Stopping jogging/bad behaviour on hacks

[katieB]

Over the summer I have been doing a lot of fast hacking with Ellie and I think it has had an effect on her behaviour. She has always been keen when out hacking but now she just wants to gallop everywhere, she jogs round the whole ride and if anyone goes in front of her she throws a wobbler and will just spin and kick out. I can sort of excuse last nights tantrums as she hasnt been hacked out for a while but she was doing this before I stopped riding her (waiting for a saddle)
Obviously I have only been walking on hacks now as I realise this is a schooling issue. I will be mainly doing schooling now but she isnt the type of horse you can just not hack out until the schooling is up to scratch, I will only be walking but the problem I have is the jogging. Im not sure which way to go about stopping this, some people have suggested making her stop or turning her in circles every time she starts to jog but I think this may just wind her up even more. She is quite competetive and likes to go in front so I think I could use this as a reward - if she walks nicely behind she can go in front, the moment she jogs, she goes behind again. What do you think? Or would that just increase the spinning tantrums? Any other suggestions?

[casey]

My mare Ebs used to jog everywhere, I tried everything. She was well schooled, so I just put it down to exhuberance(sp?). I don't think she was ever taught to hack properly.
After years of frustration and abdo pain from jogging everywhere, I decided, just to let her get on with it. I know that probally sounds defeatist, but she was so good in everything else, that I decided compromise was best.

Sorry I wasn't much help. But your not alone.:)

[ucandoit]

Just about every horse that we get that we don't break in ourselves does that. It can be SO ANNOYING!! It is one of the first habits I try to break.
I do it in a number of ways.
First, (best way) but hard to do, is to let the horse follow along. It can be hard if you don't have the areas/not safe/horse doesn't follow etc. Horses never jog by themselves, they just find a comfortable spot in the line of pecking order and away they go. I don't ride a horse for a while, and just concentrate on ground work, and let them follow along on trail rides. Works absolute wonders.
Second is to lead them off another horse, but I find this doesn't work if the horse you are leading is little, it will have to jog to keep up anyway. It also doesn't work if the lead horse is smaller, the other horse will be pulling you along.
The last way I have used is to walk EVERYWHERE. Honestly, everywhere. I had to use this with one mare because she was so independent when I let her follow she just galloped home & met us there! So we started the Walking Program, and off we went. Or you can mix it up, walk where you would normally trot, and vice versa. As you would know, they learn to anticipate! It is one of the most annoying habits to have. One thing we always used to do if a couple of horses are jogging is to go altogether : 1,2,3 (out loud) w..a...l..k, and sink right down into the saddle. It works so well! Every time they jog, put slight tension on the reins, say walk, (long and slow) and relax into the saddle. As soon as she walks, let out the reins to buckle length and say good girl.
hope you find smething that works! I completely empathise with you. :)
sorry, edited to say, when you walk everywhere for ages, then you can start to introduce little trots. It can be boring, and the time span depends on each horse, but you will know when she is ready. I'm not sure why this works, but maybe becuase horses don't actually use their energy in the wild? You know how they would much rather dawdle along then race at a break neck pace, they only reserve their energy for if a predator chases them. I think these jogging horses are just a bit mixed up and we need to tell them that it's ok to walk. It took my mare a week to learn, yet my other horse I've had for 6 years and she's only just started to figure it out. :confused:

[Harry Hobbes]

Any other suggestions? One excellent technique to get the horse to settle down is to hack out on a twenty-to-thirty mile ride, over half a day.

This does wonders for calming the horse, who will settle into the work, say after about the first fifteen miles. (Horses being rather intelligent, will start to move efficiently, conserving their energy; i.e., not jog; when they working hard.)

Best regards,
Harry