Horse Trainer Help- Addressing the Horse that Spooks

We may giggle...
But in all seriousness, how did this become the norm?

We've probably experienced our horse spooking at least one or more of the things (and on more than one occasion) in this horse meme.

Unfortunately, it seems that the statement "horses just do that" is often applied as a band-aid for covering up:
* the holes in the quality of the communication between the horse and the rider

* not prioritizing teaching riders how to recognize, believe, and address (in a manner that has value to the horse) the initial, subtle equine communication displaying increasing fear or concern

* rushing/ pushing/ driving the horse through moments of concern because the rider has an "agenda" of working on something else

*repetitiously "practicing" in the concerning area or near a fear-inducing object WITHOUT first having the "tools" to communicate that don't increase the equine's fear, THEN breaking down the BIG "task" into short, specific, Quality segments to help the horse learn HOW to first be mentally directable to think through, process, release tension, and then to move past

 
The reality is most horse spooks that I see are an accumulation of previous on-going building defensiveness and tension during human interaction.

 
Then when something unexpected arises, it seems that the horse "all of a sudden" explodes.

 
If instead the very beginning of every horse interaction he was believed and not criticized, helped by the human to diffuse concern during the minor moments, they would be teaching him to try and trust, while building his confidence.

 
The result? His previous anticipative, fixative, hyper-reactive behavior would diminish and be replaced with thoughtfulness, directability, and reasonable responses toward the human's requests.

credit @horsecollaborative