Spook. Definition: "That unpredictable, unnecessary, unseating equine response to what seems to be a perfectly harmless sight or sound." For riders it can be frustrating and even scary. All horses, even the so-called bombproof ones, spook from time to time. Some seem to be constantly on the lookout for the slightest danger lurking behind every door, bush or jump standard.

It is important to understand, as much as possible, the reason behind our horse’s behaviour if we want to train it and modify it. Failure to do this is a result of "anthropomorphism" (a good work to throw around if you want to impress people) which is attributing human characteristics to our horses, assuming that they perceive the world the way we do. However, God wired horses differently than humans. I hear a wide range of explanations of equine behaviour from owners who send me their horses for training. "He’s got a sense of humor." " He doesn’t like men." Old wives tales abound in our industry and with them lots of unsuccessful methods of "de-spooking" them. Let’s look first at the reasons why horses spook and then I’ll give you some practical ways to manage them. One important thing to realize about horses is that they have a "fright-then-flight" instinct. Unlike humans, who can reason through a disturbing situation, horses leave town without hanging around to ask questions! For instance, have you ever noticed when a horse catches his blanket on something or gets his leg caught in a fence, he won’t stop to analyze his problem but will wildly try to escape, often leaving a wreck behind him? As a trainer, I can’t determine what a horse is afraid of, but I can train him that fleeing from it is not an option. We’ll discuss some practical ways of how to do this later.

SIGHTS AND SOUNDS

Horses startle at things that don’t even register with us because their senses are generally more reactive than ours.

A horse’s eyes are among the largest of all mammals and are situated on the side of his head; he picks up activity almost all the way around himself. Unlike a human, a horse can detect movement from behind (including much of his rider’s movement) and this can be alarming to him. Complicating things for the work we ask of him, this wide field of vision picks up scary moving things but not the details of them, because of limited depth perception. The horse runs from the monster without knowing it IS a monster.

A horse’s ears are its radar, swiveling around to pick up danger signals. The left and right ear work independently, identifying sound coming from either side, from the rider or from the front. I remind my riders to watch their horse’s ears as a warning for a spook-in-the-making, or to confirm he’s aware of their voice command.

The horse can detect a wider range of sound frequencies than we can. Shying that we might discount as the imaginary "Bogeyman" could be because of a real sound that the horse picked up but the rider did not.

A LOOK INSIDE THE HORSE’S BRAIN

Equine and human brains function in similar ways but differ structurally. The brain has different parts; each has a special function; and these parts differ in the size between humans and horses. One example with an application to spooking is that a horse has a smaller mass of nerve fibers which connects the right and left hemispheres of his brain. This explains the frustrating experience of schooling a horse past a frightening object only to find as you circle past it in the opposite direction that he acts like he’s never seen it before!

Understanding what makes horses tick enables us to control their fright/flight instinct. To look on the bright side, frightening situations are opportunities to test out horses, and to encourage them to keep focused on the rider, no matter what. In the next issue, I’ll give you a blow-by-blow game plan to help you control a spook.

Lindsay Grice