When you're out hacking and your horse won't go past something...

[MonChoufleur123]

What do you do?
Yesterday I was walking the dog and a lady went past on a horse. There's a small, narrow brook running across the path. After I'd gone past I heard shouting and turned around thinking a dog was attacking her horse. She was shouting "stop it! Stop it!" And kicking the horse on who didn't want to walk across the brook. The horse had shied on the bank and just seemed a bit unsure. It was sunny and windy and I wondered if it was struggling to judge the depth/ distance in the moving light and shade. Eventually it did a massive cat jump over the brook which nearly unseated the rider. Similar happened recently when another woman was trying to get her horse past a stationary tractor on our (very quiet) road (we were outside waiting to get in our car), I said it's fine there's absolutely no rush but again she was kicking the horse on, using a riding crop etc to rush it past.
Would it not be better to let the horse stop and have a look at what's scaring it rather than trying to force it past? Or does this teach the horse it's OK to stop and not go past something? (Obviously this would not be safe on a busy road.)
I used to ride a lot as a child/ teenager but haven't since so interested in people's views with more experience than me!

Hmm thing is it isn't a one answer fits all horses type of situation. Horses are funny creatures, they aren't very logical, you'd think letting them get a good look at the scary thing would reassure and calm them but sometimes the more they look at/sniff/think about it the worse they wind themselves up, particularly if it's something that's moving unpredictably - one thing I learnt recently is that while their distance vision is excellent, much better than a person's, up close they actually can't see objects too well at all and their depth perception is pretty poor which might explain why they find things like shallow ditches and carrier bags flapping in the breeze so scary, as they can't quite focus properly to work out what it is really is/what's underneath them. They're also not really forward planners, most horses if they see something even a tiny bit threatening would if left to their own devices risk assess as threat level = severe, appropriate response = flee, even if fleeing involves much more danger e.g. careening down a busy road, over a 3 lane motorway and through a lane of spikes and ball bearings. If they retained some level of brain control they might stop before they reached the motorway once the immediate threat was gone (or if they were with a herd, if the herd leader and/or the rest of the herd stopped they would stop with them), but equally once their adrenaline is up and their flight response fully going some find it very hard to calm themselves down even when the original threat is long gone and they've forgotten what it even was, particularly if there isn't another horse to take their cue from. So you kind of do have to take charge a bit and be assertive before they get a chance to decide for themselves what the threat level is, many horses respond much better to that kind of riding than too much softly softly.

What to do when they spook is quite an individual answer, it would be totally different with my old mare who was very sensitive and sharp and found most things in life stressful compared to my current boy who is quite bold and brave on the whole but finds certain things (small children in puffy jackets notably) inexplicably terrifying. Old mare I definitely wherever possible took the non escalation of conflict route, lots of pats and soothing words and where necessary hop off and lead her on foot past the scary thing (and if needed all the way home), she was not a good, safe or relaxing hack really no matter how much desensitizing work I did at home, but if I'd booted her or shouted at her she'd have been airbourne within seconds. Current boy I would probably be more like the rider you saw, bit of vocal encouragement doesn't necessarily do any harm, some horses are quite well trained to the voice (although as with dogs a positive command to 'do this' is easier to train than a negative 'stop it!' although horses tend to respond more to tone than actual words anyway) - I don't ever kick or hit him with the crop but if he's being an arse I would probably tap him behind my leg to remind him that the leg aid means to move forwards or sometimes tap my own boot quite hard to make a noise which is quite effective to get his attention. With him it is best to push him quite quickly and briskly past the hazard before he's even started the spook rather than giving him too much time to think about it, the longer he has to look the more likely he'll decide it definitely is frightening after all whereas once he's past it once he won't usually be scared again (very different again to old mare who once something or some place was deemed frightening it would be the cause of a meltdown forever more).

Really depends on the horse and situation
Mine was happier having a look at something but on one occasion when she decided to have a tantrum over a funny looking flower, she shot backwards on to a main road so yes I growled at her and said GTFO with it - mostly because it was a 60mph road and dangerous and she knew better than to do that
Other times when she was refusing to walk past something I would take the “we will sit here all day” approach

These are such interesting responses! Thank you for taking the time to reply. I didn't know that about the differences in their vision but that makes sense as a 'prey' animal.

It's also amazing with horses that on the way out "that's a killer crocodile and I cannot be within 20 yards of it" on the way home becomes " oh a log. Nothing to see here" and they doddle past it .

Depends on the horse. The one I ride is better if given a chance to look. He is very brave and rarely does a real spook. He will flinch and back up a step but his curiosity will win out because he is nosy.

Just let him look at it and approach it if safe and he will pick it up and investigate it, after which it becomes no big deal.

My instructor is training her 4/5 year old and he is scared of his own shadow and if allowed to spook, will cart you off to Timbuktu. God forbid you actually TOUCH the spooky object, then it will taint you and you become spooky by association.

He does better with a solid kick on, backed up by the crop if necessary and I can well imagine her shouting at him if he spooked in a dangerous way. You can't really pander to napping, it's dangerous if they do it on a road.

There’s an old school way of thinking that if a horse “naps” it’s being naughty and you must do whatever you can to get it past the obstacle and “win”. Under no circumstances must you get off because then the horse has “won”. Hit, kick, growl, shout - whatever you must do.

there’s a newer school of thought that’s it’s you and your horse against the world. That you can allow the horse to look at whatever is scaring it and encourage it past. If you can’t get it to go past then hop off and lead it past. You haven’t “lost” because you aren’t fighting your horse in the first place.

both schools of thought completely at odds with each other and both convinced they’re right