Horse that lays down in the arena

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savvycowgirl

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Dec 20, 2008
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Hi

Im new to this site, so hope i'm doing this correctly.

I've got a young horse that was back professional last year, but i have one problem, my mare lays down in the arena when being worked. She will lay down and roll when i'm doing groundwork or even when i ride her. But this is only in the sand arena, she has never done this when being ridden out.

I have had her feet checked, back etc and she is in perfect health and the saddle and tack are the correct size, so has anyone any idea's as to what i should do to try and stop her doing this in the first place!!

I do a little parelli and do alot of natural horsemanship and ground work with my mare. She gets down so quick, not sure what to do......

Await your views
 
has she ever been let out in the arena to roll? my mare is like this she got turned out in the arena when the fields are closed and is allowed to roll and now when she goes in on the lunge she rolls, have not got to the stage of riding her she needs to learn not to first.

there was a mare at a yard i used to work at started rolling with children and she has a skin condition and the saddle was itchy it whilst the child was riding making her itchy and wanting to roll.
 
My horse wants to roll if we hack through mud or water- hes only gone down properly once but has to be kicked on and held up sometimes!
I guess its just the surface, not much fun for you though, at least water is avoidable.
 
While doing ground work with my mare, you can see when she is about to go down and roll, so i'll try and prevent her by tapping her bottom and making myself more accertive but this has no affect. Someone suggested trying to hold the lead rope down on the ground to prevent her from getting up and perhaps she will think - this is not so good being down!

I think she does it because she can and she love's to roll and also if i ask her to do something and she doesnt want too, she's like a naughty child and says no by getting down.

I must say that she is not a bad horse to be around and i have no other problems apart from this.

When i ride her in the arena and she goes down, i'm concerned because i ride in a western saddle and i think she might hurt herself as the western saddle has a high horn at the front.
 
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I used to ride a horse at a stables and she used to do it all the time. Never in the field, but always in the arena! She had terrible sweet itch and I was told thats the reason she did it! In the end I only ever put her bridle on, took her to the school, let her roll, brush her off then saddle her up. Once shed rolled, she wouldn't do it again!
xxx
 
I agree with the idea of letting her have a roll before saddling her etc.
Other than that you will have to stop her getting her nose down so that she can't drop.
My first pony lay down in an enormous puddle I was riding through, it was amazing how fast she did it and how crafty, just put her nose down as if looking at the water and dropped.
All you can do at that point is step off and make them stand up.
I never let her put her head down near water again!
Hope you sort your problem out.
 
peppip said:
I agree with the idea of letting her have a roll before saddling her etc.
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IMHO i dont think it's a good idea letting her roll before working her... She will learn (if she hasnt already) to roll as an aversion to work. Also, if allowing to roll in sand, prior to tacking up, you would need to give a really good groom to remove all the grains from her coat, it only takes one grain to rub her skin under the saddle, to cause a sore.. then she will never want to have her saddle on again. Or at best not be happy to have her saddle on.

Does she lunge?

Either take her in and lunge/ride, and push her on to prevent her rolling, or dont take her in to school her there.

My niece used to ride a pony, who rolled when you got on.. It had also started bucking as you got on, if the rider got past that, then it would simply just roll.. this was a kids pony, and highly dangerous... I asked my niece to get on, take the stirrups off, and use all her riding skills to get pony going and not to let it roll.. took a few sessions but he did stop in the end, and is now a confident little kids pony.
 
I used to free school her in a lovely open round pen and i could see if she was about to do it and move her on. I've recently move yards and the round pen is totaly enclosed, so until she is competely settled i have decided to wait to the spring.

In the open arena - As for lungeing, well she gets very excited and in the end she ends up lungeing me. She turns to face me, so i move round to encourage her on and she moves to face me again. I need lungeing lessons as i know it is an art form itself. Can anyone recommend any good lungeing books?
 
Personally I would long line her, rather than lunge.. two reins, one either side, will help her balance better, and it's easier to keep her from swinging in to face you.

It doesnt matter how well your saddle fits, or how good her health is. If there is a foreign body under the saddle (or even a rug) it could rub, and cause a sore.
 
I have heard of a couple of youngsters doing this as they were trained with parelli and learnt to move away from pressure.

I have done parelli for 6 years with mine and he is great with it and not used anything as a get out clause, but yours may be using moving away from pressure as an answer to your requests.

In other words when she gets a bit confused about what to do she tries moving away from the pressure on her back. She probably tries pressure from the bit and legs first, which would normally mean slow down of move sideways, but if this doesnt work she goes down.

It used to happen to mine when being backed with the saddle. He started to go down as an answer. Of course an upward pull on the lead rope said, no I dont want that, stand and get used to the weight/pressure and this time dont move away from it. (As in move front or quarters over from pressure/touch).

If this is not your answer then she could just be itchy from hay or bedding on saddlepad etc.

Is it a new thing or has she always done this, or only since the parelli training.

Keep her parelli head collar on and tie the 12ft around pommel or preferably neck, they show you how in one of the videos/dvds (like a human tie) and just give a gentle pull. You could practice this on the ground with no saddle when you know she will role when leading around the field when she first comes out in the morning is a good time for rolling. Have it tied in a neck tie, and use gentle tugs to keep her up and say no (nicely). Then she should respond the same way in the saddle.

In the future you could use a stirrup leather/balance strap instead of the leadrope and headcollar. It is just that she is used to the feel of the parelli headcollar and weight of the snap on the lead rope to start off with.

PS if she doesnt do it on hacks, it could be that she assiciates the arena with learning and giving you answers and this is probably where you practice so much moving away from pressure/parelli.
 
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Lunging and parelli circling are very different and turning to face you is disengaging the hindquarters to face you on purpose.

I would say pick one and stick to it. For me that would of course be parelli circling. She is stopping to ask if she can come in now. I will let him sometimes as I dont want a robot and he should have an input, but other times I will say not yet and push him on again.

Ask on the Natural Horsemanship section about the circling game.
 
When your horse was sent for breaking by the pro's, did they use endo's tap on her (to get her to lie down as part of the submission thing)?
They may have done so in the arena and hence she thinks she's doing what she's been taught... ;)
 
Lunging and parelli circling are very different and turning to face you is disengaging the hindquarters to face you on purpose.
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Yes, and no!!! With advanced PC you get the horse to go up and down the gaits on the circle (like lunging) including halt and back up followed by forwards again. The horse does not necessarily disengage every time to stop.

If your horse is disengaging then cue the shoulders to move back out so the horse in on the circle and send forwards. What you may find you need to do is walk a circle yourself so you are closer to the horse to correct the problem - be careful that you are cueing the front end to stop tho cos if you are stopping via cue to the hindquarters then he is doing exactly as asked and disengaging behind.

As for the rolling, I'd first cure the prob while doing ground work. Use phase 4 "slapping the ground with CS" to keep her moving in whatever direction suitable at the time. Shaking the rope will also lift her head (dont do both at the same time!!!)

Maybe have it very clear when you have finished a session and allow her a roll as a reward......
 
When she was away being backed last year, she was trained by a western trainer called Shane Borland - she's a quarter horse and i ride western.

I'm a fan of an Autralian trainer called Clinton Anderson, his method's are very similar to Parelli. So to gain more respect from my mare, seeing as she's still very young and being winter and i can only see her in day light at the weekends, i've decided to spend the winter doing groundwork.

Today i decided to be positve and take her in the arena and do some groundwork. As a western trained horse she has a naturally low head carriage so it is very easy for her to drop her head and get down quickly. I kept the length of the lead rope shorter near her head so if i though she was going down i could raise her head and it seemed to work! I've yet to try her lungeing, this could be a test.

With regards to the Parelli that i've done, yes i agree she's trained to move away from pressure, same with Clinton Anderson. I'm determind not to let her beat me, although sometimes she can be very testing!
 
Hi everyone. I think all this advice is going very deep - horses love to roll in dusty ground at the end of the day and I think the best solution to this (as long as you're sure its not pain related) is to be assertive and urge her on, or even give her a quick smack on the bum! As soon as she realises its not acceptable she'll give up. Keeping her head up like you have been doing is also a good idea. I think you're right to be worried about her hurting herself it can be very dangerous for a horse to roll in tack, not to mention dangerous to the rider! I understand that people like to take the natural horsemanship approach but I think when it comes to safety issues like this sometimes you may need to use a stick to make it clear that what your horse is doing is not acceptable!
 
Thanks for your advice. I always carry my carrot stick but its the shorter version at 3 ft long. I find it really useful as it not a whip, yet a great working tool. As she goes to go down i smack her on her bottom but she still goes down.

What are people's thoughts about if and when she goes down with no tack on, to try and make her stay down for a while , by keeping the lead rope near her headcollar on the ground. Perhaps she will realise its not so good not being able to get up.
 
If she is blatently ignoring oyur request to move on and still goes down then yes reverse psychology may work here.

I woud still use the forward cue first as this may then become your "first phase". And I would use a good up to phase 4 at this point. Make it very clear you dont want her to go down. If she does go down, however, you'll need to be quick and stop her rolling by keeping her head down - this will distract her from the actual roll cos her instinct will be to want to get up!

Wear protective clothing tho and be careful...........

Let us know how you get on.
 
im not normally the 'smack it' kind of person,
but when a horse is rolling it could crush your legs etc and is really dangerous.
if it isnt in pain, i would give him a smack on the bum.
one of the baby horses at my old rs used to do this and so a couple of smacks on the bum and he stopped.
hope you find a better way to solve it. x
 
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