Won't work in the outdoor sandschool

[sweetbriar]

I am having problems with my mare. She's in her early 20s and is an ex riding school pony.

She's great to hack (we've sorted out a lot of the nappiness) and is the perfect pony for me.

However, she will not work in the outdoor sandschool. The yard was a riding school (her riding school) and it was then closed and turned into a DIY livery yard.

She will go into the school OK but once in starts to become very difficult to ride. She becomes very slow (and I mean very slow) until she starts tripping over herself, she won't listen to my leg or voice, refuses to go into trot or do any work at all. She has also started stopping in the top end of the school and refuses to move.

I can appreciate that she is a little stiff now and I try to work her in an active walk and get her to do circles & serpentines to help her loosen up a bit.

I am having the saddler come out to check her saddle and I am also getting a man to come and look at her back.

I never have any trouble working her in other peoples sandschools and I know that this could be because her old one has bad memories for her.

I was wondering if perhaps some Natural Horsemanship methods might work. I don't want to punish her if she is genuinely upset. She often stops and nibbles my foot as if to say 'get me out of here I hate it'.

I can't just hack her out as I get up to the yard too late and its dark when I'm tacking her up. We've got no other option but to work in the school over the winter and I'm now at my wits end.

She's a lovely pony with a great personality and its a real shame.

[cvb]

there was something in one of the recent UK magazines about a horse like this. They put treats around the school on barrells and fence posts and encouraged her to trot around to find them. Sounds weird but it did help with a longer term attitude change !

I would think anything you can do which is fun and not too much stress would help, so some of the NH games might help.

[maverick927]

My pony doesn't work well in an indoor. He could possible be like your pony as Mavy finds the surface hard to work on.

He was also a riding school pony which doesn't help as indoor schools bring back bad memories.

[sweetbriar]

Thanks for your suggestions. I may well try the treats exercise and see if it works.

I want her to see the school as a nice place because she really doesn't look at it that way. I know that they used to chase her with a lunge whip because they thought she was lazy. She also had children kicking and pulling her and screaming when she went fast. Poor little pony must have been so confused.

I take some Polos in with me and I give them to her when she's been good and gone forwards into trot and kept up the pace for a while. She also gets them at the end of the lesson.

The surface of the school is sand and rubber (its supposed to be on top but its mostly been mixed in now). Maybe it does make hard work for her.

[Mehitabel]

sand and rubber can be hard going if it hasn't settled yet, or if there's the wrong ratio of sand to rubber. ours is very deep at the minute - it was done at easter, and we're having more rubber put in.
how about feeding her in there sometimes? only from a bucket, as you don't want her eating the rubber, but it might help to give her more pleasant associations with the school.