Ask The Horse Trainer!
 
Email training questions to David at dave@practicalequinetraining.com and each Galloping Grape Newsletter he will select from submissions and provide an answer.  Please use the subject line of “Galloping Grape Training Question.”
 
Question:  10 yr old Tennessee Walker... he's very very quiet and sweet. On the trail he can be spooky. When he does spook, he "spooks, spins and bolts"... faster than you know what hit ya. How can you stop the spinning and bolting?
 
David’s Answer:  This is one of the most difficult questions to answer in a short column—I could write two chapters of a book on this topic.  Trail riding, safely, actually requires a much better relationship with your horse, and greater control, than any other activity you can do.  It is not the place to learn to gain control, but the place to demonstrate and exercise the control and cues you’ve learned together in a safe learning environment.  It is a completely uncontrolled environment, depending of course on where the trails are which you’re riding.  But the situations you encounter together are potentially unexpected, completely beyond your control, and could be physically dangerous.  It is a test of the trust, confidence, respect, and communication the two of you share.  And any reaction the other riders and horses have to the situation may compound the difficulty.  All exercises and scenarios below should first be taught using a full cheek snaffle bit.  Once it is a conditioned response, the bit should be irrelevant.
 
Step 1 is building a foundation of trust, respect and confidence with your horse using ground exercises and saddle exercises at home.  There are plenty of DVD’s and videos you can purchase from all the current clinicians to learn some.  As a minimum, you must repeat disengagement exercises from the ground and saddle on both sides until it is a conditioned response for both of you, and you should be able to confidently perform them from a walk, trot, and canter under saddle.  Hip control using a rein is the foundation for all control, both physical and emotional, and permits you to take control of your horse’s feet at any time.  Whenever something untoward happens with your horse, on the trail, arena, or anywhere, your first action should be to stop your horse, to stop all 4 feet from moving.  There is nothing safer, unless of course a bear is coming for the two of you, then I would advise spinning and trying to outrun the other folks riding with you.  When your horse knows you can and will do this (disengagement, not running from bears), at any time, it very likely will NOT move its feet.
 
Step 2 of the foundation is teaching your horse to separate its feelings from its behavior.  Almost always, it is doing what it is feeling.  If you want to change what it is doing, change the way it feels.  Eventually, you want to separate its feelings from its behavior, and eventually show it you are consistent and dependable, and there is no need for it to feel insecure, afraid, or angry—in effect, teaching it to not only control its behavior regardless of its feelings, but showing it to control even its feelings.  The first way to do this is to teach it 3 head down cues—two from the ground, and one using the reins from the saddle.  You should be able to put pressure down on a lead shank attached to a halter and have the nose drop to and touch the ground and stay there.  Same with pressure on the top of the poll with your hand.  And from the saddle, you need to be able to reach forward and pull one rein straight up, and have the horse take its nose to the ground and stay there.  After about 5 seconds, its emotions will have dissipated. 
 
There is a specific lesson that horses should be taught, it is called Spook in Place, and best taught by a professional in a round pen.  However, I refer you to John Lyons’ Lyons on Horses, pg 69, for the best treatment in print regarding this subject, should you want to do this yourself.  The lesson objective is, “when you are afraid, don’t move your feet, turn and face the scary thing.”  And the human will take care of the situation and make the scary thing go away.  You cannot teach your horse to never be afraid.  But as Lyons says, “While I can’t control the horse’s fear, I want him to be afraid with all four of his feet on the ground.  Anyone can ride a frightened horse that has all of his hooves firmly planted on Mother Earth.” (pg 70) 
 
Once you have established a pattern of consistency, respect, and trust with control cues in a controlled environment, you can take them to the trail and practice the skills you’ve obtained.  On the trail, keep it simple.  Use your legs as the gas pedal, use your hands on the reins as the steering wheel.  Use disengagement to control your horse’s engine and maintain/regain physical control, and rein head down cues to maintain/regain emotional control.  Provide your horse leadership and guidance by giving it a purpose, even on the trail, by providing your desired direction, speed/gait, and destination desires to your horse.  You do that with FOCUS.  If you have no focus, you are leaving your horse to make its own decisions, and when startled, it will—Spin and Bolt.  If you are providing your horse a FOCUS, even when startled, your horse knows what you desire.  It will have a startle impulse, but using your focus it will stay the path.  When it is distracted, regain its focus by giving it simple tasks it can do, then increase the difficulty of your requests, and speed up the changes (trotting serpentines on the trail are great!)
 
And now the last topic, and the most difficult.  Mark Rashid has a book out entitled, Horses Never Lie, which I strongly recommend.  What that means is, over time, they become mirrors of the human they are around.  Your horse reflects you.  It is doing what it is doing for one of three reasons:  1) it is afraid; 2) it thinks that is what you want it to do; 3) you have spoiled it, it is doing whatever it desires to do, and isn’t paying you any attention.  If you want your horse to change, FIRST YOU MUST CHANGE WHAT YOU ARE DOING.  Sometimes, that means you must change within yourself.  If you are afraid, your horse will be afraid.  If you are inconsistent, emotional, and unfocused, your horse will be undependable, emotionally unstable, and doing whatever it wants (eating, socializing with other horses, fleeing from perceived dangers).  It may not understand what you want, in which case you must change the way you’re asking, not just keep repeating more loudly (kick harder!) what it can’t understand.  If you have spoiled it, you must set boundaries and rules and then consistently enforce them, and when your horse tests those boundaries you’d better be paying attention and not fail the test.  Those are topics beyond this article.
 
So the short answer to the original question is:  gain a trusting relationship with your horse founded on your consistency and mutual respect off of the trail, beginning on the ground and extending to the saddle.  When you have that, 99% of the time, there will not be any spinning and bolting on the trail.  Sometimes your horse is going to be afraid, and sometimes you will be too.  But neither of you have to extend the fear into action, when you are together.
 
Then again, should Vana & I encounter a rattlesnake on the trail, I will be asking her to spin and bolt in the other direction.  And as I said, should you be on the trail with me and we encounter a bear, you’d better be prepared to spin and bolt faster than us, because we’re going to be trying to do it faster than you…….
 
Don’t forget, if you have a particular problem plaguing you, just “Ask the Trainer.”
 
David Yauch
Practical Equine Training
dave@practicalequinetraining.com
540-229-4255
www.practicalequinetraining.com