A lot of warm moods are “linebred” (think inbred) for certain disciplines. Inbreeding without aggressive culling leads to undesirable characteristics. I have a good friend who trained national birdhunter field trial dogs at an elite level. English pointers are also heavily linebred. She said in a litter you would have one champion a couple decent hunting dogs and 5 or 6 more that basically needed to be knocked in the head.

As a former breeder of Hanoverians, I actually witnessed what you are talking about. With the influx of the " more up moving and exotic moving " horse breeds such as Thoroughbred, Trakener, Holsteiner, and Oldenburger, in order to add refinement, breeders were also adding the " hot " to the horses. As it was explained to me by a very venerable breeder, if you want to sell your horses, you have to breed what the market wants. And the market wanted more " Thoroughbredy " looking horses, not the big, powerful, " dumbbloods " as defined by Michael Plumb at one point. The problem is that you can't separate the " blood or heat " from the body characteristics. And so this is what you get, a more high-strung ,spooky horse. But as a breeder, 95%+ of your buyers are amateurs, who like what they see but have difficulty riding these horses. They really are more for professionals, and honestly how many professionals are out there? And if your horses that you sell are difficult to ride, and getting a bad name for it, then it comes back to bite you business wise. As a breeder, I paid close attention to the " disposition " that certain crosses created. Physically, they were all confirmationaly good, but some were more difficult than others to deal with. I wouldn't rebreed that cross. If it were a good " nic or niche " as it was called, then I went with it over and over again. The Europeans understood this. That is why there were 2 World Cups, 4 Walt Disneys, etc. You can also see the evolution of the Dressage saddles in order to provide more security for the rider on these horses. When I competed in the late eighties to late nineties, the saddles barely had a knee roll and it was under the flap. Today the saddles have a literal leg bumper in front of the thigh and down to under the knee. The saddles are also even deeper seated as well. All this to provide the rider a much more secure position, when dealing with these spooky and big moving and large animals. Anyway, I am sorry that my response to your comment is so terribly long, but I wanted to explain to others what has taken place in the breeding world, that has created the new Warmbloods and to agree with your observation. Warmbloods got their name and their success from being of sound mind and character and having a brain and strong body structure in order to deal with the highest levels of Dressage, Jumping, and eventually in the Eventing world. Physically they held up. And Mentally they could handle the pressures of the training that is required for the highest levels. At one of the inspections that a group of 3 mares I had brought, one of my mares won the Inspection, and another was singled out by 1 of the European inspectors for having a " perfect hock ". At the age of 21 that mare is still competing at the upper levels and soundly. I know of several horses with the exotic hind legs who at 10-12 are already having problems and pain. Are we really breeding better horses? IMO I am not so sure.

Yep I had exactly the same experience. No spook half my life, then warmbloods and my only issue is violent spook. Every single one of them. We have bred the performance without the brain.

I'd agree 100%!!

@@jinxkrug7000 This was a fantastic read, thank you for writing it! I just started on a Hanoverian that I am told gets spooky sometimes. lol Oh boy...

Yeah, me too, but in a clinic situation you’re a bit pressed for time. Maybe that was why this was the choice so they could work on other ideas too?

1000% agreed, that's the way it should be done. Choose let them choose where they work and choose we're they rest. You sound like a true horse women. :)

Yeeeesssss..........exactly.

My horse does huge spooks, and I act like nothing happened most of the time(not when he is being bad or not listening) being all tense shows your horse that the object they are staring and spooking at is scary. I get their attention on me.

From what I've learned, yes, it's good to let them investigate, but you also have to prepare them to work through the unexpected. You may find yourself at a show, and not have the liberty of just stopping to explore. However many people try to expose and desensitize their horses at home so they can approach things at their own pace (sniffing, looking at, touching), so that when they see it out in the world it isn't so scary.

I think some horses that lack confidence or confidence in their rider need more ground work before they get to events like this. My horse who used to be afraid of everything, I did let him stop and look for a long time. Over time, we got to the point where we rarely had to stop. I also found giving my horse a more natural lifestyle with turnout made him a more confident horse.

My first horse was a VERY smart Appaloosa which I got when I was 16. I did what you suggested and he soon started walking up to spooky things on his own. Some horses spook as a way to avoid work. I don’t know if that is the case here.What the trainer is coaching the rider to do is essentially tell the horse he should focus more on his rider than on the bogeyman outside the ring. If you can condition that response it will serve you well when it is not an option to investigate the scary thing. To have a solid partnership the horse has to accept that you are a reliable leader and agree to focus more on you than whatever he thinks is scary. You acknowledge that you’ve noticed what the horse is worried about and then say “focus on me”.

If my trainer stayed silent not instructing me, I would be even more scared. This is an amazing trainer.

He is a little frustrated because the rider is slow to follow his instructions. What he is saying is spot on.