argh, we have a napping problem!

[notpoodle]

seeing it was a nice day, i decided to take angel out for a hack. we got out of the gate fine, up the road we met two people just riding back to the yard. she tried to follow them, but i managed to get her to walk on towards the bridlepath (i did emply the whip i'm afraid because no way can i let her spin around and mess about on the road!). went onto the path, a couple of metres into the operation ... she stopped dead in her tracks. tried to make her walk on, she started walking backwards. the path has ditches either side, so that was NOT a good idea (i have to use that path as there's nowhere else to hack that does not involve this path!).

managed to convert the walking backwards into circling/spinning (*anything* to stop her from reversing and falling down the ditch - with me on her back ...). she got quite agitated/miffed (so was i ...), and in the end i made her do about ten metres down the path (more sideways than straight ...), before heading home again because i was on my own and really did not fancy getting into a fight with her with these ditches around and heavy traffic nearby!

back at the yard, i took her straight into the big school (which she didnt want to do either and we almost reversed into the on-site bistro .... got her into the school in the end though!) and made her do some work (so she doesnt get the idea napping gets her out of work!), and boy! she was uncooperative :rolleyes: i made her trot various figures and a couple of rounds of canter, pushing her on whenever she tried to break into trot again (that was greeted with some halfhearted bucking, nothing serious though). rode her in the school for almost an hour ....

i've taken her on the bridlepath before, there was never any trouble, not like today anyway! could it be because she hasdnt been out for almost a fortnight (due to weather, time and the fact i have no-one to hack with)? or because she saw the other two horses on their way home?? thing is, she was fine leaving the yard, she just did not want to go on ther bridlepath! in her past home, she was mostly hacked on her own ... was she 'trying it on?'.

due to the nature of the path (ditches!) there isnt much i can do when she does the backwards-thing, apart from getting her to cirlce and try to push her on ....

i've arranged to go for a hack with two more people next weekend, so hopefully she'll be better then!

ah what would you do in such a situation??

julia
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[Lardy]

Hi Julia,

Sorry to hear you are having problems. I think it sounds like she is trying it on. I like you would be wary of her reversing into the ditches, I was told once when I was riding a nappy horse that a horse always knows what's behind it, unfortunatley nobody told the horse I was riding as he reversed into a ditch .

I would see what she is like hacking out in company and if all is OK go out a few times with them if possible. Then when you next go out on your own if she starts to misbehave I would get off and lead her (if it's safe to do so) and then get back on once you reach the bridleway rather than having a battle. This worked for me when Jody went through a nappy stage as a 4 year old.

Lardy

[Yann]

I agree that it sounds like she was testing you, and you handled it pretty well from the sound of it. Keep an eye open for genuine fear or insecurity though, some horses are genuinely not that brave about going out alone. Don't feel bad for using the whip, especially on the road, personally it's one place where I don't tolerate anything, you can't afford to.

She may have been cross because she couldn't follow the others back home, horses, especially mares do take umbrage at such things sometimes. You could also try dismounting and leading through the 'sticky' patch if that's a reasonable option, when I've had problems it's usually worked for me.

[notpoodle]

i briefly considered getting off and leading her, but seeing she was spinning round at quite some speed (yeah, these ponies are pretty damn surefooted :D), i figured if i got off she might find a 'window of opportunity' and leg it :rolleyes:

as for the ditch, i did not have the impression she knew there was a ditch behind her and you can't see the ditch very well cos there's tons of plants on the edge ....

well, i guess i should be thankful she didnt do anything on the road! for some reason she seems to know that playing up on the road is a big no-no!

julia
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ps: when i was untacking her, i swear she knew she'd done bad .... she kept looking at me with the 'puppy eyes' .... :)

[notpoodle]

just a little update :) have finally managed to take her for an inhand stroll down the bridlepath (not very practical during the week as it's rush hour when i get there and there is a million cars/lorries/mobile libaries about).

we passed the 'evil' junction on the path without a problem, after that we had a couple of 'i don't want to go any further, i've had it, so i shall plant my feet in the ground' moments. when it happened i initially just let her stand (ie. not letting her turn round but not pulling her forward either), and then proceeded to verbally encourage her to move forwards, praising her loads whenever she took a step in the right direction. we got quite a bit down the path in the end :)

am i doing this right you think?

julia
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