Never miss out on the latest happenings in the equestrian world
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
An account already exists for this email address, please log in.
Olympian Ginny Elliot’s tips to stop your horse’s cross-country spooks and nail a fast round – and her own reactive horse who turned a corner to become a champion
What can you do if you have a horse who makes light work of jumping cross-country fences but is easily distracted and spooks at everything from crowds to trade stands and shadows to the tannoy? We speak to international event riders Ginny Elliot and Jeanette Brakewell to find out how to train focus and bravery outside the flagged fences
For some riders, it’s not the cavernous trakehners or ultra-skinny arrowheads that pose a problem out eventing. Instead, it’s the worry about their horse spooking on the cross-country course, not at the obstacles themselves, but other distractions, such as flags, noises, crowds – or even a different shade of grass colour.
Once you get within range of the fence, your horse might jump happily over, but it’s an issue you need to get to the bottom of. Spooking means time-faults, a less smooth round and sub-optimal preparation for the fences. This might be surmountable at the lower heights, but as you move up the levels, your horse needs all his focus on the job in hand.
How to stop your horse spooking on the cross-country course
“I would always try and figure out what is it that’s spooking the horse, is it noise? Is it sight? Is it both? Then I would try to find a way in which I could help the horse adjust to that environment,” says five-time Burghley winner, Ginny Elliot.
“You have to be sensible, if a plastic bag jumps across the road and they spook at it, well, who wouldn’t? So you have to figure out, is the horse being naughty or is it a genuine fright? Use your brain, try to look at it from their point of view and try and do everything you can to remove that problem.”
Ginny has first-hand experience of mastering a spooky horse as Night Cap II, her 1984 Burghley winning partner and the 1987 European champion, was initially reactive to noise, banners and any quick movement from somebody in a crowd.
“Night Cap II was such a fabulous horse, but he was not fabulous to start with,” says Ginny. “The first time he reacted was when he was at Blenheim, which was the first time he knew grandstands and that kind of thing. We had to figure out how we were going to help him with his issues.”
As best she could, Ginny replicated the sights and sounds Night Cap II was afraid of at home.
“We put some banners up in the arena and when I was schooling him, we played loud music or a football match on the radio,” reveals the former world and European champion.
“One day, we asked local people from the village to come up and clap while I did my dressage test in the arena. We called it ‘rent a crowd’ and we all enjoyed tea and biscuits. I think they quite enjoyed being involved and took a genuine interest in his improvement.
“I also remember taking Night Cap II to the Three Counties Show and spending three days there, just walking around. On the first day he was in a muck sweat because of all the noise and people but by the third day he was chilled and happy.”
Slowly, after months of meticulous planning, patience and determination, Ginny managed to overcome the fears and anxieties that Night Cap II had.
“At the European Championships in Luhmühlen I took him up to the main arena early in the morning and schooled him for a bit. Then I took his tack off and let him graze until the time I had to get back on him. That way the crowd came to him, as opposed to him going to the crowd.
“Gradually, he saw more people and heard all the clapping and the noise. He ended up doing the best test of his life and he won the competition,” says Ginny.
“It took about six months of pretty hard work. I thought about it all carefully but it worked as by the next spring he was at Badminton and was a different horse. All horses have their issues, it’s our job to find a way to help them overcome those issues.”
Eyes on the prize: a horse galloping smoothly between fences, focusing on the job in hand.
(Image credit: Alamy)
Jeanette Brakewell supports Ginny’s theory that exposure is the best medicine for a spooky horse.
“Spooky horses tend to get better as they do more,” says Jeanette, who won the individual silver medal at the 2002 World Equestrian Games. “I’ve got a very spooky horse who as a four- and five-year-old was very reactive to anything but then the more they saw things the less spooky they became.”
“Ros Canter’s horse Izilot DHI was very reactive but now he’s a bit older and he’s has seen and done a lot more and Ros has worked out a good routine for them he’s coming into his element.”
Jeanette stresses the importance of having a good relationship with your horse and training them to listen and respond to you and your aids.
3 practical steps for helping a horse spooking on cross-country
1. Connect and distract
“With spooky horses, it’s very important that you ride them with a good connection between leg and rein, because then you can feel if they’re about to spook or do something,” says Jeanette. “Ideally, you can then put the horse into leg yield or a shoulder in position, so that you are distracting the horse and putting their focus on you.
“Leg yield is a great exercise to practise at home. If your horse has spooked at something it’s not a case of making them approach it it’s a case of being able to move their bodies around it, so that they accept what it is, realise it’s not going to hurt them and they don’t need to be frightened of it.
‘Try to keep their legs moving. By getting them to cross their hindlegs over and move their body sideways then they don’t get stuck and go rigid.”
2. Course-walk and prepare
If you have a spooky horse you need to walk a cross-country course with that in mind. Be aware of the things that your horse might spook at so that you are prepared and ready for what might happen.
“Don’t forget that often when you walk the course the fence judges aren’t there yet, the fences may not have been dressed and there might not be any crowds. Think ahead and bear this in mind when you are thinking about what your horse may spook at,” adds Jeanette who also suggests hunting as a good way of training bravery.
3. Build confidence
“As a rider, don’t do anything stupid or over face them, not just hunting, but in anything. You should always be working on the horse’s confidence, because the more confident they are the less they question things.
“If you do have a blip in confidence, it’s important to go back a step and make things dead easy for them to help them overcome that confidence issue.”
Did you find this article useful? You may also enjoy reading…
Working on a freelance basis, Emily has attended a wide range of horse shows and events as Horse & Hound’s onsite reporter, as well as writing features for both the magazine and website since 2004. Emily assisted the British Horse Society with the launch of its national equestrian awards initiative, and also plays a key role in the press teams for major sporting events including Wimbledon and the London Marathon.
