Horse-Eating Showtime!!!

When you go to a competition or Pony Club and your horse behaves badly what do you blame it on?
I can guarentee you the number one answer to that is FEED, well that's the number one answer that comes out of most people's mouths when I speak to them. "My horse's feed needs to be cut because he was a moron at the Show on Sunday".....
I would love to slap them around, unfortunately that would get me fired.
IF your horse is a bit hyper at a show, but perfectly sensible at home here are a few non-feed related things to tick off your list that may be causing the problem:

*Your horse's paddock companion has been removed from the situation and now your horse is trying feverishly to find him/her. This happens a lot in Pony Club horses who are constantly stabled/paddocked with one other horse. You'll need to take measures to acclimatise your horse to the thought that the world does not implode when his/her friend is removed from the situation. Start small (seperate paddock or move across the breezeway in the barn) and work your way to them not being close to each other for extended periods of time. If you work through this slowly it will be a great acheivement for you both.

* YOU are stressed out. Often people will say the show doesn't frighten them, most of the time we are a little nervous or excited. The horses see this as the same sort of emotion - your senses are heightened and you are alert. To them you are getting ready for a flight or fight response, and as part of your herd, they consider this to be a cue for THEM to prepare. Try to calm yourself, I know a lot of people who use rescue remedy on themselves rather than on their horses ( or as well as) to bring their own mind to peace, which in turn allows them to be a leader, rather than a panic striken insano bomb.... well that's how your horse will see you!

*New situations will often frighten a horse, so be prepared to work through their anxiety by making these outings a part of their routine. Get some friends together and take the horses to the local show-grounds ( first making sure you are allowed to do this at the chosen time), get a lesson at someone else's property or just take your pony for a float ride that ends in some nice grass. Let them understand that although the PLACE may change the CUES for work will not, and most importantly that your behaviour does not either. It has to be the same at home as it is anywhere, after a while it won't matter if you were doing a grand prix test down the median strip of an 8 lane highway or at home in the arena.

*We get a little touchy if we have to change our schedule, our horses are no different. On a show day, you will do all sorts of odd things to them, so make that part a daily thing. Plait up their manes before you ride, braid their forelock while they eat ( take it back out before you go), braid their tail and put a falsie in and have a lesson or lunge, come stupidly early once a week and feed up at 4am while you fuss around them. These things then will become normal for the horse and when you do go out and about will desensitise them to these annoyances, so that you have minimalised the stress factor!

Think about all these things.... then take a look at how the horse will perceive it all. We just see it as a competition, but to the horse it may mean a lot of different things. Try to be their center, and prepare them rather than just dropping them in the fire, or deciding that a little bit of starvation should quiet them up.