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It is not simply a matter of 'how to handle a horse that spooks', there is a very deliberate reason as to why the horse may spook.
Firstly. the horse as we all know is a natural prey animal. This simply means that since the days of Eo Hippus everything has looked at the horse as something to eat. This being looked at as something to eat progressed to be a very suspicious and wary animal - after all, if you think about it and apply the same scenario to yourself, it wouldn't take much chasing by an animal we are ill equipped to deal with to ingrain in our minds to become suspicious of potential hiding spots, ambush areas or dark areas (such as the interior of a float with a dark floor - this is in conjunction with another problem the horse has - the possibility of color blindness and not having the ability of depth perception).

This as a natural progression has led the horse to become a highly nervous animal and wanting to run away from potential predation. It is an evolved natural progression for a horse to be spooky. It all comes down to the rider's ability and how they actually deal with it as to how it can successfully be overcome.
This has partially explained as to what the common reasons may be for a horse to 'spook' - next comes the actual chemical reaction that takes place.
Because of the conditioning of the horse as described above, when something unnatural (to the horse) happens or takes place - noticed how they won't spook when being ridden down the roadside and a truck comes rushing by yet will immediately jump into the path of an oncoming car or truck when an empty chip packet or leaf is suddenly blown across their path? - Their natural instinct is to flee. This only defense a horse really has. When this happens it is akin to a sudden adrenalin rush in ourselves, but unlike a prey animal,(the human species being a natural predator) we are more prone to aggression rather than flight, yet the chemical reaction takes place nonetheless.
When this reaction takes place in our horse, the extremely limited chemical (calcium) pathways between the brains hemispheres can not deal with the amount of information being transmitted and simply 'fuse out'. This in turn kicks in the horse's inherit flight response and is the causative factor in why they 'spook'. If the information being transmitted is greater than the absorption rate for a short period of time, then you will more than likely be riding a runaway horse as the flight response really does kick into top gear.
Ever notice when a horse has spooked and is on a runaway how it will naturally look back over the right shoulder? This is the 'fear' side of the brain. Anything it can see over its back that may be predatory encourages the horse to keep running. If or when riding this type of horse, and although it may sound silly, if you have the ability to simply not try and fight the horse by attempting to stop or whoa the horse, and let it go on a loose rein, it will travel a while, but will inevitably after a period of flight and when the calcium pathways begin to function again, stop mad running and begin to listen to you again. This is the opportunity you need to take to actually stop the horse and ask it to turn toward the 'predator' - by cool horsemanship and not reacting in the manner the horse is, being frightened. It is more likely you will be able to control these spooky horses a lot better than simply over-reacting by trying to fight against the runaway or clamping down with legs so hard and allowing your heart to race through the adrenalin rush and reacting in the expected manner.
Take stock and keep it low key. Results will be amazing. Horses run on emotion, and the calmer emotion we can display, the calmer the horse will be.

Learn more about this author, Peter Waller.
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