napping on way home!

S

summerguest

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Aug 25, 2006
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I'm just wondering if my daughters TBx mare is as unnusual as I think.
Anyone else know horses who nap on the way home?
She doesn't do it when the route home is mainly fields then short section of road till yard, but when we come off the common to come home the road route, she will stiffen and refuse to move...threatening to rear but never has.
It's almost like she realises this is the end of the fun part! She is a really laid back horse...not bothered by anything, and this is her only quirk. To begin with I thought it was that our hacks were too short (she was previously used to a days hunting or riding for hours on the beach before we got her ) our hacks are 1 to 2 hours. But she has still done it even when she's been out for hours and had a really good gallop. She not bothered by traffic, she appears happy 'at home', plenty of grass and she is not bullied. I've just never known a horse who naps coming home! She will try and turn back round, or just keep looking behind her, while planting herself to the ground. Her favourite spot to stop is in the middle of the round-a-bout ! Any ideas welcome!
At the moment you just have to sit there and wait for her to carry on...too much pressure and you get the threat of rearing.
 
Sounds exactly like my friends horse, her hanoverianxtb is perfectly fine on the way their. On the way back she'll nap and if you pressure her she rears up. I've heard of a couple of horses doing this on the way some do it for the fact they don't want to go home, others because they have past experience of going home as something of a bad time in this mare's case.
 
It is unusual. Have you tried riding out then when you turn home you carry on straight past your yard so she is not heading home anymore so in the end she shouldn't associate turning home with going home? I don't know if that makes sense!!

Vez xx:)
 
Yes ! I think it is very unusual. I hadn't seen it before we got Summer. She's really odd - she's such a nice, happy horse in lovely field - well, 3 fields altogether with a little lake thing, and some woods and a stable she likes to hang out in ... and her 3 buddies. But take her out for a ride, and the instant you want to turn back for home and she'll put a genuine all-out strop on. Even if it's just been a road ride in the first place. Bizarre. I have no idea where it is she thinks she wants to go.
 
Thanks for your replies....I've just never come across it before....She is the sort of horse who just loves going out....you can almost see a smile on her face if she's getting ready to go out in the horsebox...and she will stop and survey her surroundings before geting off the ramp....really interested in everything. Where as schooling her in the menage is just a bore for her...she does as she is told but like a teenager being told to tidy their room! I wonder if she just finds standing in a field boring? I'd love to get to the bottom of it, as its quite scary when she causes a traffic jam!
 
is she kept on her own?

my mare never did this until i relocated and for a few weeks she was alone in the field. she loved going out but would throw a MAJOR fit when she was within site of the field. i've had her for nearly 7 years and she's never done anything like that before!

she was having "i don't want to go back in the box" syndrome!! as she knew i wuld leave and she'd be in the field alone again. now she's got company she is happy to go in or out :cool:
 
Mia used to sometimes because she really enjoyed going out for walks until she made a new best friend ever and decided playing with new best friend was far more fun than going out for walks.

Roxy has been doing it recently, but it was nothing to do with not wanting to finish fun riding. She'd decided she didn't want to live at the fields by the yard anymore and was napping towards another field further away that we use. She's in that field now and very happy and naps in the predictable direction again :)
 
She's kept with my other 2 and one other. She is the bottom of the pack, but not picked on, and they all graze together etc..but she hasn't got a huge herd instinct, she wouldnt panic if left on her own, and quite happy to stay lying down if the others wandered off into another field. Once we are almost home, she seems quite happy to see the yard and get home. She has her strop either just as we leave the grass or half way along the road home.
From your replies it seems more common amongst mares!
 
You say she's worse when she has to go home on the roads?

Is she foot sore? Is there a possible reason she doesn't want to ride on the roads? Has she had a fright?Is there anything she has to go past?

It sounds more like she doesn't want to go that route, not that she doesn't want to go home.
 
My welsh cob did this yesterday! He was fine walking away from the yard but the minute i decided to return home he just stopped dead and wouldnt budge! You would think going home would mean getting their tack off and having a feed! Strange! I think he really wanted to stay out and watch the other horses in the field! He kept stopping there too, i think just to say hello :)
 
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