You are courting disaster when you ride a pony that is very easily spooked. Such horses are deadly to themselves, to their riders and those in the vicinity. In nature’s food chain, horses are among the hunted, and thus they have strong instinctive flight or fight reactions. When they encounter danger, they shy and bolt. Extra-sensitive horses can be spooked by the most innocuous of things, and are rated to be threatening and problematic.
They needn’t be written off nonetheless , there are some things that may be done to put some steel in an over-sensitive horse. These things are best when the horse is young and in training. When you catch them young and train them correctly, they’re going to turn into spook-proof adults.
You start by lunging the horse for a bit. He gets to work off excessive energy this way. Keep him on a halter and lead rope and head towards him at a slow speed holding an old saddle pad or blanket. Let him sniff it. Don’t rush the horse “let him do things at his very own pace. Take it slow in introducing the blanket again if he spooks or steps back. Let him get used to the blanket.
When the blanket bothers him no more, take it a step further. Move the blanket around a bit and flap it around, making sure your actions are not sudden. This way, you are getting rid of your horse’s touchiness around flapping objects. Your horse is going to act up a bit and show discomfort at 1st but keep persisting and soon he will be taking the blanket without hesitation.
You go on to the next phase. Still using soft motions, you swing the blanket such that it touches him gently. Keep up the motion and after a while lay the blanket on his back and a little later, over all his body. Your final goal is his head. Once you’re able to get the blanket onto his head without any frightened reactions, you can consider the larger part of your endeavour successful. Throw the blanket around his feet, let him get used to objects under his hooves: this is another critical part of numbing him. When he becomes uninterested in the blanket under his hooves, you have done with this session.
It is time to reward him for being a good student!
In the subsequent session, swap the blanket for a soft rope and work on the horse with the rope in just about the same way as with the blanket. Get the horse to be disinterested about a rope dangling round his limbs and body. The rope lesson can be especially constructive as later the horse could have bits of snapped tack flying off around him. Tack snapping could be a potential disaster with the untrained horse. Keep moving the rope (taking care never to make movements that might be construed as being threatening) between the legs, under the belly and around the face of the horse. When the horse stops noticing the rope round his face, you’re thru with this session.
It’s time for the last session. Horses have a bizarre apathy to plastic bags and you want to work that fear out of your pony. Take a bag to your horse and make him smell it. Use a long lead rope to hold your horse and tie the bag to a lunging whip. Swing the whip around. To start with, your horse will probably shy and back away from what may seem to him to be a frightful object. Take care not to spook your pony with sudden movements, keep shaking the bag in the near vicinity of your horse until he starts to ignore it. When that occurs, bring the bag in contact with his skin and move it all around his body. Move it beneath his feet and under his bell. When he shows no reaction to you moving the bag round his head, this session is over.
Remember: keep the sessions going at your horse’s pace. Reward him when each session ends. Make sure you do nothing that may be even a little traumatic, or you will ruin his psyche, probably for life. Don’t relax after the first successful course. Repeat your sessions at regular intervals to be sure your pony stays numbed.