I board my horse at a stable that backs up to a home that is now being used as a  landscaping business. My horse has gotten really concerned about the  cows that arrived next door, followed by the pigs,  chikcens , and now the landscaping equipment that is parked next to the ring. Some days he is fine working around in the ring other days he is extremely distracted looking over at the trucks and mowers.  Spooking along that line.  My trainer has had me get on his case and really wrok him hard in a circle when he spookeds or tries to bolt. It doesn't really seem to be helping a lot. I've taken him over to let him look.  I work him down that line trying to keep the  bend and use leg yeilds. Also lots of circling and changes of directions around the fences to get him thinking.    Some days he is good others its a battle, are there any suggestions on what I can do to make him more confident and less distracted.  Any movement over there tends to set him off, he use to be a joy to ride but this  had made it difficult.  I can't figure out what the issue is to get him to relax and over come it.  tTe other day it was one of the neighbors walking along the fence.

Ugh, I am right there with you.  All I can say is stay patient.  I deal with the same thing with Arizen every winter and it has made me second guess my decision to buy her many times.

 Since he now seems to have gotten worse with the approach you've been using, I would suggest a slightly different approach.  I have used the approaches you mentioned with Arizen and sometimes it makes her even more scared of the area we're focusing on. 

My suggestion is to do all your work on the side of the arena he is comfortable in, however big or small that area may be.  Then let him rest on the side he is scared of.  They seem to get the idea pretty quickly and decide that they'd rather be on the scary end of the arena.

Also, don't push to hard too fast.  Start with an area he is comfortable in and slowly leg yield into the area he is scared of.  Every time you go around, you may get a little closer.  It sounds like he's associated that end of the arena with things that make him nervous or scared, so show him that it's not a bad place to be. 

Don't let him look at the scary stuff.  It is useless.  You can't always have them look at the things that scare them.  They have to work through it.  Leg yielding with their head away from the scary object is a good approach.  You may want to make sure you are setting him up early enough.  Notice when he starts to *** his ears as you go around.  Next time he approaches, start shoulder-in or leg yielding down the wall BEFORE he has the chance to get distracted. 

Spooking is a real struggle, and I sympathize.  Even with all these different approaches, you still may have problems.  It is a slow process and the less of a "big deal" you make of his spooking, the more confidence he will gain.  Also remember to breathe, yourself.  You need to keep your body in a constant state of relaxation, even through his spooks.  Keep breathing with his striding and you may be amazed at how responsive he is to that alone. 

 Good luck!

 Yuck! Spooking is the worst. Here is what has been successful with my gelding who, like your guy, is the "occassional" spooker:

 First and foremost, ride him as normally as possible. If you start to make a big fuss out of his spooking then he will begin to think it's something to make a big fuss over and everything will just start to snowball. Never punish him for spooking - horse's naturally have a flight or fight reflex that they can't control. As I am sure you have already recognized, he isn't doing this to be naughty. If you feel a spook coming on, turn his head away from the object he is spooking at, widen your hands, and simply push him forward. I also talk to my horse to get his attention back on me, whether it is a sharp "hey mister!" or clucking. This has always worked really great. Sometimes if you react to the spooking by "getting on his case" and suddenly changing what you where doing by making him work in a circle, it will only exasperate the situation. Ideally you want him to look at something that is frightening him and then look to you for what he should do next. If you remain calm and give him something to distract him (little tug on the inside rein and speaking/clucking) while he goes past the terrifying two headed cows that are about to devour him whole, he will begin to realize that it isn't something to lose his head over and that he can trust his rider to take care of him.

 Good luck! Hope this helps.    

It's amazing how much spooking--even if it's occasional--can put a damper on a ride.

When I moved my horse to a new barn a few years ago that had a line of trees/brush along one side of the arena, he started spooking at all the little noises coming from the area.  Here are a couple of things that worked for me:

— Hand-walk your horse by the spooky area a few times before you get on. My horse takes comfort if I'm between him and the "scary" thing at first. I've found it's OK to let him look at spooky things when I'm not on him. It seems to give him time to figure out that it really isn't so scary. Also, it gives me time to figure out how he's going to be on a particular day--reactive to things or more ho-hum.

— As Nicole and BayHorseGirl suggest, take it slow. When you're mounted, start working in the area where he is comfortable. Once he's warmed up, gradually move into the scary area--make a circle bigger to include some of the area or leg yield into the area for several steps. After being in the area for a circle or two, go back to his comfort zone to work for a little bit. Then move into the scary area again. Each time you move into the scary area, don't make a big deal out of it. 

— My trainer suggested that if my horse feels as if he's going to spook or he does spook to say something to him like: "It's OK, you're with me," in a low, calm voice.  It's comforting to him and it keeps me from holding my breath, which only makes him more nervous. After I say that, I focus on exhaling and relaxing my seat into the saddle. (I find that when I get anxious, I start to perch, which doesn't make me—and probably him—feel very secure.)

I hope these help. Good luck!

Sandy

What my trainer has taught me was to prepare the horse BEFORE you get to a sppoky corner or part of the arena. She always told me to have halt right before I get to the spooky part, so that I am releasing him when I am going by the sppokiness. This way not only it will keep his mind busy, it will also relax him. You don't want them thinking "Oh, no this is the scarry corner where there are monsters and work!!!!!"

 Repeating it will probably be a good idea. Whenever I go trail riding out on the ditch banks here, horses get sppoked by the bucks that fly out of the ditch. The first couple of ducks they go sideways really fast, by the 10th duck they could care less.

 That's just how horses are. They have some days when they are more fresh and more reactive to outside stimlui.

You are doing good already by doing circles and trying to get him focusing on you but there is one thing that just might help...

 Put him on the bit. When he is on the bit his hind quarters are engaged. This is what that means:

On the bit = impulsion (which is the strength of the hind quarters)

Flat = speed 

 When a horse has impulsion they can't actually take off without coming off the bit. They can only extend their stride. Their hind quarters are swinging under them freely and they can't bolt.

 When they come off what is correctly considered the bit their strides are flat and they can just quicken their stride. In fact impulsion is impossible to create when a horse isn't correctly on the bit.

 Plus when you put a horse on the bit they are more focused on the aids you are using to keep them on the bit then the livestock. 

I wish I could explain the whys but I don't know quote yet, for now it's just one of those things that just is and works.

EDIT: Sorry I worded that wrong...I fixed it. 

 Am I reading that right??  Putting a horse on the bit will make him never spook again???  Wow, someone needs to let horses in on this little secret...

Funny, Solaris. ;-)  As we all know, it's definitely not failsafe, but if you think about it, a horse doesn't generally spook until he lifts his head up. Also, if you think about how horses see, a horse who is on the bit has a very small range of binocular vision: They can only see the ground directly in front of them. Therefore, when they're on the bit, they're not using their 350 degree monocular vision to see predetors to the sides and behind them.

How do you keep them on the bit through a spook?  Im working an Arabian gelding right now who, depending on his mood, will spook at everything.  I mean everything.  Dressage letters, ground poles, jump standards, trees blowing in the wind, the house, the shed, whatever.  We will be going nicely, doing collected work, then, faster than you would believe, he's slammed onthe breaks and leapt sideways, head in the air.  Very little warning.  Trail rides fine, this seems to be dressage ring oriented.  But that's my issue, keeping him on the bit, its all I can do to stay on when he does it, much less keep a consistent connection with my legs on him.

I HATE when they do that! I feel for you! I don't have an answer to your question, but a question for you: Have you had his eyes checked? Has he always done this, or did it come on gradually?

In the meantime, I can only suggest finding ways of keeping him occupied in the dressage arena. Do lots of lateral work: leg-yield, shoulder-in, etc., turns, circles, etc. The key is probably going to be just not giving him a chance to focus on other things. Good luck and keep us posted! I'm sure we'd ALL like to know if you figure out something that works!

I haven't had his eyes checked though I have been wondering about it after reading the practical horseman article.  We also noticed that he tends to do it 20 minutes or so into my schooling session, sometimes no noise or movement is obvious. The thought now being that he is having to work more and is using it as a way to get out of work.   The first few times he whirled so fast he dumped me so I guess it worked so I've been working on my legs and positiohn to correct that so I stay one and can head it off without getting unseated.

 Yesterday we worked wtih some cross rails, canter, leg yeilds , many transitions, changing things but also making sure he was moving forward off his hind end more (he tends to get lazy).  I had a wonderful session with no spook.  The trainer commented she thought maybe he was getting bored and was trying to make things exciting so if I vary the work a lot he has to stay in tune and can't get distracted as much. Course the steer next door still becomes an issue if it moves around much.  Equines sure keep it exciting, its funny how some kick in the flee instinct so fast and others think it through. My mare, lord I wish I still had her, would always look at the problem , stop, study it then look to me.  This one reacts quickly and he's fast.

 I agree that spooking sep that big jump sideways it a pain. I think there are a lot of good ideas listed by others and i do use most of them myself.  Another thing I have done that seems to help is give my horses selenium and vit E.  I notice when I don't all his nervous reactions are more exagerated tahn when i do.  My vet said his blood level was adequate but toward the low side and encouraged my to use the supplement.

I have been riding, then breaking & training<--albeit not professionally, for 60 of my 62 years, so my reply is based on the mental makeup of the horse.

Horses are just born possessing varying degrees of "spook".  You can see how much spook is probably going to be in them if you are privileged to have watched them from their earliest moments in life; including how much they choose to cling to their mama even as they mature into the weanling stage.

The best, all-time, absolutely bomb-proof/spook-proof horse I've ever owned is the horse in my avatar, who is now 22.  He exudes self-confidence and it's no surprise that he is the alpha dominant horse in my herd of four; another indicator of how spooky a horse may be if facing the evils of life alone; where is he/she in the pecking order.

This 22 yo and my 23 yo Arab that is the passive leader, both get high marks for being spook-less.

The horse in my avatar has only ever spooked one time in his life; he was four years old.

We were riding beside some thick underbrush and a deer literally jumped out of there almost on top of his head.  Duke gave a quick spook five feet to the left, leaving me on the ground, because I didn't have a saddle on - lol lol 

I don't know of any horse that wouldn't reacted to that situation.

This horse has had semi's let their jake brakes off right beside him, he's walked straight up to heavy equipment that is running and digging, he's literally gone nose-to-nose with an irate male llama and won.  He eats up all the noise and commotion in a parade -- even with my costumes that wrap around his hind legs when the wind blows.

Duke is unflappable because he was BORN that way.

Two of my other three have spook issues that range from "I can't do this alone", to "Oh Geez, I know that's the neighbor's mailbox but the boogie-man's in there waiting to eat me alive."  The Arab can get spooky but it's generally driven by his laziness and trying to get out of work - lol

 My point to all this is that SOME horses will never be spook free in their entire life.  Some will NEVER be comfortable with all that construction work going on across the way, nor will they ever learn to like the smell of the cattle, pigs and chickens over there.  Pig odor, by the way, seems to be the odor that horses despise the most.

I once had a mare that was fine passing by the beef cow fields, but was scared to death to pass by the dairy cow fields.  Evidently those cows give off a different odor that scared her.  She never did get over that, no matter how many wet blanket rides we took down that road.

My horses that spook are excellent in the woods where they have a trail and natural obstacles they have to focus on.  While the deer don't bother them much, the rude dirt bikers do.

Like people, some horses can make adjustments and deal with what scares them.  Others may never make the adjustment; then the rider has to decide if they want to live with that or not.

 I hope that made sense.  Essentially I said, some horses you can "get the spook out of" others you can't, no matter what you do.  It's just how they were born.

Understanding each horse's mental make-up will go a long way in helping the rider understand how best to deal with the spooks or not deal with them at all and find another horse

I am not sure how much this will help in your situation but I teach all my horses the touch command and how to flex.  When they spook at something I walk them up to it and tell them to Touch it, then ask them to flex three times to each side.  So ever time they spook at something scary they have to go to it instead of running away and then they have to flex which makes them feel submissive to you, reassuring them that you are their leader.  This helps with spook that are them trying to get out of work and some of the scared spooks but if they are truely scared there is still the possibility.