Scared Horse

Question

My horse   I have been working consistently for four years with a horse who had been abused in the past. I had made substantial progress & have been able to ride him in just a halter around the farm. A few weeks ago while mounting something spooked him; he reared & I fell off. I was able to calm him down, mount & finish my ride. The 3 others times I had attempted to ride him ended with/ the same result. Since that day; he has been so scared of me & everyone down at the farm. I am no longer able to catch him when he is in his field. He snorts & stays at a distance from me.I sit in his field for upwards of 3 hours waiting patiently for him, I talk to him to try to re-assure him there is nothing to be scared of, sometimes I will just read my book out loud to him. I always have carrots & apples with me in hopes he will approach. I am not sure how else to proceed with him, it seems he has lost all trust in me. Any suggestions on how else to re-build my bond with him would be helpful & greatly appreciated.

Answer
It is you who has lost trust. Stop begging him, he sees that as weakness. Stop failing when you get on him, be ready, stop him and don't let him get away with moving or running off.  You are scared, you are being overly cautious, you are not showing him that you are a strong leader that he can trust. You don't trust him so why should he trust you.

Stop making excuses for his past abuse, he does not care about that and you are the only one that wants to remember that and bring it up to give you an excuse when you fail.

This is about you not the horse and the horse knows it. Unless and until you get over your fear and trust issues, this horse never will.

Go out there and stop begging, catch him or make him move for three hours, don't go read a book to him, he does not want to hear your voice and fear, he knows you are begging and only lower horses beg, higher horses make you listen. Read my web site and watch my videos.

This is people problem, NOT a horse problem.