BlackStallion

I have seen horses that have been nervous and excited that makes them dangerous to the person holding them. What are tips in calming down a horse? If I would be near a horse that gets jerky, I would just run.

Willow

Changing a nervous horse behavior takes a long time!
If I know a horse I'm handling tends to be panicky, I always use a soft lunge line instead of a rope when leading; incase it bolts or rears it has room to circle around me. Horses don't relief their stress by standing still, always by going away from the situation aka running! With a calm dark voice and calm state of mind one might be able to manipulate this horse to come back to reality. Even if you lead this horse all the way in circles to your destination, it works. The more the person displays hectic, aggression aso in the voice and shows fearful or angry body language, the more the horse acts up.

BlackStallion

So I guess the horse and I will have the same characteristic, running away.

But thanks for that advice. I think being calm when the horse is panicky is a talent. Controlling my fear is really a skill I need to learn so that I could successfully control a horse even if its panicking.

QuarterHorses

It is interesting what Willow said. We call that "presence", in my horse training circles. I have seen someone bring a nervous horse to a clinic and ask this same question. The trainer take the lead rope and magically the horse calms down. The trainer shows a "presence" to the horse that I am in control, and I know what I am doing. The horse senses this and responds by calming down. It is amazing to see this happen and it really shows how sensitive a horse really is.

Remark

Ok, I know this is going to sound gross but when I used to take my stallion to shows, he would get very nervous in a new place, standing around with all the sights and sounds. If you've ever looked in a horse's mouth, you'll see that they have a row of teeth, then a gap, then another row of teeth. I use to put my thumb in his mouth and rub the gap between his teeth. It would nearly put him to sleep. He'd get so calm, my trainer would get mad at me. Arabians are suppose to be fired up when going into the show ring.

mema

Thats does sound a little odd, but if it works don't fix it, right? I have seen others stroke the ears before to help also.

waggy

I read the thread and I had a similar experience before and it freaked me out! I thought I'll gonna be stepped over by a horse and die. Lol But good thing, my fiancee is there to my rescue.

Allan

This is just a normal characteristic of almost all animals when they are in a big crowd. I could imagine my first piano recital, my hand were really wet because of the nervousness. This is also the same with horses.

The thing that calm me down is by rubbing my hands. Well if your method works on your horse then you should continue as long as it would not harm you nor the horse in the future.