Why Your Horse Spooks and What You Can Do

Understanding your part in reducing spooking behavior

Horses in the wild have a hierarchy and are most comfortable when they have a leader that they trust and who gives then confidence.  In nature, horses look to the lead horse for instruction as to how to react to a threat or spook.  If the lead horse ignores the moving animal or blowing tumbleweed, usually the others will also.  A few might spook, but when they look back and see the leader calmly grazing, they will return. 

Respect and trust = leadership

A horse wants a leader that can be trusted.
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Since you, as the horse's rider should be the recognized leader, the horse will gain confidence from you. 

Build trust by nurturing your horse and establishing a true comfort zone by taking time to teach and work through uncomfortable situations rather than merely attempting to dominate the horse.

In addition, pay attention to your horse's health and well-being.  A horse that has vision problems, is over fed, is too confined, or lacks proper exercise is more apt to spook. 

Specific rules for despooking a horse

1. Don't get upset or hit the horse when the horse is genuinely afraid.  This reinforces spooking.  Instead, when the horse spooks, back away from whatever is spooking it, changing the horse's focus.  Exercise the horse for a few minutes.  Then slowly encourage the horse to move a little closer to that threatening plastic bag or that horse-eating stump.  Nurture, relax, and stay with the horse until it can walk right up to that scary thing and take a sniff.
2. Watch your posture and body language:  Signs of body tension whether in another horse or in a human are interpreted as alarm signals.  Tense, frightened people, heighten the fear in horses.  Horses are more relaxed and calm around people who are relaxed and don't make sudden jerky movements or react violently when the unexpected happens. 
3. Evaluate how much time the horse spends confined and the amount and type of feed:  Horses that are confined and have little space and time to run free tend to spook more easily than those that get plenty of exercise and are interactive with other horses.  Too much or too dense feed in the diet creates nervous energy that gets pent up without sufficient exercise.  Change the diet to reflect the energy needs of the horse and make sure the horse does enough work and gets enough exercise to take the edge off the need for physical activity.
4. Associate spooking with hard work.  When the horse spooks, keep it busy and moving.   Redirect the horse's focus and give it something else to do.  Trot in circles, going one way and then reversing and going back the other way until the horse has expended energy, then go back to face the object or whatever caused the horse to spook.   As you go through these exercises, school the horse to listen to you as the leader.
5. Deliberately and carefully stage situations that will spook the horse so you can reinforce the fact that no predators are lurking behind rocks or coming down out of the trees.   Some trainers suggest gradually getting the horse used to scary places, sounds, and objects.  For example, if your horse is afraid of a certain bridge over a stream, don't try to force it to cross over the bridge immediately.  Let him get used to the stream and the bridge from a distance, then gradually work toward crossing over the bridge.  If your horse is afraid of a plastic bag or newspaper blowing across the path, create situations where this happens and work with the horse until you note an attitude change.
6. Develop a cue that serves to calm the horse.  When horses are excited or spooked, their heads go up.  Use your reins and let the horse knows that the head needs to go down.  When the horse relaxes, pet him for cooperating and being brave.  According to trainers, one mistake some owners make is responding to the horse's anxiety by petting him and telling him, "It's okay."  This rewards the horse for spooking.  By using a cue to change the behavior, rather than reinforcing the spooking, it establishes the ability to deal with the perceived threat.
7. Develop an understanding of how your horse sees the world and use that understanding to prevent surprises coming from a blind spot.  The horse's view of the world is very different from that of a human.  Although the horse can see almost all around, a blind spot exists behind and also a few feet in front of the head.  Any movement in this blind zone may be interpreted as threatening and lead to spooking or shying away.  To focus on close objects, the horse needs to keep its head low, or if the head is high, tilt it to the side.  Understanding how horses view the world can save aggravation and stop the urge to punish a horse for spooking or shying when it feels threatened by the sudden appearance of objects from the blind spot.

As a horse owner and rider, your goal is to help your horse control his fears.   A frightened or spooked horse is a danger to itself and to everyone around it.  As the horse learns to look to you for safety as its leader, it will be less afraid and won't react instinctively by bolting or running away.  

Why your horse spooks - A brief history

Although it is difficult to know for sure, some historians peg Equus caballus, our modern horse, as having been in existence for as much as 2 million years.  During this history, the great land masses changed drastically as they moved, collided, rose up and broke apart.  Climatic changes caused the extinction of many species and others learned to adapt whether to rich grasslands or more arid areas.  Among those learning to adapt were the ancestors of our modern-day horse.

Some historians believe that the horse was most likely first harnessed about 5,000 years ago by the Chinese.  Although strong archeological evidence shows horses evolving in North America as much as 3 million years ago, debate continues about the differences of modern horses and their origins, and it is believed they descended from a number of subspecies with Equus caballus diverging from other equids such as the zebra and donkey some 1.5 million years ago. 

At some point, ancestors of the horse in North America became extinct, and it wasn't until the Spanish brought horses to the new world, that the population again began to grow.  In the meantime, wherever wild horse herds roamed, they were being caught, tamed, and brought into service in Asia, Europe and North Africa. 

Originally used as beasts of burden, the horse became important in battle both as chariot drawers and as steeds for carrying riders.  Horses were now being selectively bred for specific purposes and were prized for their speed and endurance.   Saddles and stirrups were invented, allowing riders to stay on their mounts for longer periods of time.

Behavioral adaptation

Behavioral adaptation was closely linked to physical evolution because of the necessity of survival.  As the landscape changed, physical changes from the smaller, shorter legged body of the horse's ancestors became necessary.  As forests and swamps gave way to pastures and plains, the developing horse needed to see around him for greater distances to spot predators and increase the chance to escape.  Being part of a herd with a leader to sound warnings and with the comfort of safety in numbers became part of successful adaptation.

Alertness as survival necessity

The developing horse needed to see and hear better to escape from predators.
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The horse's neck increased in length, the eyes became larger and gradually moved to the sides of the head enabling the horse to see almost 350 degrees. 

To run faster from predators, the horse's legs increased in length and the lower limb bones gradually fused for additional strength.  The need to have all four feet free caused reluctance to step into muddy water where uncertainty as to depth made safety an issue.  Allowing someone to shackle a leg or handle a foot posed a serious threat because of the inability to immediately run.  

In short, the horse adapted to become fast, nervous, wary and with a quick, ingrained flight response whenever anything remotely resembling a predator appeared.  Is it any wonder that horses spook easily?  Anything from a windblown tumble weed or plastic grocery bag takes on aspects of a predator.  Loud noises are similar to the roar of the predator as it jumps from an overhanging tree branch.  A sudden approach by animal or human from the blind spot gives way to the instinct to bolt.

Through developing a clear understanding of the history of the horse, it is possible to use that knowledge to develop conditions that will help ameliorate nervousness, wariness, and subdue the flight instinct.  Because a horse has a natural inborn survival instinct, complete elimination of all spooking behaviors may not be possible.  After all, horses that weren't wary and able to run fast were eaten by predators.

Consider this

Research shows, and many horse trainers and owners know, that through nurturing, confidence building, and consistent use of certain techniques, most horses can develop trust and subdue the fears that lead to spooking, making for a calmer horse and a safer situation all around.