From: Margie
Hi, We just purchased a well broke 12 year old gelding who has had lots of training who is a dream to ride the only vice the people who sold him to us identified was the fact that when shown and the crowd of spectators begin clapping he behaves as though a light switch is turned on and he bucks. Is there anything we can do ? Why do you suppose this is his reaction when he is so well behaved for all other disciplines?
Margie
Hi Margie, congratulations on the new horse! I'd guess that one (if not both) of two things is involved here: either your horse is afraid of sudden loud noises from the crowd, or your horse is afraid of what will happen right after he hears the loud noises.
It's not uncommon for a horse to react in fear when he first hears a crowd clapping. It's not uncommon for a rider to react to his horse's fear by grabbing at the reins and hurting the horse's mouth. Once that's happened a time or two, the horse KNOWS that the sound of clapping means trouble and pain, and he'll react with more fear instead of learning to relax -- then the rider is more frightened, grabs harder, holds his breath, becomes rigid, and maybe kicks the horse... and the horse develops a strong desire to leave town as quickly as possible. At this point, you'll either have a buck or a bolt, depending on how frightened the horse is.
(There's a third possibility which is very unlikely, but I'll mention it anyway: some horses have been trained to buck or rear so that the rider can show off...)
Since you don't know what your horse's specific problem/reason is, you may as well plan to begin at the beginning. First, just to see whether the sound is the issue, try using earplugs designed for horses (available at any tack shop that sells racing equipment). If the earplugs solve the problem, you'll know that it was a simple reaction to the loud noise.
If the earplugs DON'T solve the problem, then you're dealing with a training issue, and you'll have to re-train the horse. This means teaching him that crowd noises are GOOD sounds not bad ones, and you can teach him this if you're patient, in basically the same way that you would teach a horse to understand that the sound of clippers can be a good sound not a bad one. Time, patience, and treats will help.
Enlist as many friends as possible, take a bag of treats, and start retraining your horse from the ground up. Ask two or three, then four or five, then eight or ten people to clap for you. When the clapping starts, feed the horse treats. Keep him relaxed and thinking good thoughts, and pat him on the neck -- somewhere you'd be able to reach from the saddle, because that's going to be your next move. When he's paying little or no attention to the sound, or looking for treats, you'll be ready to begin again under saddle.
Remember that you're not telling him "DON'T BE AFRAID" -- you're telling him "GOOD BOY, BE CONFIDENT". There's a big difference. Instead of trying to teach him NOT to buck, teach him to stand square and balanced, and to relax on your signal (voice, a loose rein, and a stroke on the neck). Then reward him for being quiet and calm.
As always when working with a horse, ask for very little at a time, ask often, and always reward ANY effort. Take it slowly and you'll get where you want to go much more quickly. ;-)
Jessica
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