Lazy young horse?

[EmsnMaisie]

In my experience of young horses, they are usually forward going and at times a tad silly. My mare maisie, is the total opposite, very sensible (most of the time) and really really really lazy under saddle. I put most of this down to not really understanding what is being asked of her all the time.

But have any of you had any experience of backing and schooling youngster that are just hugely lazy and non forward going?

[luv2jump2!!!]

*jumps up and down!!*

My boy is the laziest toe-rag you could wish to ride, and has been since backed! (4 now, backed by myself at 3and a half.)

[little lauz]

we both got girls called maisie , my maze is lazy and laid back too although she is 13.

back to the question ,
we break TBs at work and they are generally forward thinking , But last year we had one mare that really did not care and was very lazy too. We did lots of lunging to get he thinking forward. When lunging we did lots of transitions to keep her mind active ,Some horses just w
switch off and then uve had it . Try that.

Also in ridden work keep it as varied as possible or even prehaps long rein. When riding have a lead horse that is safe but responsive so that your mare is following and going forward .

Another method i use is rather than kick kick flap flap . Squueze and if yo get nothing back it up with the stick , dont hassle to much if you get a reaction praise .She should get the hang of this and realise that if she goes off the leg she will ot be smacked by the stick ,
hop this helps x

[EmsnMaisie]

I do long reining, lungeing, changes of rein and gait. She is getting better slowly. I just wanted to see if my mare was a freak of nature that was all. :p

[little lauz]

no not a freak ata ll ther plenty on lazy ones out ther x

[Iron Maiden]

I got my youngster when she had just turned 4, her old owner told me she was prone to being lazy & she was quite badly behind the leg when I bought her. She stayed like that for about 18 months, but over the last 6 months or so she has got better & better off the leg. Now she's not overly sharp off the leg but is listening to it and moving forward. Part of the problem was that I wasn't sitting right so that was blocking her from going forward. She also is one of those horses that will put the handbrake on if she's not sure abut something, so if she doesn't know what you want her to do when you give her an aid she just won't go. As she's got better schooled she understands my aids far better, and is much more forward. Maybe it's a mare thing? :rolleyes:

[JamesJackson]

You get silly sharp ones, you get boring sharp ones, you get silly lazy ones, you get boring lazy ones... They're all indicative of different problems in different combinations, so your mare definitely isn't alone!

[wonkeywoody]

Think of applying aids in 4 stages -
1. Think your next move (count to 3)
add 2. Apply light squeeze (and hold) count to 3,
3. increase the pressure of the squeeze (and hold) count to 3
add 4. one smart smack!

With lazy horses, do stages one and two and if there is no reaction add 3 and 4 VERY quickly and MEAN it! They soon learn that its better to go at 1 or 2! You need to do lots of transitions tho'. At least 20 repetitions for it to become ingrained!
BUT you ABSOLUTELY must be even quicker to release and praise ie if your horse even TRIES for you, you must release and reward immediately (be it a scratch/rub/or food.) If you dont, they learn not to respect you and it'll all be in vain!
The aim is to have your horse more responsive - yes? , then you must learn to be more responsive too!!!!

[prettybluepony]

Short sharp kicks so my baby learnt today + me singing to him :P. Better to overreact then under in my opion.

Lol I've ridden one that would go a few strides(any pace) then stop sharp on his front or back end. (Intresting trying to explain why we'd just done a sliding stop across the yard on a cob to YO. :rolleyes: ) He just wasn't intrested in what we had to say. So we let him go out with our point to point mare, and he worked out us people could be quite fun sometimes.

xx