Rushing in Trot

[JMK]

Has anyone any experience of a horse rushing off in trot- we get faster and faster and I just cannot slow him down or get him listening to me!. (All other paces are fine!) My horse is very sensitive and desperate to please and my instructor has run out of ideas. I would really appreciate some help !
Jill

[Rick]

I hope this works for you as it did for me.

Start him off in a trot and as soon as he starts going faster than the speed you want hime to go trot him in a 10 ft circle. This will slow him down. When he is trotting nicely. Trot him straight, as he gets faster, trot in a circle again. He will get the idea that when he goes to fast that you will make him go in a tight circle and they do not care for that and will start to keep a slower speed.

I have also used the stop and back up method every time they get to fast.

I forgot to mention, right b4 you decide to go in a tight circle make sure that you have contact with the bit first, then if he still wont slow, go to the circle. As soon as he is trotting the correct speed, let him trot on a loose rein.

[Farm_Girl5]

ok not sure if your doing sitting trot or rising but if your doing rising S..L..O..W your rise down. Because he's gotta slow down so that your "together". Hope this helps some.
Tell me how you get on!
Kristy

[JMK]

Thanks for taking the time to reply - I'll certainly try the circling and the slowing my rise down(I'm having problems in rising trot - sitting trot just sends us shooting into the walls!)
Its great to hear from people that have had the same problems - _I'll let you know how we get on - that is when we recover from box rest with a punctured sole! thanks again and I'll keep in touch!
Jill

[Kiwismum]

I would think that doing a series of half halts at a trot would get him listening to you better, and help keep his rhythmn even.

[Sidesaddle]

Picking up on the suggestion by Kiwismum, try this.
Get your horse into a trot and after about 5 posts bring him back into a walk for 3 steps and then start trotting again. Keep repeating this around the arena, make it more interesting by changing direction and including circles. Remember not to trot too much inbetween, at the most 10m. When he gets the hang of that, reduce the walk to 2 steps and then 1 step inbetween. This can also be a good way to introduce half-halt.
Hope it works.
Regards
Sandra

[Sarah]

hello!

One other think to try is to check that you aren't taking a really solid contact with your horse's mouth. If your hands are blocked, the horse has something to pull against so will go faster. try a bit of ask and release with your hands. You are probably trying that already though!

How old is your horse? If he is young, it might well come with time.

Good luck

bye!

[JMK]

Thanks so much everyone for helping me with this - I've certainly got some new ideas to work on.
I had reached the stage (and so had my instructor) where I had just run out of ideas and was in despair about ever cracking this one!
I will report back on success ( hopefully I can start riding next week as punctured hoof looking much better tonight so fingers crossed!)

Thank you all again!

Jill

[Beth_and_Bonnie]

Hi!I've had the same problem with my mare aswell! What I do is keep a close contact on the reins, use my voice telling her to"whoa" and adjust my rising to the tempo i want it to be at. It might seem a bit uncomfortable at first, but she learnt to adjust herself to my rising.Try it and tell me how it goes!

Love always,
Beth and Bonnie

[JMK]

Thank for the suggestion that worked with your mare - I now feel really hopeful that there are several things I can try - as I've messaged earlier I'd all but abandoned hope!
However I'm still not riding - during enforced box rest on vet's instructions for a punctured sole (Sharp flint on canter track!) my naturally overstressed treasure decided to repeatedly bang his head on the stable bars(despite sedative) and has now got abscess above his eye so is still being rested.However I live in hope!.
Thank you again and as soon as I get back riding I'll report on progress!

Jill

[spots]

HI!

Have been working through some of the same problems with my newest mare. Worked with slowing my rise down, halt-halts, circles and lots and lots of transitions. The other thing that really helped for me was to make sure that I wasn't leaning forward even a little, which was actually cueing her to go faster. It has gotten much better, but it did take awhile.

Is your horse able to be hand-walked now? Or still stall rest only? If you can hand-walk him even just enough to be able to put him in cross-ties to groom him, the change of scenery might help.

Good luck!