I had a young horse in training that seemed to always focus his attention further than 50-100ft. in front of him. He's a horse that thinks he needs to be watchful for the "enemy" anywhere from a quarter of a mile to as far as he can see into the distance. His owner wanted to use him for trail riding and hunting so occasionally we loaded up this horse and another one and went riding out in the foothills. One such time we were riding back to the trailer down a valley covered with numerous granite boulders and I was intentionally watching this horse trying to decide how far ahead he was looking. We were approaching some large boulders when all of a sudden this horse jumped sideways 10-15ft almost losing his rider. Because this horse gave no warning until the very last second he was a difficult horse to ride. In my opinion, he was trickier to ride than a cutting horse because this fast side movement seemed to come out of the blue leaving you unprepared. In comparison, with a cutting horse, you are prepared and expecting these same sweeping sideward moves.
By observing this horse I noticed he was focused too far ahead of himself. He didn't see a big boulder until he was right beside it and was forced to bring his attention up close to his surroundings. That boulder just seemed to jump out of no where. I had to explain to the rider why his horse jumped so forcefully. I suggested to the rider that he start asking his horse to travel with a lower head in order to bring his focus closer in front of himself. Over time this rider has been able to do this and it has made a huge improvement in the amount of jumping sideways his horse will do.
I encourage you to know how far out in front your horse is focusing. It might explain why all of a sudden he jumps at some object on the trail.
