Managing Anxious Horses with Jade Findlay

This article is from the July 2020 Horse Deals magazine.

Hot, horse-shy behaviour, walking fencelines, or attachment issues; it’s enough to drive any horse-owner mad. There’s been many a successful anxious horse though, and as you’ll find, it’s all about managing them effectively.

Jade Findlay & Oaks Cordelia

Which of your competition horses has been the most anxious and what traits did they have? My very anxious horse, is a mare I have owned since she was four and she is now 14 — her name is Heidi, or as most know her, Oaks Cordelia. We nickname her the princess as her anxiety is displayed a little differently to what you might imagine are the classic signs of anxiety and in a more princess like manner. 

How do you manage your anxious horses around the stables? Heidi is like a clock, she will tell you when it is exactly feed time in the morning, i.e. on the dot of 7.30am. If she has not been brought into her nighttime stable by 3.20pm, she will start with some staring, followed by some head twisting leading up to some trotting, closely followed by completely flat out galloping until someone comes to catch her. Without routine this mare would go mad!

Heidi also shows her anxiety, and I think intelligence in the routine of her work, leading into a three day event. Heidi will change personality quite drastically straight after her first big gallop. This tells her that the prep for a big show has started and instantly she becomes very needy. She needs her two people, i.e. me and her slave Anneka Saunders to be near her, touch her and basically attend to her every need. She will nudge you, pull your jumper with her lips, lean into you and because of this she has the paddock that overlooks the arena as it is highly important that she can see me, and Annie all day.

Heidi also seems to find it necessary to do a small scary looking, but so far not show stopping, injury leading into a three day event. We have decided that it is so Annie has to spend hours per day checking and sitting with Heidi to attend to the injury!
When Heidi turns into the princess, basically we have found the best thing to do is try to let her be a horse and not be overprotective. However, we have made sure that we can always see her and she can always see us, they do rely on us for support and relaxation so I do what I can to let her know I’m always there.

What are your tips for competing an anxious horse? Competing Heidi as a young horse was tricky — she would get very tense in the dressage and try so hard in her jumping that she would overjump and be very difficult to ride. As the years have gone along I have found that Heidi needs my time, so when I am competing her at a big show I try very hard to restrict the number of horses I ride and the amount of coaching I do. I always get there early so she can settle in. I take her for big walks and always ride her twice before my test. In the showjumping warm up Heidi can be extremely horse shy, and very sharp, I remember before she won Melbourne in the showjump warm up she was so horse shy that I jumped one oxer and she spooked so much at a horse that she jumped over the wings and I nearly fell off. I then had to go over to the separate crossrail and only jump a crossrail until it was my time to go in. Not a very confidence building warm up but to manage her, I had to do what was right for her. Luckily, for cross country warm up she is a dream.

How do you change your warm up routine to suit? Getting on and off your horse regularly can be a very effective tool for the anxious horse. As soon as they get really stressed, taking them back to the stables and getting off, then getting back on until they realise it is not a big deal.

How else do you help with their nervous energy? There are many treatments that you can talk to your vet about, including ulcer treatment as a major one, it can be a huge relief for the anxious horse. There are also two products that I personally swear by to help the anxious horse, both are produced by Poisiedon. The first — a daily supplement called Digestive EQ and the second — a paste they have developed that I use at shows and before travel called Stress Paste, look it up!

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