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Olympian Ginny Elliot’s tips to stop your horse’s cross-country spooks and nail a fast round – and her own reactive horse who turned a corner to become a champion

What can you do if you have a horse who makes light work of jumping cross-country fences but is easily distracted and spooks at everything from crowds to trade stands and shadows to the tannoy? We speak to international event riders Ginny Elliot and Jeanette Brakewell to find out how to train focus and bravery outside the flagged fences.
Emily Bevan Emily Bevan

    • For some riders, it’s not the cavernous trakehners or ultra-skinny arrowheads that pose a problem out eventing. Instead, it’s the worry about their horse spooking on the cross-country course, not at the obstacles themselves, but other distractions, such as flags, noises, crowds – or even a different shade of grass colour.

    Once you get within range of the fence, your horse might jump happily over, but it’s an issue you need to get to the bottom of. Spooking means time-faults, a less smooth round and sub-optimal preparation for the fences. This might be surmountable at the lower heights, but as you move up the levels, your horse needs all his focus on the job in hand.

    How to stop your horse spooking on the cross-country course

    “I would always try and figure out what is it that’s spooking the horse, is it noise? Is it sight? Is it both? Then I would try to find a way in which I could help the horse adjust to that environment,” says five-time Burghley winner, Ginny Elliot.

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