Riding the Roads

Hello friends!

As the weather gets warmer (sort of) and more and more of you are coming out for lessons, I’ve noticed that there are a few questions that I seem to answer all the time. So, I thought that I would post some of my most used explanations.

If you have a question that you would like me to address on the blog, please feel free to email me at alex@threerivershorsetraining.com. I would prefer to answer more general questions on the blog than issues specific to your horse, as without seeing you and your horse in person it is hard for me to make accurate evaluations of what is going on and what needs to be done.

Riding the roads: Encountering bikes, ATVs, cars, trucks and the dreaded UPS truck

As spring and summer come around, a lot of you will be riding on county roads, crossing busy streets to get to your favorite trails, or sharing the mountains with bikes and ATVs. I am asked quite often how to properly prepare a horse for these sorts of encounters. There are many ways to do this, but the long and short of it is that you need to have your horse’s confidence and attention to ensure a safe experience, because you can’t possibly expose your horse to every “scary” thing in the world. However, I’ll give you the exercise that I find most helpful when working with scary things on wheels, and it will be a great place for you to start.
To begin with, think of the environment you are going to be practicing in. If your horse is deathly afraid of bikes, I would recommend getting an old bike and bringing it into an enclosed area, like a round pen or an arena, and making the introduction within the confines of a fence. Likewise, if traffic pushes your horse over the edge, please don’t go out and try these exercises on a busy, paved road. Stay on a driveway in an area you know well, and even consider having a friend drive over on a car or ATV and act as your assistant, so you can properly “control” the traffic while you train.
Once you are confident in your surroundings, think about how the horse has been perceiving these “scary” situations. Horses are prey animals, and the worst feeling in the world for a prey animal must be for something to sneak up behind them, or to be approaching at a speed greater than they are traveling, appearing to “chase” them. Often times, the goofy behavior prompted by a car or bike driving passed us on the road, is really the horse’s anxiety of having something seeming to chase them, and they are simply acting on their instinct to flee. When we block them with our seat and reins, and don’t allow them to move their feet in accordance with this flight instinct, goofiness ensues, because they don’t know what else to do!
So, I would suggest setting the situation up so that you reverse the roles prey/predator roles, and allow the horse to move its feet the way their instincts tell them to. To do this, have the horse chase the bike, car or ATV. In an enclosed arena, have a friend ride a bike away from you, and set it up so your horse feels as though they are chasing the bike away, just as they would a cow, or that pesky dog trying to get into their food. Have the horse trot after the bike with purpose, and when you stop your horse, make sure the bike continues on, to give the horse a feeling of accomplishment. Suddenly, you’ve given your horse the confidence of a predator! (This strategy works for introducing all sorts of “scary” things. For instance, introduce your flag or tarp by dragging it in front of the horse and letting them chase it, just like the bike.)
Now what about traffic? If I’m riding on the road with a horse that I’m not sure will be able to handle a car coming by, and I hear a vehicle approaching behind me, I will ask my horse to turn around and face the vehicle. As the car gets closer and passes me, I tip my horses nose to follow the car as it drives by, and once the car has passed I cue my horse to trot after it. Most likely, the car will be going faster than my trot, and the horse will feel as though they pushed that car right out of your territory! By turning the horse towards the car as it approaches from behind, I avoid letting that vehicle get into my horse’s blind spot and sneaking up on us. By turning with the car as it passes, I allow the horse to feel like they are in control for the entire situation, and never let the car get into a position where it feels as though the horse is being chased.
You will probably only need to trot after the vehicle once or twice. Eventually, just turning the horse to face the traffic and letting them track the vehicle as it passes will be enough. Sooner or later, all you will need to do is tip the horse’s eye so they can see what’s coming up behind them, and they will track the vehicle on their own without having to physically turn and chase the vehicle.
Many of you ask me if there will ever come a day when you don’t have to tip the horse’s eye when you hear a car coming up behind you. Sure. Eventually your horse won’t have any issues with moving vehicles, and will act like they are not even there. However, I never ride my horse assuming that they will not be startled by something coming up behind them. If my dog stays behind a few hundred yards, and then races to catch up when I call her, I tip my horse’s eye to watch her coming. Not because my horse is afraid of dogs, but because I’d like to avoid any unnecessary startling of my horse, or me for that matter!
So, that being said, if I know something is coming up behind me, or into any blind spot (or even just a spot my horse happens to not be looking at at that moment), I try to draw my horse’s attention to that potentially scary thing. Even the brokest of broke horses can be startled, and as the rider and leader of my partnership with the horse, I feel it is my obligation to prepare my horse as best as I can for what’s about to happen, to make our ride as successful and enjoyable as possible. So stay alert, and pay attention to the bigger picture: where your horse’s mind is. If your horse is so focused down the road, because that’s where the barn is, and is paying no attention to you or your surroundings, most likely if a car comes up behind them they are going to spook. Don’t let it go that far. When you notice your horse is not paying attention to their surroundings, get to work asking them to focus on you and what’s happening around you, and save both yourself and your horse a lot of unnecessarily stressful riding.

Good luck, be safe and have fun!