Managing Anxious Horses with Wendy Caban

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.

Wendy Caban & Jay Lo Working

Which of your competition horses has been the most anxious and what traits did they have? My barrel racing horse that I ride now is Jay Lo Working, an eight-year-old mare by SLR Mojos Workin, out of Classic Amarillo (Morn Deck). She can be very anxious, she is pretty good at home but when the truck starts up she knows we are going to a rodeo. Then she will start pawing the ground and gets very pushy and wants to race on the trailer so you have to have hold of her so she doesn’t rush on.

What are your tips for competing an anxious horse? Well I don’t like to get in a fight with her at all. I just keep her as calm as possible and try not to pay any attention to her silly behaviour. I sometimes will get my husband Troy or daughter Dekota to walk with me to try and keep her calm — it takes her mind off it. She knows what she is there for and loves her job so I feel she is just excited to run.

How do you change your warm up routine to suit? I warm up away from the arena so she doesn’t get excited too early and she thinks about what I’m asking of her. I do a good warm up trot loop then I will just walk her around until I’m up, staying away from the arena until a couple girls before me. Then I walk up and just sit there until I go in. I keep her in a routine with my warm ups as she doesn’t like change. After she runs she is happy to walk around like a normal horse. I like to walk her for about half an hour afterwards to cool her down as she gets pretty anxious.

What is your favourite exercise to help with their nervous energy? I do a lot of flexing and moving her body around me all at a walk to keep her mind busy. As soon as she thinks about going silly, I have changed direction and then she has to think about what I’m asking again. I have really good feel to a horse and this helps me because I can change it before it happens. I know what I’m asking of my horse and they will work with me. Anxious or not, I keep a positive attitude so my horses trust what I ask of them.

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