Trail Safety Part 2: Off the Farm

Learn to recognize signs of tension
and fear in your horse before it
gets out of hand.

Out on the trail anything can happen, and even the most bombproof horse can get tense and frightened, not to mention rider's nerves getting the better of them.  Luckily there are plenty of things you can do to relax both you and your horse while you're on the trail.

The first thing you have to do is recognize signs of tension and fear in a horse.  Look for a high head, tense back and shoulders and extreme stillness.  Horses will also have their ears either pointed at the source of the fear, or flicking back and forth in some way.  They will stand with weight on all four legs, or dance around and shift their feet.  This is sometimes accompanied by snorting or blowing, and you will usually be able to see the whites of their eyes.

Even if you don't see all the signs mentioned above, you will most likely be able to notice when your horse is nervous, provided you're paying attention.  The first step is to retreat to a spot where your horse is comfortable again, and then take a little personal inventory.  The key here is don't feed into your horse's fear.  Focus on yourself for a moment.  Take some deep breaths, shake out your shoulders and back to relieve any tension, and just hang out for a bit until you feel calm and relaxed.  Tell yourself that you aren't going to fall, that you've got this.  Make sure that you don't tighten the reins when you get scared.  Every rider does it out of instinct, but this will only feed your horse's fear.  Keep your reins loose.

Now that you've relaxed yourself, your horse won't be as tense while you deal with the scary situation.  Ride back towards the scary thing and try to identify it.  Once you know what it is, or at least where it is, you can start to tackle the problem.  Start at the very edge of your horse's comfort zone and work your way towards the fear while doing the following exercises.  Designed to engage your horse's mind and encourage him/her to ignore whatever is frightening them, they also work to keep you relaxed and in control:

1. The first is to make circles.  This is a simple way to distract your horse, and is also helpful for loosening up the neck (and jaw if you've got a bit in) should it (they) have become stiff.  You can make the circle spiral in and out, and reverse direction through the circle, all the time moving towards the fear.  If your horse starts to react again, or if you feel nervous, stay in that area or move a little farther away until it feels good again.

See #2

2. The next thing you can do is what I call Front, Back, Left and Right.  Start standing in the middle of the trail, then walk your horse forward just a few steps, stop and rein-back, then side-pass straight over to the left, and back to the right.  Repeat as necessary.  All of this should be done fairly quickly, and the order can be changed around as desired.  As with all the exercises I will mention, they can be modified to fit what works for you and your horse.  You should still keep moving to the fear.

3. The third thing you can do, space permitting, is make a long zig-zag pattern either staying on one side of the fear and moving towards it or walking past it repeatedly, thus increasing and then releasing pressure, however far away you need to be.  Make sure you get a little closer with each pass unless one of you gets nervous again.  You can also incorporate lateral work like leg-yielding to further focus your horse and you away from the fear.

See #3

4. The last thing you can do, which is good for limited space, is to walk until your horse starts to get nervous, and then simply stand until they relax, then move forward again until you are right up to the scary thing.  This is not as recommended as the other methods, as you have to be careful because getting to stop could reward your horse for being nervous.  Strategy is key here, and the goal is to reward your horse for being brave.

This horse is trotting on the bit, very relaxed.

Something you can do for all the exercises above is to put your horse on the bit to get them supple, relaxed and focused on you.  This can be done in both a bridle and rope halter, though I wouldn't recommend doing it for long periods with a rope halter, as your horse could begin to ignore lighter cues.

This article has more great ways to relax the both of you on the ground, on trail and in the ring.

Once you've worked your way close to the scary thing, loosen your reins and just stand near it for a little while.  Allow your horse to investigate, touching and smelling it, even picking it up (so long as it won't harm the horse, or ruin something important).  Make sure you're sitting steady in the saddle, ready in case your horse scares him/herself, but not tense.  When you're both feeling comfortable, you can go on with your ride, knowing that the two of you are better for the experience.  You should always make things like this into learning experiences for both of you, instead of just avoiding the frightening thing or pushing quickly past it.  That way you know that you'll have one of the best trail horses there is, and your horse will know that no matter what comes up, their  rider will make sure no harm comes to them.  Happy trails!