I'm pretty sure the horse I ride has some sort of anxiety issue. She starts taking fast, shallow breaths. She will do it off and on, sometimes she won't do it for months, other times she'll do it every day. The vet has checked her over and run tests multiple times, and physically she seems healthy. She's in good shape, we've tried leaving the girth and bridle really lose, nothing helps. Once I get on and ride, she usually calms down.

I don't think it's because she's trying to get out of working, since it doesn't work.

My trainer was talking with another trainer who has worked with the horse, and they were thinking it might be anxiety related. Does that make sense? She is a nervous horse; she tends to get worried about every little detail that different (for an example, my trainer wore a different hat today and she was on the verge of shying away when my trainer came in the barn)

I guess it would make sense if she's getting anxious. Any ideas?

Some horses are just worriers, no need for you to worry too! (As long as she is physically healthy.) Particularly when riding, keeping anxious horses busy is the best way to keep them relaxed. If they are paying attention to you, then they're paying less attention to that barrel that moved to the other side of the ring.

You as the rider also need to be her rock when she gets nervous. Horses naturally look for a leader, and that needs to be you. If you can be calm, quiet, and business-as-usual, then that will help her. Horses can sense very subtle changes in body language, so be aware of what image you are projecting.

If it gets really bad, some people like to give calming supplements, although this can be a process of trial and error as there are a lot of scams out there.

Agreed ^^
Ive worked with worry-wart horses. I used to exercise ride a young thoroughbred who spooked at everything. He had soon chosen one long wall of the arena to be "the scariest thing ever", and I just had to pay as little attention as possible. Act like absolutely nothing is different. Know what else really helped? Thinking of a phrase in your head to repeat as you go through the spooky area. Make it totally unrelated to horses and scary things. I literally just started rambling about how much I like Grey's Anatomy lol. It really helps, though, because you aren't focusing on the possibility that the horse will get scared.
As for on the ground, same thing goes. Going slower with these horses is necessary as well. I've got a rescue mare who is terrified of every little thing. Instead of rushing her into the pace of a braver horse like my eventer, I took many weeks just to work on the same small thing. Can't set a standard.

Thanks for the tips. :)

She has one particular spot she likes to spook, right at the door. I was riding her once and some girl made a loud noise right outside the door, and ever since then she's been spooky there. She's gotten better, particularly if I distract her by doing some bending.

I had had a really bad fall on her about a month ago. We were having a bad windstorm, and less than 5 minutes into the ride she took off, and I lost my balance. I landed completely on my ribs on the right, and I'm just now starting to not feel any pain :)

I got back on a friend's horse (I was still in a lot of pain and the other horse was much calmer) and I rode her next the next lesson.

Since then I've been getting a little nervous when she starts getting spooky (yes, I know, getting nervous when she's nervous is not very good) but I just can't really help it. I'm sure you all know the feeling.

She took off at a full gallop yesterday when some snow fell off the roof, and I stayed on.

She spooked a few times at the beginning of our ride, but towards the middle I got her really relaxed and in the bridle. Her gallop was near the end.

I think I'm slowly gaining my confidence back when she spooks.

I'll try repeating a random phase in my head and see if that helps :)

Thanks again

I would work on desensitizing her more on the ground. Work with bags and spooky stuff.. hand walk her to the scary spot in the ring and halt. Praise when she stands.. turn her around and do it again. Bring different cloths and things you can rub on her and "sack her out" I don't know her age, breed or level of training but work on the ground is imperative for everyone's safety. Not saying she doesn't have ground training... might just need polished. I know you said she has been vet checked.. make sure her eyes have been checked and also it could be respritory (allergies)... just tossing ideas. Good luck with her.

Just a wild idea but take a look at straightness training. It's based on the old literature of dressage masters and from what I've seen is brilliant at calming nervous horses by showing them how to balance better.

Another tip, one that my trainer gave me one day when my normally lazy mare was in a particularly explosive mood. Keep them working but don't drill them in one thing. What we did with my mare was ride her around the arena but at each letter, we did a 10-metre circle, between the circles we would play with the rhythm in her trot or have her do a shoulder-in. Then we changed the 10-metre circles to half 10-metre circles, changing to a half 10-metre circle going the other way. Eventually, the trot became a canter and we started doing simple changes when changing rein.

You don't need to canter the exercise, we just did that as simple changes is something that we are busy perfecting with my mare. Just keep it interesting, do lots of transition changes, change rein often. The point of this is to get her to focus on you instead of whatever is scaring her.

For you, if you are feeling nervous, talk to her constantly. This will force you to breathe as often when we get nervous we hold our breath and don't even realise it. If she spooks, make your self heavy in your seat, keep your heels down, don't lift your hands and close your thighs.

Oh, a note about desensitizing with ground training. Since your horse gets anxious so easily, proceed VERY slowly and with caution. There's a fine line between challenging your horse and pushing them too far, especially with an already reactive horse. I'm definitely in support of ground work and use it with my own horse, but I've also seen people who don't know what they're doing make a bad situation even worse.

Though I suppose that could be said about every training technique ever lol

Wild Turkey- Thank you! For starters, her eyes have been checked and they were fine. The vet originally thought the breathing issue was something allergy related, but after some tests and observing when she does it, she has decided it's not.

She is a Morgan mare in her teens, with not a whole lot of training. :)

Dreamweaver-Thanks for all the tips. I'll be sure to try them out.

Everyone- Thank you for your help. You all are so quick to offer advice (in a good way :) I'll try working on desensitization with the help of my trainer, so that I don't push her to far.

Horses will hold their breath if anxious, so that may be what you are noticing.