The Warm-up Arena or Crowded Arena (and your terrified horse)

[piedmontfields]

My horse is mostly terrified of other horses, until sanity and good behavior is well demonstrated by the "other horse." Blame it on her weird past or whatever---I don't think I'm going to fix it at this point. So, busy arenas are a real challenge. She is fine with "known" horses who are "well managed" and "obedient." AKA, not bucking on the lunge line... not rushing around above the bit. Young or recalcitrant horses are much harder for her to be near.

Today was one of those rides when even with a hack start in hopes that the arena would empty, the arena was just plain busy and chaotic. It has been soggy here, so to do trot or canter work requires the arena. While I was riding with one known horse and rider (no problem), others were more irregular in behavior and pattern. At one point, we had a bit of a working eq moment turning on a dime and splitting some cross rails to avoid a collision at canter.

Any suggestions for helping a horse deal with traffic? Em never does anything bad in these situations. She just gets super tight and then I have to work through that. She exhales loudly---and becomes fabulous and happy when horses *leave* the arena. I feel for the mare, as I hate poor judgement and chaos, too. Maybe I'm the problem?!

[Xanthoria]

Aww - I feel her pain! With my old OTTB I had to allow an extra hour for walking on a loose rein all over a show grounds and maybe with a friend too. he wasn't terrified but rather excited... anyway it took me a while to realize he needed MUCH more time to assimilate anything due to his distrustful nature.

[Ryeissa]

I would say check your own energy and try to stay breathing. I ride in a busy arena a lot, and with jumps that makes it more challenging. Just give it time, it just needs to become a habit like anything else. Its ok to work on more basic stuff if you need to, don't push the work load when you are adding in this new experience.

[Chisamba]

I used to turn 4 or 5 horses loose in the arena a home and ride around them to prep my horses for crowded warmup.

[exvet]

Like Chisamba I use to do something similar. The real challenge I had was my stallion. He was petrified of horses coming towards him. I use to warm-up "carefully" because of it. I also took advantage of lessons and tried to have as many people riding in the arena the same time I did. He still hasn't completely settled with other horses (especially big movers) coming towards him.

[piedmontfields]

With other horses, I have done the loose horse in arena/field work. But they were more confident individuals on the whole. And the loose horses were more mannered.

I think given how unimportant this is in the scheme of things to us (we do not show), I should just quit the arena and go outside when it is too much horse-rider chaos. There is a level that my mare can handle and a level where she says "this is a bad idea."

There are lots of jumps/poles in our large arena and we are used to riding around them. When people are jumping, I leave the arena as it is too much activity IMO for safely focussing on dressage at one end of the arena.

[MysticOak]

I had a lesson a couple of years ago in a crowded warm up that was SUPER helpful. My mare is small, and gets intimidated by big horses coming at her or behind her - and there was a big, noisy stallion in the ring, and the rider would ride up pretty close to the other riders. The lesson involved - FOLLOWING that stallion. Pick the most intimidating horse, and follow them - chase them! My mare got more and more confident doing this - and now anytime I'm in a crowded warm up, that is how we start out - follow the biggest and baddest!

[piedmontfields]

Pick the most intimidating horse, and follow them - chase them! My mare got more and more confident doing this - and now anytime I'm in a crowded warm up, that is how we start out - follow the biggest and baddest!

Thanks for the reminder! That totally works and I have used that technique.

[chantal]

I had a lesson a couple of years ago in a crowded warm up that was SUPER helpful. My mare is small, and gets intimidated by big horses coming at her or behind her - and there was a big, noisy stallion in the ring, and the rider would ride up pretty close to the other riders. The lesson involved - FOLLOWING that stallion. Pick the most intimidating horse, and follow them - chase them! My mare got more and more confident doing this - and now anytime I'm in a crowded warm up, that is how we start out - follow the biggest and baddest!

Never thought of that, great idea!

[Koolkat]

I had a lesson a couple of years ago in a crowded warm up that was SUPER helpful. My mare is small, and gets intimidated by big horses coming at her or behind her - and there was a big, noisy stallion in the ring, and the rider would ride up pretty close to the other riders. The lesson involved - FOLLOWING that stallion. Pick the most intimidating horse, and follow them - chase them! My mare got more and more confident doing this - and now anytime I'm in a crowded warm up, that is how we start out - follow the biggest and baddest!

That is a great idea! Really plays into the horse's status mindset/behavior "rules".