Wednesday was a nice sunny day, and more importantly for a quiet ride on Tercel, there was no wind.  When I got to the stable Debbie asked if I wanted to ride her wild man, I shrugged and said “Sure!”  So she went out to get Tercel while I brushed off the saddle pad and girth.  Several minutes later she came in riding him bareback with the lead rope tied make reins with the tale of how Tercel had moved to the remotest part of the paddock when he saw her, instead of coming toward her and she had to go all the way back to catch him. 

Tercel was somewhat anxious when we groomed him.  Several times he moved me over (some schools of horse handling have an absolute horror about this.)  I would regain my balance, go back, and reposition Tercel where I wanted him.  He did not particularly like the slicker brush, but since most of his rain rot has disappeared I did not have to do much.  We did one change with tacking up, we put the BOT poll cap on top of his bridle instead of under it.  My original plan was to take it off when we got to the ring, but I forgot and did not remember until much later because Tercel did not sling his head.  It was a good thing that I am not trotting Tercel yet since the ground was still frozen with lots of hoof prints in the frozen sand.

As I walked Tercel around Debbie and I discussed her previous ride while Tercel and I walked past all the places where he had lost it last week.  While not as quiet as a been-there-done-that experienced school horse, he was quiet under me except by the judge’s stand.  Then I realized there was one big difference in equipment;  Debbie did not use the exercise sheets and I did.  Could it be that Tercel felt safer when wearing the exercise sheets?  Did the warmth from the BOT exercise sheet feel like the warmth that he feels when surrounded by other horses?  Did having a warm butt make Tercel feel safer?  Debbie found that idea interesting.  The first fifteen minutes of my ride was wonderful, as Tercel promptly obeyed all my leg and seat aids, walked both on contact and loose reins, and he calmly accepted it when I slowed him down from his agitated “marching” walk (what I call “running away at the walk”.)  Tercel KNOWS the leg and seat aids.

THEN, Tercel saw something behind him, literally out of the corner of his eye, and he lost it.  Instantly I was on a tense, scared horse, anxiously scanning his surroundings for dangers.  He had three or four specific places where he became super reactive (where he was scared during Debbie’s ride last week.)  First I worked on the side of the ring opposite the judge’s stand.  I walked Tercel around the ring, just guiding him straight forward through his scares until I got to the first reactive spot, at which point I went into full contact with his bitless bridle, sending him forward with my alternating legs.  He responded and became less scared at his trigger points except for the judge’s stand, where last week a plastic tub had blown over with a great clatter just as he was passing it.  I was gearing up to working him by the judges stand when, crossing the ring, he saw something Debbie had warned me about (a low brush box for a jump) out of the corner of his eye after we had passed it and he lost it again--this time he did his big start and freeze move.  So I worked on passing the box within our normal perambulations around the ring.  He improved, like he had improved in passing the more minor scary points.

Then came the biggy, the judge’s stand with its overturned plastic tub.  I had noticed that the more I got Tercel to improve at the minor scary points, the more Tercel reacted to the judge’s stand.  By the time I was ready to deal with the scariest part Tercel was side-stepping away from the judge’s stand making me use my inside leg to keep him from running into the nearby jumps.  I sent him through twice, with my legs and hands encouraging him to go straight and forward.  I did minimize the sideways movement, but when Tercel saw the overturned plastic tub out of the back corner of his eye he would become scared all over again.  My time was running out, I wanted Tercel to go past the judge’s stand without speeding up or veering sideways, but it was obvious that I needed to call in extra ammunition.

First I had Debbie take off the BOT poll cap since Tercel had been giving me hints that he wanted to sling his head.  This removed one stressor from the situation since nothing could rub against his ears (he is ear shy.) 

Then I “channeled” Podhajsky.  My back straightened, my face went to vertical to the ground, I looked straight ahead (NOT down to the ground!), and with  a corridor of soft hands and legs I told him to go past the dreaded judge’s stand. 

Success. 

Tercel relaxed and stayed completely within the “corridor” of my hand and leg aids.  There was a problem though when he got to the point where he saw the judge’s stand out of the back corner of his eye, but he switched his reactive nature off in response to my aids.  What seemed to reassure him the most was when I increased the grip of my thighs through his rough patches, which also caused me to increase the grip of my upper calves a little bit.  He did not speed up and  relaxed down into his normal walk.  Then I sent him past the judge’s stand again, and this time I was prepared for his reaction to seeing the judge’s stand out of the back corner of his eye and I gently applied my hand and leg aids when that happened, and his reaction was greatly lessened, a minor flinch instead of his “I’ve got to get away NOW” previous reaction.  A good place to stop my ride, I sent him to Debbie where he got praise from both of us for being such a BRAVE little horse and I dismounted.

One thing that struck me from this ride is that Tercel was quite calm until he saw something scary through particular points of his eyes.  With both the right and left eyes he was more reactive when he had calmly passed the cause of distress but then saw it from the back corner of his eye.  He also had a particularly reactive point when he saw something scary around 45° to the front and side of his left eye.  He would calmly pass these points until he saw them through a certain point in his retina, then he would have a “flash-back” and act out his memories.

The answer to Tercel’s reactive problems is, of course, good riding with consistent training in obedience to gently applied aids.  This will take TIME, and both Debbie and I are willing to give him the time he needs to learn how to deal with these flash-backs.  If we do it correctly he should gradually improve, calm down, and come to think of his times being ridden as calm occasions where he learns to use his body ever more effectively, instead of absolutely terrifying ordeals where, at any second, a tiger will leap upon him and no one understands his legitimate (to him) fears.   Calm, straight and forward works with a sensitive skilled rider in teaching the horse that it is SAFE to ignore these imagined threats.  Since Tercel was by himself for prolonged periods of time, he had only his senses and his reactions to protect him from the danger.  He is now mostly okay when in the herd, but in the ring he does not have the reassuring presence of his herd and he feels alone.  Through good riding and training he will finally learn that he can TRUST his rider.

But that leaves many problems.  The first problem is that I am going to have to do this in each gait.  Even when he learns to deal with his fears at a walk I will still have to go through the whole process all over again at the trot, and then again at the canter.  It may not take as much time for Tercel to deal with his fears at the faster gaits, but I WILL have to teach him that he is not in danger even through everything in his environment looks like it is moving faster.  It is a horse thing.  I deal with it.

Then there is the problem of Tercel possibly having these panicked reactions under other riders, people he has not learned to trust.  I sat back and thought about this and my first partial solution was to get Tercel used to wearing a racing hood with the blinder cups to cut off him seeing scary things out of the back corner of his eyes.  This would be a possible solution for when Debbie takes him into scary conditions that she cannot school him through, and a possible solution for when Tercel is ridden by other people.  Since the majority of his fears seemed to be triggered by seeing something in the back corner of his eyes, when we remove the ability to see the environment out of the back corner of his eyes his incidents of being scared should decrease.

Then, when browsing through the COTH forums I ran into another possible solution though we won’t be able to use it right away.  Apparently many super reactive horses calm down when ear plugs are put into their ears.  Since Tercel is so ear shy this solution will have to wait until Tercel learns to ENJOY people handling his ears.  This can take a long time and consistent gentle handling within the limits that Tercel sets himself, it is up to us humans to gradually introduce Tercel to how GOOD it can feel when a human scratches him inside his ear.  Right now I can get Tercel to reluctantly accept a small brief scratch at the base of his ears, and I will have to build on this a millimeter at a time if necessary.  I’ve done it before, and it is very nice when a horse who used to be super sensitive with his ears comes up to me and asks me to give his ears a good scratch.  So, maybe after a year of patient work we will be able to test the ear plugs out.

I am determined that Tercel will deal with his fears while I ride him without any outside help or “gimmicks.”  To do this I will be trying to get Tercel to use his admittedly limited forebrain, the reasoning center, while I train and ride him.  This worked quite well with Mia, she now cheerfully ignores what she used to think were big threats to her life and well-being.  Arabs often tend to have bigger brains than most horses, and teaching them how to use this brain power effectively calms them right down since they can learn to come up with other solutions than the panicked running away which is the default with most horses.

Time will tell.

Have a great ride!

Jackie Cochran