Riding a spooky horse can be a difficult and anxiety-ridden experience for horse and rider alike. If you’re looking for ways to help a spooky horse, we’re here to help! It can be frustrating for your horse to repeatedly spook at seemingly uninteresting things, but it’s important to understand the basic reactions and root of the problem if you’re ever going to understand, and therefore help, your spooky horse.
First, we should consider what causes horses to become spooky in the first place.
Why do Horses Spook?
Unfortunately, a level of nervousness and occasional spooking is to be expected with horses. As a prey animal, they instinctually must be aware of potential predators. Sudden, extremely loud, noises might make the calmest of horses spook sometimes, so it’s important to understand what is normal and what is not.
If your horse is spooking and typical every-day things that should never reasonably cause a horse to spook, there might be something you can do about it.
Here are some underlying reasons that might cause a horse to be spooky:
- A nervous rider
- Unruly or inexperienced horse
- Health issues
- Magnesium deficiency
Now let’s get into some simple and practical steps you can take to help your spooky horse.
Find a Good Magnesium Supplement
A magnesium deficiency can be one of the underlying reasons that a horse is a bit spookier than usual. A lack of magnesium has been proven to cause horses stress and make them more nervous. This tip works well for riders and horses of all experience levels.
There are a number of reasons why a horse might be lacking in magnesium:
- Regular food sources lacking magnesium
- Competing nutrients such as a diet high in potassium
- No magnesium supplements being given
If you want to make sure your horse isn’t feeling nervous due to a lack of magnesium, you can safely give them a magnesium dietary supplement. (If you aren’t convinced, you can actually find magnesium supplements for humans to try out first! I take magnesium regularly and it helps me sleep, so I feel good about riders giving them to their horses.)
Here is a quick list of our favorite magnesium supplements for horses: (affiliate links)
Of course, before choosing a supplement, it would be best to find out if magnesium really works for spooky horses or not!
Ride Your Spooky Horse More Confidently
If you feel confident and relaxed, your horse will feel that. On the other hand, if you are anxious and worried at any moment, your horse will adopt those same feelings and is much more likely to become spooked. Being nervous also naturally causes us to shrink into poor riding positions. Always work on riding more confidently and work on your seat.
Riding a horse that’s known to be spooky can make you more nervous and that can, in turn, make the whole situation worse. Work on a mind-over-matter approach and try to trick yourself into feeling relaxed and confident as if you’re not worried that the horse will spook.
This tip might work well for moderately spooky horses being ridden by riders with less experience, but for excessively spooky horses there might be something bigger behind their anxiety.
Take an Approach Unique to Your Horse
As you well know, each horse is extremely unique and full of personality. If your horse is inexperienced, it may very well be spooking naturally as a part of a fight or flight response after seeing things it has never seen before or hearing new noises. In this case, it might be best to take small steps in helping your horse to get used to the new sights and sounds. Of course, this route can be combined with a magnesium supplement for extra efficacy.
On the other hand, if your horse isn’t inexperienced, rather, unruly, it might be best to ask for the assistance of a more experienced rider to help you out.
Take Your Horse to The Vet
If you don’t think that your horse’s nerves are coming from a behavior or experience issue, it’s extremely possible that it is happening because of some health issue. Here are some potential issues linked with spookiness:
- Cataracts
- Kissing spines
- Gastric ulcers
Poor eyesight due to cataracts or some other issue can spook a horse because they won’t easily be able to identify what they are seeing or hearing. You might even be able to identify cataracts yourself!
Your veterinarian will be able to rule out or confirm these health issues and help to get your horse on the right track of health and out of their spookiness!
You Can Calm Your Spooky Horse
Whether the issue is inexperience, unruliness, health, or magnesium deficiency, don’t give up! Your horse can be trained or helped to ride confidently and calmly with time. If you’re looking for a more general calming supplement, check out our blog on the best calming supplements for horses.