Spooking is a natural reaction

HORSES that spook can put people off riding ... spooking can range from a small glance to a full on skitter sideways or backwards or even upwards, depending on your horse's temperament, writes Helen Blake.

It's a natural reaction for a horse - its survival in the wild depends on reacting instantly and getting away from anything unusual or strange in its environment.

Horses are constantly looking for anything threatening, which is why they spook. While the horse thinks he has good reason to leap off, in turn potentially ejecting his rider, it is not a good situation ... in fact it's a pain.

Not only can it be very scary and extremely dangerous but it will lose you marks in a dressage test, interrupt a show jumping round or riding lesson.

Spooking can take the rider totally by surprise, because when the flight instinct kicks in, every second counts to a horse, half a second could mean the difference between life and death in the wild.

Some horse's spookiness is mild and in these instances giving him a bit of space from the scary object and bending his head and neck away from it may be all that's needed to keep him in the right direction.

Alternatively, you may feel your horse getting scared, his heart beat speeding up, as the rest of his body goes into high-headed super alert position.

If you have a horse that's easily spooked, try to desensitise him. There are lots of things you can do because the more a horse sees; the less spooked he'll be in the long run.

So, if you have a horse that has certain 'issues' - perhaps he doesn't like vehicles, flowers, flags, bottles, gates, whatever it is, then using common sense and imagination you could invent your own de-spooking programme.

When a horse spooks it's a 'get me out of here' thought pattern so the idea is to change that thought pattern. The rider must be sensitive to the horse as he relies on you to let him know it's OK and not scary.

Instinct, on most riders part, is to grip and tense up as soon as the horse starts to spook - getting ready for the inevitable fall (yes, self-preservation, I can fully understand it) however, it's not what the horse wants to feel as he immediately thinks 'Oh no, she's scared too. This MUST be a really scary object. I had better run away NOW!'

He needs to feel you relax and say 'Hey, this is not scary, it's fine' at the same time diverting his attention to a non-scary object.

All well and good in theory, anyway it's something to practice and have a go at over the remainder of the summer. It's the same for humans as well as horses - the only way to overcome our fears is to confront them head-on!