more hacking issues.

gunner5125

gunner5125

Member
Mar 16, 2008
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i ride a lovely, but very unpredictable mare & we have come a long way in the last couple months with hacking (thanks to some handy tips from this website) but we now seem to be having sme more difficulties.

The majority of the time she's very good but sometimes, she just doesn't really fancy a hack. i get 5 mins down the road (or field, whichever) & she stops dead. if i don't do anything she stands completely still and if i ask her to walk on she spins & heads home.

if i try walking her past the way home & on another route, she'll go fine for a couple mins then do the same. these are routes she goes on all the time fine, nothing's changed, i don't get it!! she did it 3 times yesterday on all different routes & i thought, 'right, if you wanna go home, we'll go home'. i took her back & lunged her hard for bout 20 mins to try tell her home didn't mean chillin out in the field with her mates. but she seemed to quite enjoy it & then still refused to go where i wanted to go on a hack (i tried a short hack to cool off).

I've tried praising her for every forward step she made but still no joy. this never happens on the same route, it's not like something in particular is scaring her as it's totally random! help??
 
Ok my advice depends obviously on whether you can do this safely.

If she stands then let her stand and when she gets a bit figety then ask her to move on again.

You have to make sure she gets bored before you do, very important.

Failing that you can ask her to back up until she is ready to stop and then ask her to walk on. If she doesn't then back up again and then stand and ask for forwards again :)

I won't take a nappy horse back to the yard unless it is a safety issue. :)
 
I agree with JC...play the patience game with her and stand there until she (not you!) gets bored. You might have to wait a very long time but eventually she'll start to fuss or move about and that's when you ask her to move forward. Good luck!
 
I had some problems like these where he woudl stop dead then turn around.

I tended to bring him to a hault, and until he settled down make him stand then ask him to walk forward.

As Joyscarer said, it is important not to take a nappy horse home unless it is getting a bit dangerous
 
Joyscarer said:
Ok my advice depends obviously on whether you can do this safely.

If she stands then let her stand and when she gets a bit figety then ask her to move on again.

You have to make sure she gets bored before you do, very important.
Click to expand...

Yes, this is what I have to do with my horse - much less often these days, but when we first started hacking out alone he'd often decide he wasn't going anywhere other than home! Pushing him on just wound him up, so I'd just have to sit there, wait for him to finish chucking his toys out the pram (he'd get in such a paddy he'd be stomping and pawing the ground!), and then, once it dawned on him that he wasn't getting to go home, he'd walk on.
 
As long as it's not a pain issue... Stand still till your both relaxed again, then wait til she's bored. However long it takes. Don't go home til she's moved on and gone way past the point where she napped. When you go home try and go around the long way, not just turning round. When you get there, go straight past the gate and away again...
You might like to try (for safety's sake) not saddling up just use bridle (or dually) with a lunge line (use it short) and take her for a walk (like a big dog) along the route you'd normally hack. Take a friend perhaps (again, for safety should she get silly). Does the same behaviour occur? I know this won't work for everybody but I found it worked for me and mine:)
 
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