I brush her in a calm, easy voice. I let her sniff her saddle pad before I put it on her so she knows it's hers and it's a familiar scent. I pet her neck and talk to her before picking out her hooves, especially her back ones (if you know about her farrier issues you'll understand that, although she is pretty good about me handling her feet).
Little things like that seem to help her relax.

Since she can freak out without a moments notice over next to nothing, I always pay close attention to her body language and ears the whole time I'm tacking up. I kind of learned that the hard way.:innocent:
One time when I was kneeling down to put on her front boots, Beauty spooked at the sound of two hunters talking, who were walking down the road (strangers scare her). I was looking down at the boots so I never saw her tense up but I did hear the sound that most horses make before they rear; I'm not sure how they make that noise, if it's inhaling or exhaling or a snort of exhertion, but my neighbor's old horse (who was JUST like Beauty) used to make the same sound before rearing at the hitching post. Fortunately for me I knew what that sound meant and I leaped out of the way before I got brained by one of her hooves. Now I'm a little more careful when kneeling down around her.:rolleyes:

She's reared at the hitching post three times now (not counting the first few times the farrier was out- though she is getting better about him and doesn't do that now), and I never did figure out what scared her the third time. I had just taken off her halter and was slipping her noseband on when she spooked and jumped backwards.
It's sort of a weird coincadince (sp?) because that is exactly what my neighbor's Arabian always did, and we never could figure out why with him either.
So now we have a little routine before we leave the hitching post. She has a bad habbit of trying to walk away right after I get her bridle on, and that's also when she spooked a few times. So now before we leave, I ask her to back away calmly, step back up, stand for a minute, then back away again. We do this about three or four times, or however long it takes her to do it calmly and stand relaxed. Once she does, I back her a final time and lead her away.

I never decide what we're going to work on in our schooling session until I see how she is going to act when I get her to the arena. If she's nervous and acting discracted I keep it simple. Walk to trot transitions, some circles, things that keep her busy but are not difficult. On days that she's relaxed and comfortable we'll work on more challenging things.

If you actually read all of that I will be downright shocked.:p I am just curious to see if anyone else has a horse like that. One that you can't just yank out of the pasture, hop on and go. Dakota is like that, nothing I do surprises him anymore.:innocent: I can grab him out of the pasture, slip his boots and bridle on, hop on bareback and just go wherever and however fast I want. He doesn't care, he trusts me and is a level headed guy.
But Beauty requires patience and calmness, and needs to be reasured often that nothing is going to hurt her, and that everything is fine. Talk about complex horse!:eek: It took me a while to understand that about her. What I first took for plain brattiness (and she has those moment too;)) was sometimes fear. Now that I know that we have come to a better understanding, and she has been doing really well lately.:)

I promise to shut up now:o, but I would love to hear how you handle your sensitive, nervous by nature/past experiences/whatever horse. If you have one of course. Maybe Beauty and Cruiz (the Arabian my neighbor used to have) are the only horses out there with anxiety issues.:innocent:

[Arrow]

Arrow's not quite that bad, but he's a nervous nellie for sure. He's afraid of deer (or spooks because he takes their word for it that a killer is lurking in the vicinity), he always shys at light colored things--a mound of dirt, skunk cabbage, a downed tree with a jagged stump showing, etc.

I have to go slow and be calm with him, because I've found that if I discipline him for that kind of thing, he gets worse. He's the one horse I've had who gets more worked up over a ride rather than less if you don't play your cards right--maybe that's why I'm skeptical of all the "move their feet advice" that's all the rage these days--that kind of thing only gets Arrow more upset, not less.

I guess I just ride it out under saddle--I've got a good seat, and I've only come off him 3 times in a year and a half--once when he shyed at deer and I was bareback for only the 3rd time after a 25 year lay off, once when he almost went down himself slipping on mud and slick leaves last fall, and recently when he shyed at the aforementioned stump (and I finally figured out what he shyed at because he's shyed at it every time that we've gone past it since!).

You might remember my "loading a horse on a trailer" advice--I'm just an "outwait the silly fool, he'll come around," kind of horse handler. On the ground, he never really gives me all that much trouble--but a quiet firm, "easy, easy" and standing still until he calms down always does the trick.

Sounds like you're doing a terrific job with Beauty!

[Annie&Dixie]

I couldn't sleep so I decided I would go ahead and read your thread, I'm determined that you like to write a lot ;)

First off, I agree with Arrow about doing a wonderful job with her! It sounds like you're really understanding what she needs which is great!

Dixie is a weird one. She is very sensitive with everything that I do with her, from the way I touch her belly to get her to do something to the way that I talk to her. She also listens extremely well to my seat just naturally. I like this about her, I really do. I've never liked the horses that you have to kick and kick to just get them at a trot or to get them to respond to anything, it only takes an oz of pressure from my heel and she knows what to do.

But at the same time, her attitude it very calm about things...well, generally anyways. I've noticed just recently when she's afraid of something (not super often), it takes her a loooong time just to get near it. She's just very cautious. She did this when we brought out the automatic cow, it took her more than a half an hour just to get within 20 feet of the thing. And then after that there was the thing that they use to drag in the arena against the wall, she was terrified of this! It took us again well over a half an hour for her to get good about it and that was our lesson for the day. I was proud of her though, she definitely tested her boundries by trusting about that fact that it doesn't eat horses.:rolleyes: And also when this was going on, she knows how to turn off her sides which is quite annoying.

Also, another way that I consider her sensitive is the fact that she is extremely observant...she is always aware of her surroundings and likes to check everything out. I've found that this is a great thing to have on the trail, she always knows where her feet are and where are all of the branches and obstacles for her to step over :cowboy:

[TLC97]

Dakota- Just curious do you have Dreamer on an ulcer med???

[Dakota Sunrise]

Thanks for the responses, guys.:) I thought this would make an interesting discussion.:)


have to go slow and be calm with him, because I've found that if I discipline him for that kind of thing, he gets worse. He's the one horse I've had who gets more worked up over a ride rather than less if you don't play your cards right--maybe that's why I'm skeptical of all the "move their feet advice" that's all the rage these days--that kind of thing only gets Arrow more upset, not less.

Yep, Beauty is that way too. Once she is nervous or scared--like with the farrier--disciplining her will not help AT ALL. It will only make her worse. You just have to stay completely calm and go slow with her... and so far it's working, she has improved sooo much about letting Jim (my farrier) handle her hooves. It still scares her, but the last two times he came out she didn't rear at all, and didn't dance around as much before standing still. Improvement.:)



I couldn't sleep so I decided I would go ahead and read your thread, I'm determined that you like to write a lot ;)

At least I warned you!:D I actually did go to sleep, but I am soooo tired this morning.:sleep:


She also listens extremely well to my seat just naturally. I like this about her, I really do. I've never liked the horses that you have to kick and kick to just get them at a trot or to get them to respond to anything, it only takes an oz of pressure from my heel and she knows what to do.




Beauty is that way too! I can ask her to pick up the pace with my seat, and the voice command "trot". I barely have to use my legs at all when asking her to trot. I like that about her too.:)

see? Dixie and Beauty have more in common then just their build!:p lol, jk!

[Dakota Sunrise]

Dakota- Just curious do you have Dreamer on an ulcer med???



I think you have the wrong forum member, hehe. My two horses are Beauty and Dakota... Country Girl has a horse named Dreamer, and so does Patriots.:)

So nope, no ulcer meds here, lol.:p

[luvs2ride1979]

What are you feeding her? Feed can make a nervous horse even more nervous. I would not feed her any grain or pelleted feed. I'd have her on a hay-only diet with a vitamin supplement mixed in with some chopped bagged hay or some soaked beet pulp.

Otherwise, I agree, just calm and slow! Don't be too slow though. If you're apprehensive, that will make her worry more. You need to be calm and confident. What does the Dog Whisperer call it? Calm Assertive! I've worked with a few abused horses and some wild mustangs and this approach is what works best. Just EXPECT and see in your mind the correct behavior and you'll get it more often than you think ;). Don't fuss over her nervous behavior, just keep going or wait it out, then praise her when she does it right. Food rewards go a long way to reassuring a horse too, lol.

Grazing or putting the head low helps release endorphins and calm a horse. You can also rub/squeeze on the outside edges of the bone on the top of the nose. That seems to calm a horse. If she's okay with her ears, put her ear in your hand so your fingers are cupping the back and your thumb is inside pushing against your fingers lightly. Rub/pull upward to the tip of her ear repeatedly.

If she gets nervous in the round pen or on the lead, hunch your shoulders and turn slightly away from her (so your shoulder/side it to her head and look down). This is a submissive posture that will quickly defuse a horse that is scared of you.

[Dakota Sunrise]

Thanks for all the good tips, luvs2ride1979!:)

As for her diet, it's pretty much exactly what you said!:D Other then hay of course, she gets 2 handfulls of soaked beet pulp (I feed it to my gelding too--just in higher quantities--so I just grab two handfulls out of his when it's done soaking), one handful of a 12% grain just to give it a good flavor (she won't eat it otherwise, it's not enough to make her hyper) and her Grass Plus viatamin/mineral supplment. She also gets a joint supplement that has MSM, yucca, and something else in it too.

[alittleoffkey]

This is going to be another one of those "Dixie and Legacy couldn't be more different for siblings" posts of mine. :D

Dixie gets concerned. I wouldn't quite rank her as a worrier, but I suppose some would. I know her really well, so I can always tell when she's unenthused about something and I always let her stop to think about it. Dix is the kind of horse that, if pushed too hard too fast about something then she might explode. In the wrong hands I think she'd be abused without the handler even realizing. She's a sweet horse, loving, loyal, and she really wants to make you happy.

I think she's my most normal horse - she was afraid of some things, and I know what they are - like you I can tell when something's creepy and that she needs to stop and think about it. I think that a lot of horses are accused of being 'bad' when they're just scared. My cousin's favorite horses to train were the 'bad' ones, because 9 times out of 10 - they were just afraid of something and the owner was the one who needed to learn the difference between bad behavior and prey behavior - and how to teach the horse to get past the prey mentality.

I do think the handling Dix has had her entire life has to do with the fact she doesn't explode. I've always let her stop and think about anything she needed to and now that she's older, we rarely have to stop to think about anything. She wants to make me (or anyone handling her) happy - she wants to not be afraid, but she is. Most 'scary' things we get by without so much as a second glance, but a negative experience lasts with her. I'm never frustrated with her, that only makes her worse.

Legacy on the other hand, could care less about most anything (except cows. He hates cows). He's a lot like Dakota, I think. And one negative experience (say, with a cow mooing - a terrifying occurrance in the world of Legacy) doesn't matter to him. A repeated one might make him try to convince me not go to wherever the scary mooing cow always is. He would go, but he wouldn't be enthused about it.

Also, if I get frustrated with Legacy then he knows it's time to straighten up. A well placed "LEG-A-CY!" goes miles with him, even when he didn't realizing he was doing something wrong - it gets the message across well. ;) If I yelled at Dix like that, she'd just get concerned unless she knew she'd done something wrong (like an attempted nip or trying to throw her weight around).

[gaited07]

Sounds like everyone has found the niche that works for "their" horse(s).

As for my gelding, he focuses in on a object and thats it. I have to re-direct his attention, do some flexing, relaxing then bring him to the KILLER object.
He has his days of being nervous and then there are those (most of the time) days when he's as calm as a cucumber (go figure??)
I do notice that if my horse starting getting happy feet and chopping on the bit, the one rein stop, flexing, backing, and or side passing,disengaging helps regain his focus and back on track.
Of course I don't do all of these at once. I start with the one rein stop, flexing first, then if needed proceed to more aggressive methods to improve behavior.
These methods have really worked for my horses.
I also got rid of my shank bit for a snaffle and it "WORKS" great for him.

[TLC97]

Dakota, my brain was messed up. The reason I asked about the ulcer meds is because most horses have ulcers, nervous horses even more so. I had a friend who had a very nervous horse, to the point where sometimes he would stress colic. He was put on ulcer meds and even though he was still nervous, it was no where near as bad and he could calm sooner.

You may want to look into some of the effects of ulcers on horses.

[Suzi]

My daughters mare can be what I call "reactionary". She bolts, is suspisioius (sp) and needs to go alittle slow with new things. Alaina has had her for several years and it has become better but it is always going to be in her nature. You horse may be a good canidate for "clicker training". Iv'e never used it, but from what I understand, it conditions the horse to relax at the sound of the click. Maybe look onto it ?

[luv4chance]

but she scares easily, and it takes her a while to trust people.

Does anyone else have a horse like that? If yes, what do they act like and what sets them off? How do you deal with it? Do you have different routine for them then you do do for your calmer horse (if you have one)?



I have 2 of these horses. Chance, my bay, was very fearful and nervous when I first bought him. He was ready, willing, and able to explode at any given time. I worked w/ him ALOT on the ground, making him become scared, but once he faced the obect, stood & stared at it, I took the object away. I worked w/ him about about a year b4 I saw a HUGE difference in his dimeanor. It was like one day he thought, "Ok, my new owners are not going to scare me or hurt me anymore." He had issues w/ men. He didn't trust or want to be rubbed by my husband for the longest time. Everytime my husband moved in any way, chance was freak totally out, blowing & snorting, I guess he was just waiting for my husband to hit him. He wasn't like that w/ women. I thought from them on out, he wud have issues w/ men. Again, one day he just stopped all his issues etc. We've done alot of ground work, learned the one rein stop....he big issue was trusting someone. Even when he was a basket case, you cud just tell he wanted to be good. All he had to learn was that it was OK to relax regardless what was going on around him.

I have a mare exactly the same way but I do believe she's WORSE than my bay. After a year and 1/2, she still explodes & overly reacts to certain things. She has gotten the same training and she doesn't like pressure at all, very very sensitive to the smallest thing. When she senses you're frustration, she will shut completely down & stop learning. Instead of thinking like we want her to do, she'll react like a horse the minute she senses you're mad. Angel is my daughter's horse. My daughter is 18 yo w/ no patience. I've seen this first hand when my daughter's gotten frustrated w/ Angel. I can get in there do the same exact things w/ Angel, but do them calmly & show her what I'm asking of her, and she's slowly start calming down. Angel is very high strung......... she wud be an AWESOME barrell horse if trained. My daughter moved out several months ago, I love Angel as much as I love Chance so I don't ever see me saling Angel just b/c my daughter doesn't mess w/ her like she shud. I really just have 2 horses.;)

[Dakota Sunrise]

Thanks for all the responses.:) I find it interesting to see how everyone handles their nervous horse.

He's a lot like Dakota, I think. And one negative experience (say, with a cow mooing - a terrifying occurrance in the world of Legacy) doesn't matter to him. A repeated one might make him try to convince me not go to wherever the scary mooing cow always is. He would go, but he wouldn't be enthused about it.

Also, if I get frustrated with Legacy then he knows it's time to straighten up. A well placed "LEG-A-CY!" goes miles with him, even when he didn't realizing he was doing something wrong - it gets the message across well. If I yelled at Dix like that, she'd just get concerned unless she knew she'd done something wrong (like an attempted nip or trying to throw her weight around).

Yep, that sounds exactly like Dakota.:) One bad experience (like a run in with something scary, etc) does not stick with him, where Beauty will remember and never forget.
And same here- a "DAKOTA! Knock it off!" works great with him. I never really have to discipline him other then that.

TanyaC97: I never though about ulcer meds.... how would I know if she did (have ulcers)?


Suzi: I'm not sure what clicker training is... maybe I'll do some research on it.:)

[pandorasmom]

Pandora can be kinda like Beauty sometimes.
She isn't a very spooky horse. She can hear gun shots in the distance, and normally won't spoke. She can have vechicles,dogs,goats,llamas,etc. all around her and not care. However, she will pick up on the slightest thing that looks out of place.
We have a open field, and beside of it is a public dirt road. If someone has limbs they need to dump off or something they'll dump it there. Back a few months ago, we had been riding in this field almost everyday for 2 or 3 days, then went over there one day and there was a pile of limbs there. She looked at them, snorted, puffed out her nostrils, ears pricked forward, and was very very nervous. She will not spoke at anything hardly that moves or makes noise, but as soon as she seems something stationary out of the ordinary she will sometimes get very nervous. I let her take her time to walk forward to them, and say my famous calm down words to her " Your okay Panda, or Your okay Pandora" and she'll typically be fine.
Another example is we have her pasture closed off now so it can grow up for next year. Her pasture is adjacent to the goat pasture, so we had put some logs at the bottom of the gate so the goats couldn't squeeze under. She hadn't been by that gate in sometime( several weeks) and hadn't seen the logs. When I took her down there one day and she saw them she flipped out.
She'll sometimes spook if she hears a sudden noise, or sometimes(not often) spook at what is nothing to me, but to her who knows what it is. LOL :P
We have electric fencing for our goats (her pasture is woven wire), and if she hears a pop of the fence at all she will get VERY nervous. She gets all jittery, and will sometimes even pace around so much, that she sweats.
Tieing to a hitching post:
Oh man, I feel your pain there. After I got Pandora she would tie to the post SOMETIMES. But if she got tired of standing would rear, flip out and go bonkers. She broke her lead doing this once. I never could figure out what it was. She would stand fine the first few minutes then if she was tired of that would rear to get me to let her move. So I talked to my friend in NE who does alot of things with Clinton Anderson's methods (this was before I knew alot about him or his methods) and she told me to wrap her lead rope around a pipe fence. Then if she pulls it will give with her pulling so she can move her feet and not be fearful of it. Since I did that, she now (knock on wood) doesn't rear when being tied anymore. I no longer tie her, unless I absolutly have to, and if I do then it's a quick release knot. Now I just wrap the leash around wherever I have her, and she stands fine. If she gets spooked at something and wants to move her feet she can, but she typically doesn't now.
I've also done alot more groundwork with her so it seems to have helped her calm down some and be more respectful on ground.
Now she does have a few issues under saddle. I'm trying to work with this. Sadly the ground is wet right now and I can't do anything with it being wet.
After she runs she doesn't want to stop. She's done this pretty much since I got her but it seems worse lately. If I try to stop her from going she will rear. She hadn't been doing this until Wednesday. I've done lots of one rein stops with her and cruising in the corral, and she's fine. But as soon as she hits the "freedom " pasture she's a totally different horse. Guess that could come from her endurance years. She has done it(rearing, a few times) before but it hasn't happened anymore lately and I thought she had gotten out of that habit. Sadly she hasn't.
I really think someone screwed her up sadly. I'm going to work with her to hopefully fix this. She just needs more riding/saddle respect which she doesn't have alot of.
Well, I'll quit there for now. Gotta finish up here and then it's almost time to feed msyelf and Panda.

[Remali]

I used to have a buckskin Arab cross that was a bit nervous....I found that doing a lot of slow quiet work helped her....stuff to make her think a lot like walking and trotting figure eights and serpentines kept her mind busy and made her think about what we were going to do next.....keeping a loose rein also helped, and her head low. If she was wound-up we didn't do any cantering at all until she walked and trotted real quietly.

[Vegashorselady]

I do notice that if my horse starting getting happy feet and chopping on the bit, the one rein stop, flexing, backing, and or side passing,disengaging helps regain his focus and back on track.
Of course I don't do all of these at once. I start with the one rein stop, flexing first, then if needed proceed to more aggressive methods to improve behavior.
These methods have really worked for my horses.
I also got rid of my shank bit for a snaffle and it "WORKS" great for him.

This is exactly how I handle my horses when they get antsy and ditto on the snaffle!

[JackieB]

I think you are doing a great job, Dakota. Buster is not a nervous horse, but there are some on the farm and I've seen my experienced friends work with them.

-Consistent training such as you are doing will help. The more Beauty views you as a strong and capable leader, the more likely she will be to trust you when she gets nervous.

-Be sure that whenever you do tie her that it's to a very sturdy hitching post with a halter and rope that are in excellent condition. If she sets back like she did with those hunters and the rope or post breaks, she may very well go over backwards onto whatever or whoever is behind her. This is what happened to my friend Bruce this summer and it was such a horrible accident.

-Some of this is just Beauty's disposition, of course. Just like some people get a bit more nervous than others.

-My one friend who is training a horse that gets scared like this doesn't get worked up when it happens and doesn't reprimand the horse or anything. She just quietly assures that horse that the tire or whatever won't hurt him and continues on. Sometimes, she will introduce the horse to the scary thing as well, but she doesn't put pressure on him. She lets him get comfortable with it at his own pace. No adding excitement or energy to the situation.

-The flexing that gaited mentioned helps. Buster doesn't get scared too often, but he will get soooo charged up at times that he's nearly unrideable. Or he used to anyway; it hasn't happened in awhile. I just calmly kept flexing and turning him around and that gave him something to do and kept him from getting even more tensed up.

Anyway, I think you are doing a great job!

[TLC97]

Dakota- Do some research on ulcers in horses. You will be surprised what you find. MANY horses have ulcers.

[Dakota Sunrise]

JackieB: Thanks for all the good ideas/tips and the compliment.:)

Tanya: ok, I'll do a little research.

[FoxFireEMT]

Legend was a very "heard" bound horse. It drove me nutz but with some extra added work, time & care she has really has come a long way. She no longer is "mouthy" (as I call it) out on the trail that is near the barn. She no longer wants to spin around and act like an idiot! It took some weeks of constant work, respect and trust!