Question: I own a 3 year old TWH.  This gelding is very friendly, with lovely gaits. My problem is when my horse spooks at new or unexpected things, he spooks violently.  I mean jumps over about 3 feet on the trail.  I've been able to keep my seat so far, but
had a bad experience the other day.  A man popped out from behind a bush in front of a house, my horse jumped about 3+ feet and RAN!  I lost my seat and lost my horse.  He was scared to death and ran for home.  The bad part is he had to cross a highway and
its a miracle he didn't get hurt. Can you help me help him?

Hi,

Your horse is still so young and had so little time going undersaddle. Each horse can react to the unexpected in many different ways. With one that is doing this I would spend much more time in contained area to work in right (ring) now but also make it interesting with
obstacles and change them around from time to time, nothing spooky at this point but ground poles and barrels, cones. This horse needs more time to build his trust in you to know what ever you encounter together he will rely on you to get past it. I would also recommend when out trial riding ,ride with someone else that has a good quiet experienced trail horse that does not spook. Do not go out alone and not with out a helmet on.

Elizabeth

Hi, 

I feel that the thing for you to do is to study a complete training system that addresses your horse's two big issues:  fear, and lack of control.  Pat Parelli, John Lyons and many others have complete horse training systems that address the big problems like this.  I think that it's best not to mix systems, pick the one that is the easiest one for you to understand and follow it.

Carol Camp Tosh