I posted recently regarding my new spotted saddle mare that I got from a sale.  I took her on a ride with some friends yesterday. Things were going well with riding around home. At the park,  I got bucked off when I was half way on.  She had not done that before. I didn't get hurt, but it wasn't fun.  Then I found that she spooked at every movement I made.  I couldn't even adjust my foot in the stirrup without her speeding up and about running over my fellow riders.  She wasn't like that at home. Another example was that one of my friends got off her horse for a potty break, and I was stopped about 3 horse lengths away from her horse.  My friend tossed her jacket over her saddle, and my horse freaked and spun around and ran into another horse.  Later she spooked and ran.  I got her under control, but again, not fun.  However, she has power steering, crosses puddles, bridges, loads in and backs out of the trailer, stands nicely for saddling, leads or follows, walks out nicely, and ohh my gosh can she gait smoothly!  It's just this spooking thing.  I haven't really done any ground work with her, but do you think that work with something like a plastic bag on a stick, or tarps, etc would translate over to the saddle?  She is a nice BEAUTIFUL horse, and she has such a kind eye.  She has good manners, she isn't disrespectful, she's fearful.  I don't want to die, I like living.  I don't think ground work on an 11 year old mare is going to change these ingrained responses....or am I wrong?  Can you teach an old horse new tricks? Also, the other horses were calm and never spooked. So she wasn't picking up vibes.  Ground work can't hurt, but I've never owned such a spook of a horse.  Bombs have literally been blown up within 100 feet of my haflinger/belgian mare and she didn't care.  This horse spooks if you fart.  Anybody for spotted saddle steaks? I'll cook! BYOB!

Amanda

YES! you can teach an old horse new tricks.. You've just recently bought your new horse.. she is still adjusting.. In the meantime, some round work would help; ala John Lyons, Parelli, Chris Cox, your trainer/guru of choice..Do some sacking out, having things around her feet, wiggling in the saddle, putting on and taking off a slicker (WITH HELP!!..you don't want to be careening around a round pen with your slicker flapping behind you and both arms trapped in their sleeves)... My rocky mare, whom I love dearly, took TWO YEARS to settle down and begin to be more trusting.  Now, she is a super trail horse... We've learned about each other over the 6 years or so that I've had her.. She still has multiple quirks, and yes, there are things that I haven't worked on that I need to, but all in all I can't hardly ask for a better horse..  As you say, your mare is merely fearful.. A strange new home that she's just barely getting used to, a new rider with a different riding style, a strange new trail to travel with strange new sights to see and things to hear, strange horses as trail companions... .. Of course she's going to be insecure.... Just work with her.. slow down a little and give her time!!  It will be well worth it in the end.

GOOD LUCK!.

Yes you can work with this horse. As stated above, round pen work and exposure will begin to calm her down.

Make sure your saddle fit is good.

My current QH is 6. I got him at 4 and he had never been ridden. Takes a while, but gain her trust and she sound's like she will make you a fine trail horse. You must remain calm also.

Oh my boy is still scared of one thing....cant seem to get it out of him. Nothing else bothers him much....but a 55 gal drum with a black plastic garbage bag in it wil eat him up if he gets close to it.

No black bag in it and he is fine......hang in there.

You may have found the reason she was at the sale.

Ground work will fix this problem over time.  Natural calming agents in her feed might help to take the edge off her, but this is a bandaid not a fix.

Yes, you can work with this horse.  As stated above, sacking her out will go a long way.  Also, try riding with a friend, only one, and having that friend make movements that your mare doesn't expect.  When she spooks, have the friend repeat the move until your mare comfortable.  As long as you are prepared for her response, and there are no other horses for her to run over, this approach should be safe enough for you and your horse.

Marla

I once got thrown by an appaloosa gelding I was riding bareback on because a black plastic bag was tangled up on the thorns of a cholla cactus.  The base of the cholla was surrounded by prickley pear.  That horse came unglued, dumped my carcase on top of the cactus, and headed for home.  I walked three miles back to the house with cactus thorns through the palms of my hands and my jeans stapled to my legs by thorns.  I had to use pliers to remove the deeply imbedded thorns.  Months later I was still removing thorns that had worked their way through my hands and calves. 

 Marla

Owwww!!

Just remember to release what ever pressure you are using, be it a bag, rope, slicker, hat, etc. when the horse relaxes, stops his feet, or licks the lips.  If the pressure is removed while the horse is still freaking out, the horse learns to freak out to get away from pressure.  My kids have played kick ball in the barn area, drive the jeep and tractor around the pasture, shoot guns close by.  And they all look at you as what in the world are you doing.  I will lay tarps on the ground and work the horses around them, Walmart bags on the fence, feed bags are no longer the monster they first were. 

Timing is everything, and with experence you will learn to see the signals from the horse and give the release quicker.

I agree with everything said here and would like to repeat to check saddle fit. It's quite amazing what an ill fitting saddle can cause a horse to do. That being said, I found that the TTOUCH exersizes were very helpful for my horses. All of theses things ultimately help you build a relationship with your horse which is the most important thing.

But God forbid I'd stomp my foot, she'd be in the next county.

  My old mare was abused and I finally got her to the point of where I can do jumping jacks next to her without her panicking.  We put her in the round pen and did exercises out there until she would relax and ignore us.  My youngest daughter rides her so I was trying to do everything posssible to get her to relax with people walking near her.

Amanda,

I have a spooky horse also that has had loads of ground work. I am from the Midwest also and I just took my horse to www.harmonyhorsemanship.com  near Madison WI,and so far I have seen a major difference in this horses personality. He was very insecure and scared of things you don't expect and not scared of things that you were raedy for.They work them several times a day building confidence. They don't do the typical ground work. I want to compare it to bootcamp. They expose them to everything in a natural horsemanship way. Check out the playland on there website. The horse is taught to focus all his attention on you so he doesn't care if tehre is something scary. They had 12 hours of odd noises on a CD like crocs, machine guns, bagpipes, sirens and you get an idea of what the horse is exposed to. Tarps on there back, milk jugs at there feet, pool floaties, balls, plastic sacks, and what ever they can think of.