shying and spooking

Question
hello ma'am, how are you? after long time. from december 19th to jan mid, my exams will be going on. hope all well there. okay . . .below is my question:

ma'am, what is the difference between "shying" and "spooking" in equine psychology? please define in simple english terms

Answer
Hello,

Actually, at least in English, most horseman define "shying" and "spooking" the same.
It is most often an involuntary reaction, a reflex that is built into prey animals to save their lives.

People often punish this behavior, which can defintely just make the behavior and fear worse. For example, if a horse is genuinely afraid of an object in the corner of the ring and shies from it and is punished, he may rightly reason that that particular corner IS an unsafe place as he just got hurt when he went near it.

Often it works just to matter- of- factly ride past it, keeping your breathing and energy low. The horse will be reassured by the rider's calmness and learn to trust his rider.

If you can, get the book entitled MY HORSES. MY TEACHERS by Alois Podhajsky. It is a wonderful book about developing trust in horses by a former Director of the Spanish Riidng School.