Horse is now scared of bridges...How can I work him through this.?

Question

The scarriest thing happened to me yesterday...at the barn i ride at, i was asked to ride a boarders horse, hes a big ex racer and kinda nervous, so she asked me to ride him over a bridge over a ditch in the paddock for the first time, when he stepped on it, his foot went through the bridge, and he panicked and tried to bolt, we got his foot out and calmed him down and he wasn't hurt at all... so today we decided to bring him up to it again, but we had a very bad reaction, and he eded up rearing, this defintly scared me, he's 17hh on the ground, rearing up he's like the empire state building...i don't know how to bring him over the bridge again without rearing or getting scared since it's very dangerous obviously for everyone involved. any help would be cool, thanks:)xoxox

Answer 1

2 lines on each side with two  people, stay out of his range an carry grain or carrots orsomething good, that he really likes. the people must stay very very calm. have faith in him truly believe that he can do it. walk him around the bridge if possible and just let him be by it. when he is calm an comfortable try to get him close to it. get him to take one step at a time DO NOT rush him. an when he does, give him a treat to take his mind off the breidge, this il take time courage and patients. dont discourage if you can't get him over it in one day, set small goals for him. good luck

Answer 2

For the first few times, take a buddy horse and rider, one that isn't the least bit afraid of bridges or anything, the confidence will wear off on your horse...and you, because if you are feeling anxiety, it transfers to your horse as well.  Have the buddy horse snub him as a lead horse would do a racing horse on the race track, but one thing that I wouldn't do...try to lead him over...you are absolutely powerless (I don't care how many people are helping) to do anything should he decide to bolt or go over the edge.  Remember, it's a whole new deal coming back on the bridge from the other side...everything looks different to your horse, so take the same precautions.

Answer 3

Tellington TTouch is awesome for this kind of thing.  Go to www.tellingtontouch.com and see if there is a practitioner in your area.

What you will want to do is break down the process for him.  Bridges have a wooden (normally) path, side rails and are over things.  Take each one of these elements and let him investigate it away from the actual bridge.  Have him walk over some wood similar to the one on the bridge making it wider at first and then narrower.  Have a person stand on either side holding railing shaped items that he has to walk through, again far apart at first making it narrower.  

This all helps the animal develop coping skills and gets in a win/win situation so the bridge will become no big deal.  

Best of luck, this is fixable.

Answer 4

I'm sorry that happened, but you must realize bridges are scary anyway, they may not seem this way to you, but they echo, and vibrate under your horses feet anyway, and dont feel completely stable. When a horse is being lead by you, he  feels you are the herd leader and you are in control, he would follow you to food, water, and shelter because you are the leader and he thinks you will take care of him, so everything is less scary, if you dont show your fear of the bridge and walk right over it, and dont look back at him, and just keep going keeping constant steady pressure on his lead rope he may hesitate, but h**l probably follow you across, not perfectly, but h**l probably go across. but he probably did this yesterday because when you are on him you are 'in control' but really, he is responsible for your safety in his mind. if he falls you fall, if he runs you run, you are his passenger. So he feels he must protect you this way, so if you can regain his trust going over  it on the ground first, then he might be a little more open minded about going over it with you on him...again im sorry....good luck!

Answer 5

YOU must not take horse over a unsafe bridge!  Now you have a lot more ground work to make this horse "trust the bridge"...  

I wouldn't even ask this horse or any other to go across that bridge again!  The barn owner shouldn't allow horses on there....  

Now you have lots of work, since the idea was to show him it was a safe thing you were asking him to do!  I would try ground work and obstacles in an arena to get him going over, on top of things.  Once he figures out he is okay, and he trusts you it will be much better!

Answer 6

Start by standing far away (with him at halter), but so he can still see the bridge. Just stand there, talk to him in a soothing voice, and pet him softly. After 5-10 minutes walk away. The next day, try moving him a bit closer, and do the same thing as the first day (stand there next to him, talk to him, and pet him). After 5-10 minutes walk away. The next day go a little closer to the bridge and do the same things as the previouse days. After 5-10 minutes, walk away. Now by the 4th day, he should be about 15-20 feet away from the bridge. Do the exact same things as the 3 days before. After 5-10 minutes, walk away. Now on the 5th day, you should be about 10 feet away, and do exactly as you have before. Then on the 6th day, bring him 2 feet or so away, so that he is close to the bridge, but far enough away that he doesn't feel pressured to walk over it. Keep talking to him softly and petting him. Now on the 7th day you should walk him all the way to the bridge so his hooves are inches away from touching the bridge, but don't take him over it. Pet him and talk to him. And finally on the 8th day, bring him so his feet are a few inches away like the day before, wait for 5 minutes talking and petting him, and then lead him a step or 2 on the bridge, and then wait, and then take him all the way over. Give him a cookie and several good pets.

This WILL take a long time! But that is the only way to do it! You have to take your time when a horse is scared. Even though to you it might just be a bridge that accidently broke, to him it is a big scary beast that tryed to eat him! You need to get his confidence back, and get him to trust that you won't hurt him. Make sure you are NEVER scared or nervouse, if you are, he will be too! Before you know it, he'll be crossing bridges with no trouble at all! Good luck, and take it SLOW! :)

Answer 7

try not riding him over it or walking him over it.  walk him near it and watch his reaction. if its good, try going a little closer but kinda watch what he is feeling.  get him to the point where he isnt scared of walking near it. then try walking him over it.  if he spook dont worry if its in the pasture wheres the furthest he could run.  Its your life that you are putting in danger if he rears and you dont back away or let him go.  do this until he is comfortable walking over it. then you can try riding if you really feel up to it.  remember it is your life you dont have to do it if you dont feel comfortable doing it.  if you are up to it you can do the same thing you did walking riding. good luck and happy trails.

Answer 8

first off, I don't mean to jump on your case, but why on earth were you attempting to ride him over an unsafe bridge?

Right now he feels betrayed to put it in human terms. In horse terms his alpha asked him to do something that injured him so he no longer trusts that alphas judgement.

It will be hard now that he's been hurt to get him back to the point of crossing a bridge. Try laying making a fake bridge. Just on the ground no height involved. Put it in an area he is turned out in. When he gets used to it being there, ie walks over it or close to it, on his own not paying it any more mind, move it to an area that he has to walk over it to get to his food. Let him go on his not forcing or scareing him.

When he starts going across it unbothered then put some 4x4's underneath to raise it slightly. repeat the process. Before long he'll think nothing of it as it will just be literally "an everday thing"

After he gets used to all that start actually leading him across it, you being in control might make a difference. Once you have leading him across down pat, progress to riding him across it.

Do all this before you try to get him to cross any other actual bridge. I'd strongly suggest his first real bridge crossing not be the one that injured him. It's going to take a lot of confidence building to get him safely back onto that particular bridge.

Rearing is very dangerous and if he did get on an actual bridge and rear he might go off the side landing on the rider. I've saw that happen and it's not pretty.

Answer 9

Lots and lots of great advice so far...the best being to inspect the bridge and make sure it's sound, and repair it before trying anything else.  That's the first, glaringly obvious step.

My next step would be to lead him around it, and place his absolute favorite treat in front of it, then gradually move the subsequent treat further onto the bridge.

Answer 10

Make the wrong thing hard and the right thing easy. (First, fix that hole and make sure the bridge is sound!!) Lunge him next to the bridge in a circle. Move closer and closer to the bridge and let him check it out. He'll want to run away at first but just keep him going closer and closer to it. Make him work whenever he's NOT on the bridge and if he ends up on it, let him rest. Make the bridge his resting spot and off the bridge hard! You can use the same technique on a horse that won't trailer load as well. Good luck!

****addition****

I forgot to add, you can also send him between you and the scary object (just a half-circle lunge) which will get him looking at the scary object faster. Just remember, start out close but get closer and closer, pretty soon they'll be ontop of the scary object!

Answer 11

I have many brides that I have to cross to ride. Pony Pull him!!!! Do it a few times!! He will loosen up!!! Pony pull him with his buddy horse if you can. That horse will help him relax over the bridge!

Answer 12

Maybe try leading him over some boards that might look like a bridge and walk him over them back and forth. his fear will leave once he's seen it's safe.

Answer 13

lead him over when your one  the ground. and jsut slowly bring him near it. talk to him and comfort him. he'll soon be over it

Answer 14

Have another horse go across the bridge first and he should follow.  You may have to have the first horse go across a couple of times, but it should work.

You could also lead him across a couple of times.

Answer 15

i agree with bobbi about using a buddy horse or even a pony horse to coax him over the bridge.if you use a pony horse make sure that you have an very experianced rider riding the pony horse in case of a blow up.