Horses can become anxious, fearful or phobic of a whole manner of things. Either they become ‘sensitised’ to some stimulus because it was new and took them by enough surprise to make them spook on following occassions, or they associate the thing with something else that hurt or otherwise frightened them.

Treating fearful horses involves systematically desensitising them to diluted versions of the object of their fear until they react in a more neutral manner to it, and then counter-conditioning them to it so that they learn to associate it with something they actually enjoy.

Implementing this kind of programme involves carefully observing the horse’s body language to judge the most effective degree of dilution during training. The horse needs to be provoked to little more than mild concern at each stage of training, because provoking a more intense fear response simply further entrenches the fear in the horse’s mind.