Jessica Jahiel's HORSE-SENSE Newsletter Archives

Spur damage?

From: Reader

Hi there Jessica, I'd like to thank you ahead of time for reading all of these questions and taking the time to answer them for us. I have a question concerning a horse at the ranch that I work at. This summer this horse (in his early teens) was ridden with spurs in order to get him to lope. I know for a fact that this horse generally only needs fairly light cues in order to do this, however, spurs were still used. I noticed that spurs were used harshly the first time in trying to get him to extend the lope and they were not used gradually conterdicting the ask, tell, command method.

The horse is generally well behaved and has never given me any trouble in my 8 years of experience with him. When I last rode this horse (the person riding with spurs has since stopped ridding him) and cued for the lope (with the light aids he needed) he crow hopped, threw his head, and leaped into the lope which was not anything like him. He also would not slow down on cue. I checked my position and my equipment to make sure that it wasn't me causing his discomfort or his actions but i couldn't find anything. This reaction continued to the point where it was too dangerous to use him for new riders to ride him at a lope (he was used for lessons for teaching riders to lope). I am afraid that having spurs used on him is the cause of these reactions and I'm not sure on how to correct it. I believe he is just reacting to the pain he remembers from being cued at the lope with spurs. At any other gait he is fine. What is the best way to correct this? How do I get him to stop trying to take off when I cue him and how to I help him forget what happened this past summer?

Thank you for your help.

Hi -- you've described an interesting problem. I'd say that there are two components here: one is the physical pain caused by the spurs, which may have caused some bruising and tearing of the tissues. Spur damage is NOT always visible from the outside! Anyone can see blood on the horse's sides from a sharp spur, some people are astute enough to notice thinning hair from the constant use of blunt spurs, a few people will look closely enough to see localized swelling from bruising, but NOBODY can see the extent of the internal tissue damage. There have been some interesting observations made by people who have performed necropsies on horses; some animals with intact, "normal" looking skin and hides showed a lot of scarring and bruising UNDER those hides, where the spurs had been used, and used, and used... So, just as an aside, for all those of you who wear spurs, don't assume that riders need to be careful with SHARP spurs but can just kick away with the blunt ones. Those blunt spurs can cause a lot of damage, and with no surface blood to tell you, you won't necessarily KNOW.

Okay, back to the question. ;-)

When a horse has experienced physical pain of this kind, he is likely to be very sensitive to, and worried about, ANY contact with the injured area. This sensitivity can diminish over time, if the cause of the pain is removed, until there is no longer any real pain, and the horse is reacting to the memory of pain and the anticipation of pain.

This brings us to the REAL problem here -- the horse already knew how to lope, knew the cues, responded to them promptly, and, in effect, was well-trained. He has now been RETRAINED to know that "lope" means "pain and confusion." Look at the situation from his point of view: for years, he would lope when the rider cued him for a lope, and that was that. Suddenly, someone got on and used spurs hard -- and what the horse understood was that the rider didn't want a lope, he wanted something else, and the horse was in trouble because he didn't know what the "something else" could be. He is crow-hopping and tossing his head and leaping into the lope because he now associates that particular transition with pain -- and with confusion. You can understand the pain-reaction, I'm sure. And you should also be able to understand the confusion, because he DOES lope on cue, and that was fine for years -- until a brutal rider taught him otherwise. Right now, this horse doesn't know WHAT riders want from him -- he just knows that "lope" means that he's in trouble. After all, if the rider wanted a lope, he would have cued gently, so there was no way to tell what the attack with the spur MEANT. Horses don't deal well with pain and confusion -- all they want to do is get away.

You can probably RE-RE-TRAIN him, but it will take time and patience, and you can't put anyone else on him while you do it. He needs a secure, balanced rider who understands his problem, not a nervous novice and certainly not another bad, brutal rider. You're going to have to convince this horse that the transition to lope is NOT a guaranteed bad experience, and that means that he will have to do hundreds and probably thousands of those transitions. And during EACH ONE, you will have to give him the lightest possible signal, and then PRAISE him when he goes into the lope -- no matter how he does it. Praise him even if he crow-hops first, even if he tosses his head -- these actions don't mean "make me do it", they mean "I'm afraid it's going to hurt when I do it." The only way to teach him that it WON'T hurt, and that it IS what you want him to do, is to make each transition as positive as you possibly can. Don't worry about the crow-hopping and head-tossing, those things will go away in time, as he learns to relax. If you reprimand him for doing them, he won't understand -- he'll think that you didn't really want the lope after all, and he's doing something wrong, and he's in trouble again... A frightened, tense horse cannot learn anything except how to be MORE frightened and tense. You want him to relax -- so you're going to need to sit up there, relax, and STAY relaxed no matter how bad his first five or ten or fifty transitions to lope may be. Leave the reins loose, sit up, pat him, praise him, let him know that life is back to normal.

The good news: if you're careful, you can do this. The bad news: even once you've resolved the problem, ONE bad incident involving another idiot with spurs can undo your good work and you'll need to begin all over again. So if you can, keep everyone else OFF this horse for as long as possible, and then when you put other riders on his back, put them there JUST for walking and jogging. And don't let anyone with spurs on get anywhere NEAR this horse.

Horses aren't computers -- you can't say "forget it" and wipe out memories. The best you can hope to do is to build up another set of expectations in the horse, based on YOUR cues and YOUR reactions to his movements. It's entirely possible that this horse will "get over" the experience and become a good riding horse for YOU, and it's also entirely possible that he won't ever again be suitable for teaching novices to lope. But you may be able to manage it IF you can re-train him AND ensure that he's handled and ridden consistently and kindly from now on.

I'm assuming that you don't own this horse, because I don't think you would have allowed the abuse if you had been in charge. ;-) You might try to talk to the horse's owners, and explain how much time and effort will be needed to effect a real "fix." It may not be easy for you, but it's a very important part of the re-training -- if you don't do this, and the owners just think that the horse is "misbehaving", there's a good chance that the horse will be beaten for crow-hopping and put in a tight tie-down to keep him from throwing his head up during the transition, and then it will be too late, and instead of an abused horse being retrained, what they (and you!) will have on your hands is a burning formula for disaster.

Good luck, and do let me know what happens.

Jessica

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