If your horse scares you because he’s unpredictable while riding him, here are some techniques you can try.
First, understand that he may be unpredictable because you may be making him that way. Check to see if you’re giving him conflicting signals. That confuses a horse. A confused horse can easily turn into a scared horse. A scared horse becomes unpredictable.
If your signals are not conflicting, then start by riding your horse in an enclosed space. If all you have is a round pen, that’s a good starting point. If you have an arena, that’s even better. This will be a controlled area and if he spooks and gets unpredictable, then he can’t run too far.
As you ride, be very aware of his unpredictability. In other words, take notice where it’s happening. Is it happening at a turn? A certain place in the arena? Does it happen when you only turn left? When is it happening?
Once you learn to look for the timing of when it’s happening, you may discover the problem and thus fix it. As an example, a horse could be in pain and every time you used your left leg on him it made him jumpy – but you may have thought he was being spooky or unpredictable. Thus, you may find that he’s in pain and not unpredictable.
Another way to help an unpredictable horse is ride, and ride, and ride. There’s an old saying that says, “A sweaty saddle blanket makes a good horse.” It means you need to put miles on your horse. He needs ridden a lot. Much of it you can do in an arena but you’ll also have ride out of the arena because he may sour on riding in the arena too much. Lastly, you may have to do some de-spooking exercises with him. If so, don’t leave that out of his training.
