[horses2love]

In my introduction I introduced my one mare Summer. I have had her over 2 years and I have done lots on the ground work with her. She is great but when it comes to riding her confidence is very shaky. She is for one a very high strung horse and anything different in her enviroment will set her off. I have started to walk her to different areas and I do ride with others when there is an oppurtunity, but I am hoping to be able to ride her more on her own as this would help her confidence more.

Does anyone have any ideas as to her Summer not be so frightful of new areas. I am going to ride her more around home base again and then when she feels good about that then I guess I will do the baby steps as to going further outside of her comfort zone. Does this seem to be in the right direction?

[AMD]

Do easy things to get her confidence up in her "safe" places. Until she is confident there, don't venture out.

Each horse is different as to what they are nervous about, is it that you are above her, behind her eye, or just not ready for a rider up there yet? Its hard to diagnose over the internet. But if you really want to venture out and make her figure it out, a trail ride with trees, water, rocks, and lots of good safe horses around you could be the best thing for her, she has to think but gets confidence in the outdoors with the other guys.

[eqtrainer]

You want to try and desensitize her of all of the scary things that can show up while riding lol. Rub plastic bags over her, make different noises with things, flap your hands, snap longe whips, tap her all over in a steady pace.

The goal is to do each one of these things to get her used to it. At first, she will probably freak, but do not stop doing what you're doing with the object until she has stopped moving. When she has, then praise her.

Get really creative with it!!! Swing longe whips over her head, get toys that make crazy sounds, anything you can think of that is out of the ordinary. When she finally understands that if she stands quitely and moves quitely, it is much easier on both her and you.

[Bruce Wiley]

The confidence come first from it's handler.
Create a good working routine plan.
Have him to do this and to do that, helping him to win in every way but try to get things done efffectively, correctly.

When you ask or request your horse to do something and he does it correctly everytime, then he is gainning confidence in you and himself.
Now you and your horse began to feel pleased about the performance.

You the teacher notices that the horse's interests in learning at that time is very high.
You should then mix things up, including emotional training for those scary things.
The main thing is to pace the lessons knowing when, how what to teach.
Start him out slow and easy, building up because the horse is already gear to wait and see if he will be eaten and to learn it wasn't a big deal.

He now take on a better attuide about everythings, even when facing flying, falling, and changes in shapes,loud sounds & quick movements in it's environment.
I hope this helps.

[John]

Some horses require the trainer to be more dominant in order to feel safe. But not to much!! Read Ridgrrls thread "some basic truths about horses."

[royalrox]

well at first I wouldn't try to take her to different places for a while until she has confidence at home, whenever she gets anxious if she doing a more diffucult task ask her to do something easy, whether that's stopping, walking, just whatever you know she can do, then praise her like she just saved the world, one of the horses I show had the girl that was leasing him jump him higher than she should have and he crashed through several jumps during a schooling break and he started refusing, I worked with him and this worked well I would jump poles and sfterwards praise him to death eventually he was back to his hot shot self and jumping 3'6" again hehe

[horses2love]

Thanks for the advice. I have started doing small steps. Because I don't know Summer history I am not aware of what she has been trained to do or not. I feel that working her around her safe area is the best route. When I am able to ride with someone then we will go out to help her with her confidence. (only if they have a confidencent horse)
I have done lots of desensitize games with her and that is why she does well on the ground. I will go back to that again just to build her confidence as well as she may feel not secure. You never know I may have to play these games ever once in awhile with her.

Now what about going for walks around the area? I wouldn't be riding her I will just be leading her a little ways away from home.