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Someone dumped two pigs at the farm which caused all the horses to go completely CRAZY. I have never seen Tucker so scared of anything for such an extended period of time. Of course all the other horses going equally insane did not help. There was no place on the farm I could retreat to that got him thinking and focused back on me. No game, object or tactic I played with caused him to calm down. The truth is it chipped away at my confidence. He was in an elevated and terrified state and I knew any kind of pressure from me would result in a complete meltdown and explosion and I just did not know what to do with him. Every movement of grass caused him to completely go out of his skin. I eventually just let him go and watched him run and prance around, head high, continuously snorting. He was scary to me in that state because there was no thinking going on. It was right brained on steroids. What if he acted like this while we were out on the trail?
Where do I go from here?
"There is nothing better for the inside of a man than the outside of a horse." Ronald Reagan
Tucker
Lance & Freckles
Tucker
Lance & Freckles
Comments
I've seen Linda use a very firm touch and go up to a horse that was that flighty and ungrounded and wiggle his neck back and forth firmly. The firm touch is reassuring, helps them focus back on you, and wiggling their neck like that naturally helps them relieve some of their tension.
And if he knows how to lower his head on command, that is the first thing you do, is have him lower his head. And yes, he'll put it right back up again. You just keep bringing his head down calmly and patiently over and over and over. Or at least, its one thing I've seen people do in a situation like that...
There's no right or wrong answers, sometimes when horses are that panicked all you can do is let go. Wait it out. Be more persistent than they are. Other times you have to match their energy and get REALLY REALLY BIG to get the message across that you ARE the leader and YOU SAY ITS OK. I find it really really hard to be that calm, kind and firm all at once, but I've seen it done. Its probably light years ahead of what I'm capable of, but I like the idea a lot.
And sometimes doing the walking back and forth thing, approaching not directly but zigging and zagging helps...letting them stop at their thresholds...but you know...it was PIGS, that really is pretty scary for a horse...be kind to yourself, and rest assured that one way or another your horsemanship will probably grow from this.
Oh, and by the way, one time a bat flew into the indoor arena where Sage was being boarded at the time. What did I do? Shriek and dive for cover in Sage's mane. Oh yeah, fearless leader. That's me. :P