How Do I Stop My Horse From Neighing During a Show?
Today I went to a horse show that is at a different place than where I normally ride her. All throughout the day she kept neighing at the horses around her. A couple of other people from my barn came with their horses (my horse is best friends with one of theirs). She didn’t make as much noise when she was tied beside her friend when we were waiting for the show to start. But when me and her went into the arena, which she was not familiar with at all since we couldn’t warm up in it, and realized her friend and all of the other horses out there weren’t with her and she was in a unfamiliar place she just started to call to them during my dressage pattern. Now we would have had a good chance of winning if she hadn’t jerked her head up and neighed every 10 seconds. We had the pattern down at home and it looked really good (we practiced A LOT!). I tried really hard to keep her head down but she always managed to jerk it up. Now I’m not super upset or anything just because we didn’t place really high (we got a 4th and a 6th). I just don’t want it to happen again next time. Any ideas or suggestions would be great. Thanks 
It was the biggest show she’s ever been to. She has previously been to two smaller shows but she did the same thing at them.
All this is, is just nerves. By her calling for the other horses she is just getting ride of her nerves. There is nothing that you can do. The only way to get her to stop is by taking her to a bunch of different places. Some horses jump around and buck to get rid of their nerves. It is better to have your horse call than to have your horse jump around in the middle of your class. It will get better over time and it helps if the have a buddy for a while then you can start taking her alone. This should help but it will take time. If you want to just go to shows and get high scores than get another horse. But if you want to build a great bond with your horse and get a chance to learn then just stick with your horse and ride it out. Also what you can do is give her a job not just riding around the rail or cantering circles but have her do leg yields and bending change direction a lot and just focus on her and no one else.
u need to fist him with those special gloves
She sounds nervous. Was this a big show? Well, big for her? You should let her experience more sounds and noises. Take her on a trail by a road or something like that.
every night before a competition, massage his vocal cords and tell him encouraging words. also feed him plenty of carrots. horses like carrots……….mmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Horses are herd animals, and sometimes feel unsafe when they are alone. Therefore, they can get pretty nervous. To counteract separation anxiety, take your horse on trail rides alone, in the arena alone, and anything else you can think of, alone! When you go to shows, a temporary fix may be to trailer your horse alone, but her in a stall away from her friends, warm up alone, stand her alone, etc. Of course, this may not always be possible, but it’s some food for thought.
My pony used to be really bad about going into the ring because she didn’t want to go away from her buddies, so before she had to go in the ring, I would take her away from the other horses and walk and trot her in circles. When I did this, she would walk right into the ring with no fuss.
She might have been better without her best friend there. My son’s green pony is good at shows when he’s there by himself, but if I bring along another one of our horses he neighs for them whenever they’re out of sight.
Other than that, there’s not much you can do except keep going to shows until she gets used to it. Make sure her attention is focused on you.
I feel your pain!
We are currently hauling my two year old filly to any show that my older horse goes to, simply because of this. The goal is for her to get conditioned to shows even before we ride her, so that once we start riding her, she will have that part over with. Some days, she stands tied to the trailer, falling asleep, other days, she drives us crazy with the non-stop neighing. Most times, she is quiet at the trailer, or in hand, but when I longe her, she neighs at anything and everything….other horses she doesn’t even know, mostly.
I prescribe hard work, keeping her focused on you, and work her until she quiets down, until she is tired if necessary. Tired horses focus on their job, not on neighing. I would also discipline her for neighing, it is not acceptable for a show horse to neigh. I stop my filly hard, and reverse directions when she neighs on the longe line. Last show it was kinda funny, it took me a long time out on the longe to get her to quiet down, and I had stop-and-reversed her so many times, that she did it on her own when she neighed. It was like she just couldn’t resist, so she took her discipline. Horses!