Firstly you need to know how to recognize when a horse is getting spooked and how to handle him if he starts to bolt.  Interestingly, when a horse hears an unfamiliar noise, his head bends towards the direction of the noise and his ears prick up.  He faces the direction from which the noise is coming and whilst the horse can hear something, the same is not true for you.  It is possible you will not be able to see or hear anything that could be frightening to your horse, but you should be ready to pacify him and be prepared if your horse should start to bolt.

If he does bolt, then what?  Well, don’t pull on both reins, as this isn’t going to stop him going forwards, his natural direction.  Use just one rein as this pulls your horses head sideways and that will make it much harder for him to run. Try to slow him down and do not let go until he stops moving and you feel you have him under control.

Now you know the technique for dealing with a bolting horse, you now need to recognise the symptoms so you can be ready to handle you horse under these difficult circumstances.

 Well, perhaps a good starting point is thinking about how a horse sees things.  We have our eyes both pointing forwards and see in a sort of panoramic view with our focus on the middle of the image in view. 

Horses are different.  They have their eyes on either side of their head so see one image in the left eye and another image in the right eye.  Indeed they have an almost 360 degree vision with a blind spot immediately in front of them and immediately behind them.  That’s why you should always make sure a horse is aware of your presence as you approach him, so as not to frighten him by coming out of his blind spots.

You can imagine, therefore, just how much information a horse has to process whilst staying alert for danger. 

This perspective is what can trigger fear in your horse even if you have traveled the route many times.  What he sees and accepts with one eye on the way down, may not be seen and understood with his other eye when traveling back and hence it can agitate or even scare him. 

Trying to reach a balance is why it is so important to train your horse from both sides and is one of the ways in which you can help yourself stay safe while working and riding with your horse.