Any tips on training my spooky rescued horse how to be ridden?

Question

i have a 7 year old appaloosa mare who was severely abused and neglected. her previous owner beat her and broke her jaw so she's head shy and only likes me. she spooks easily. when i first got her she wouldn't let me touch her at all. i've worked with her for countless hours for the past 6 months so she trusts me and let me put a halter on her. she finally started leading fine, even with a towel on her head, she'll follow me if i hold her halter. i have no experience with training, just riding. she's never had anyone on her back before. does anyone have any tips? i dont know how to come about riding her, although i have put a saddle on her and she was fine with it. i'm not sure if i'm up to jumping on yet. any tips or ideas? it would be a lot simpler if she was normal but she spooks really easily i've researched all of this online but i'm wondering if anyone has advice from experience with it. please help. im taking her to school with me at UNH next fall and they wont take green horses

Answer 1

I've personally rescued two horses from similar circumstances....if she took the saddle all you can do is try her. I wonder has she taken a bit for you?  After lundging her out some i'd try mounting her in a round pen or confined arena to see how she does.....and on the spooking just keep working with her and be very patient. When you find something different that spooks her work with her on that area until you gain her trust with it.  Good Luck to you and all your hard work and dedication to her will pay off.

Answer 2

1 thing is its gonna take time..........

i had the same problem as u......i bought a resue horse....

1 thing i done was sing to her i know it sounds stupid but it do work.......when i got my horse i couldnt touch him....but i took it slow wtih him......just becuse she will let you do something for the first time dont mean you can move on to the next thing get her used to it.........it took me  4 months to get to the stage when i can just sit on his back.....i know it sound a long time but its worth it........now i take my horse to shows and everyhting he is 100% on the roads.

ive had him for 3 years now i bought him for £1000 and ive had people offer me £6000 for him........

dont give up on her u will get there......just try singging to her when your doing your normal things with her and she will relise that you sitting on her is a normal thing......

tell me how everthing goes

how this will help u as much as it helped me

Answer 3

Before you get on her, start spooking her and teaching her that it may be a spook , but you are in control and she must have greater confidence in you.

I'd normally start with a small rag, start rubbing her with in, then gently flap it on her and so on till you're able to fling it onto her, even when she is tied up. Then try a larger cloth/sack/plastic bag.

By now she should be taking notice of YOU. She should have started trusting you. Let brushes etc fall, knock over a bucket all the things that happen in real life.

Then the bigger spooks, walking past a cover on the ground, stepping onto things, over things. Not all spooky, maybe a inner tube from a bicycle. Something little, but you have to tell her where her front legs have to go. Now you are  getting even more of her attention.

As a spooky wimp, she needs your confidence, lots of gentle quick rubs when she does something good. Firm voice if she doesn't. Calm voice if she is restless.

Also try the same routine every day.... this will make things seem like 'old hat' to her and not so spooky tmrw.

After this, I'd look and climbing on board, have a friend, neighbour anyone horsey come and help you at this stage.

Answer 4

The biggest thing is start with lunging. If you have a round pen that you can let her off would be best. Do join-up with her a few times before putting a saddle on her, and then gradually put the saddle on her and do some more join-up with her with it on. After she doesn't seem to care about the saddle, get some bags and put sand in them and let her wonder around for a few min, and then lunger her with the sand bags on the saddle. They act as the weight as if you were in the saddle. Once she is okay with that get her up by the fence and climb on it, and up and down until she doesn't care your on the fence, rest your butt on the seat of the saddle, that way if she takes off or decides to buck u will still be on the railing and won't get hurt. Once she is okay with the weight on her back stand beside her and wiggle the sturrips, and pick them up and drop them against her side so she doesn't care about anything hitting her sides. Once that is fine put a foot in the stirrup and slowly climb up, you may want to do this a few times before swining the leg over her back unless your confident enough.

Answer 5

It sounds like you've made great progress with her so far.

If she lets you put on a saddle, the next thing to do is get her used to having the cinch snugged up and then slapping the saddle and swinging the stirrups to get her used to the noise it makes and how it feels.  Ideally,  you should do this in a round pen or other limited space area where she can run around without a rider, but you can also lunge her.  When she's calm and relaxed with that,  teach her to start accepting weight on her back.  First, put your foot in the stirrup, get part way on, and then step off of her.  Do this a few times to get her used to weight on one side of her body.  Then change sides and do it on her other side.  It will feel a bit awkward for you.

When she accepts that, next you can get halfway on and just lean across her back.  Both your legs will be on one side so you can dismount quickly if needed.  When she accepts that, you can mount completely into the saddle.  Pat her and let her know she is good, then get off and quit for the day. If you stay on her too long the first time, she will start to worry that you may never get off her back.  By dismounting quickly, she will learn that you don't intend to stay there forever, and she will be more relaxed the next time.

It is also very helpful to have another rider on an experienced horse to pony her around in an enclosed area while you are on her as a passenger.  The other horse will give her confidence and the other rider will help control her if she gets scared.

Good luck.

Answer 6

Highera trainer

Answer 7

Good for you for rescuing your mare from an abusive situation, and good for you for your patience.  I recommend a lot of ground work.  Start out with lounging until she responds to commands.  You can lounge with a saddle on so she'll get used to the feel of it.  I like to ground drive my young horses before I get on them.  It teaches them to respond to rein pressure and to stop on command.  Good luck with your mare.

Answer 8

If it were me, I wouldn't be real concerned with saddle breaking until I get all of the kinks worked out of her on the ground first.

If she is still spooky & you have no experience with training, find someone who is to help you out.  Right now ground work is what needs to be done starting from halter breaking, sacking out & working up to lunging & then under saddle.  You do not want to push too hard & you don't want to get on a spooky horse, it could be dangerous both physically for you & the horse & mentally for the horse.  She needs confidence in herself & confidence in you, this will come with more countless hours of just everyday ground work.

I understand your wanting to take the mare to school with you, but just remember that pushing her can & will set her back.  Your lack of experience in training will show as a lack of confidence & she WILL sense it.

Go slow!  Have patience!  Don't be afraid to ask for help from a person YOU trust!

Good Luck with the horse & with school.

Answer 9

This is going to sound crazy but my first aresenal when dealing with a spooky horse is a feeding regimen that lends itself to a calmer horse. If a horse is hotter it is going to be naturally more reactive to its surroundings. This is not to say food is a replacement for competent training but I have had horses who were dubbed as spooky but just hyped up on grain and sugar. First off I would put the horse on a rice bran based feed, no mollasses, no starches a high fat feed. Also make sure to feed the horse for his work level. Many horses are simply overfed. Stay away from high glycemic based feeds like barley, corn etc.

On to training, it sounds as though she trusts you but does not have confidence in herself. To get you to understand what I mean say your friends invited you to go rock climbing. When you arrived at the mountain it was a scary death fearing size of a rock and you said NO WAY AM I GOING UP THERE, I WILL DIE FOR SURE. What if those same friends brought you out to a little easy trail up a small mountain, then next time the mountain was a little more difficult, and then the next time a little harder, before you knew it you were climbing that rock that scared the daylights out of you before. What you want to do with your horse is climb the little mountain first, let her build up her confidence with the little things and then move her on to bigger (scarier) things by developing her confidence. When I was younger I never did well if someone pushed me in to doing something when I was scared it made me resist more, but when someone introduced me to it and allowed me to work through it myself I developed the confidence in myself rather than just being scared the other person was pushing me in to it. I hope I explaining all of this well because it is the foundation for all training. Little increments but first and foremost the horses confidence and calmness about a new situation must come first. Now with all that said, a spooky horse also tends to be horse that wants to crowd your space, when they get scared they want to leap on you for comfort. Work long and hard getting her to move away from pressure on every point of her body. Make sure you get some ground control DVDs, like Clinton Anderson, Parelli, any of those and follow them. This is for your safety and also to teach the horse that they must respect your space and that you are the leader. Horse feel most comfortable when their human is the LEADER.  If you are not the leader, why on earth should she be comfortable with you? You won't be able to defend her from predators....she needs someone who she sees as a leader and she will happily follow anywhere, not because she feels like it out of curiousity but because she trusts wherever you take her she is safe.

Hope all this helps. Good luck with your training! :~)