Hi Guys, Sorry for the long winded post - I'm sat at home in lockdown thinking about a day when I may possibly be able to ride again!
I wanted to hear about other people’s experiences of horses that randomly decide not to hack alone please.
I have my girl for over a year now and she’s previously been fine alone, she does need confidence from her rider a bit more when she is alone but never had to ask her more than twice to carry on but lately she has decided that hacking alone is not an option… When she used to act up she did “bunny hop rears” which I can only describe as a horsey version of a toddler stamping their feet! A little persistence and calmly asking her to carry on used to work. Now I can’t even get her off the yard on her own.
In company she is good as gold, and she was also hoof perfect when someone was walking or biking with us as well, but that confidence seems to have gone now. Her go to response is rearing and spinning but she has only taken off with me once. Her rears are getting progressively bigger and she dumped me about 6 weeks ago for the first time. At 17.2hh there is quite a lot of horse to argue with. Unfortunately, after I came off I couldn’t get back on until I was back to my yard because she was freaking out, still rearing, and far too tall! When I got back on in the safety of the school she was good as gold.
I am not riding currently due to our yard being on lockdown and I have no intention of getting back on until its all blown over, and of course I will be lunging and schooling her until she’s settled down after a nice long holiday. She is good as gold in the school.
There is no one particular thing that I can say she is scared of and there hasn’t been any incident that could frighten her (that I am aware of).
Has anyone got any recommendations of what worked for them or what I can try to hopefully get past this?
I wanted to hear about other people’s experiences of horses that randomly decide not to hack alone please.
I have my girl for over a year now and she’s previously been fine alone, she does need confidence from her rider a bit more when she is alone but never had to ask her more than twice to carry on but lately she has decided that hacking alone is not an option… When she used to act up she did “bunny hop rears” which I can only describe as a horsey version of a toddler stamping their feet! A little persistence and calmly asking her to carry on used to work. Now I can’t even get her off the yard on her own.
In company she is good as gold, and she was also hoof perfect when someone was walking or biking with us as well, but that confidence seems to have gone now. Her go to response is rearing and spinning but she has only taken off with me once. Her rears are getting progressively bigger and she dumped me about 6 weeks ago for the first time. At 17.2hh there is quite a lot of horse to argue with. Unfortunately, after I came off I couldn’t get back on until I was back to my yard because she was freaking out, still rearing, and far too tall! When I got back on in the safety of the school she was good as gold.
I am not riding currently due to our yard being on lockdown and I have no intention of getting back on until its all blown over, and of course I will be lunging and schooling her until she’s settled down after a nice long holiday. She is good as gold in the school.
There is no one particular thing that I can say she is scared of and there hasn’t been any incident that could frighten her (that I am aware of).
Has anyone got any recommendations of what worked for them or what I can try to hopefully get past this?