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My horse Lily has been spooking more lately. She will spook at anything. I am a little worried that she is starting to be to much for me. When I ride it isn't much fun anymore. I am wondering if I should start looking for a new horse to ride. What do you think I should do?

okay thanks that was what I was thinking about

Get the vet to examine her eyes.

Turned out my horse has a slight difference in focus from one eye to the other, which causes her to spook more than most horses.

I learned to see in advance what she might spook at, and start soothing her, and saying things like "it's alright, we'll be ok" as we approached. I also use this motion with my fingers on the side of the withers... make a circle rubbing there... it all sorta calms her down and she tiptoes past the thing, maybe moving away just a bit. It took a while to get her to understand that she could trust me about "monsters" and stuff. I also would use an exagerated leg yield to get her past it, so her head was turned away from it, her body bent away. She couldn't see it as well that way.

But... if you are getting thrown, or getting too scared, best to get a different horse to ride.

Yup and awwwwww really? I'm so glad your horse trusts you Mustang and thats good, always have your horse know not to fear anything and good point, thats what I just said about getting a new horse.

My horse pulled that with me. It was just attitude. I gave her one whack with the riding crop and she never spooked at nothing again.

Ouch thats not good and wow, at least she learnede her lesson but why did she do that to you? Green Horse?

If you have a trainer, you could also take this issue to them, if possible. I know several people who had horses that developed issues like spooking, which with evaluation, and desensitizing and/or retraining on the horse's/rider's part, many horse-rider pairs worked out their issues. There are also plenty of books out there which might have some useful information...good luck! And if safety is threatened, as everyone else has suggested, maybe hold off riding for a bit, and get a good gameplan in mind first. Sometimes the biggest problems will have the simplest solutions, and trainers and more experienced horsepeople will have advice.

Hey Cherry ^_^ Congrats on being the new owner! Hope things run smoothly for ya. Yeah, I've been busy with finishing college and such, so life is hectic right now >_< I hope to get in a few more posts than I have been, ha ha, we will see how that goes. Take care!