No brakes!

[Bah Humbug!]

I have just got a new forest pony on share and i have ridden her a couple of times. She has a dressage lesson with her owner on a saturday morning but apart from me riding her doesnt do much else. I have ridden her in the school and she is quite stubborn to get her moving and after i get her moving she has lvoely paces.

She has a lovely jump on her and has great potential, but i am a bit scared of jumping her. I have had her doing trotting poles, and cantering poles so she is approoaching the jump correctly. I have progressed to putting a small cross pole at the end and she will trot up to the jump, pop over it beatifully and then canter off the other side and is a nightmare to stop. This is in the school. When i take her out on the forest she is well behaved when walking but if tyou ask her to trot she will tank off at a canter and will not slow down.

I have tried pushing her on when she stops and keeping her cantering to try and make her stop, this just doesnt help.

When i am cantering her in the school there is not a problem trying to stop her as she is an angel, its just jumping and out on the forest.

I have tried circles, she slows down and the minute i have stopped circling her she will take off again.

I am desperate for a solution as i am really worried i will have to give up my share if i cannot manage to control her.

Sorry its so long. PLease try and help me

 

[Jessey]

You said you tried pushing her on when she stops, how long does it take for her to try and stop and how long do you push her on for?

J

 

[Bah Humbug!]

When she attempts to slow down i will push her on and then try and stop her if she stillk resists i will push her on again and keep trying. It took me about 15 minutes yesterday just to slow her to a trot then had the same battle gettig her to walk. Once walking she is an angel!

 

[katefarmer]

I don't think pushing her on when she stops will help - and could make it worse. The moment you need to address is the moment when she didn't stop/slow down when you asked.

By the time she's stopped on her own, it's too late, and by pushing her on then she's get the impression that carrying on running was the right thing to do. (i.e. she runs into pressure when she stops)
Horses make a very immediate connection between one action and the next. She stops. You immediately push her on. Stop was therefore the wrong answer. Horses learn when we take the pressure off - when we stop asking.
It would work better if you pet her when she eventually does stop - next time she'll look for that comfort and stop sooner. However, there are quicker and more direct ways of retraining her!

If you have a look at my website under "bitting and bridling" and "curing rushing" you'll find some exercises that will get her listening to you and responding to your energy. This way, she'll get the confidence in you that she doesn't feel the need to run off, and you'll get the confidence in her that you can stop whenever you want!

Good luck!

Kate
www.harmony-project.net

 

[Jessey]

I have found that pushing them on can/does work, Qaboos use to run and buck and I was told to push him on if he didn't stop when asked so that the next time I asked he could make a choice, stop when asked - easy route or run through the request and have to work really hard and in the end physically have to comply anyway. When they want to stop you shouldn't let them/push them on, but when they get to that stage you can then ask for the stop again and generally by this time they are very willing to oblige. The first time with Qaboos it took nearly an hour in the school and about another two 10 minute sessions but since then I've only had to repeat the whole exercise once in two years.
It worked for me

J

 

[katefarmer]

Hi Jessey!

I think it worked on Qaboos because you were pushing on immediately he didn't give you the response you wanted (i.e. stop). It's not exactly helping him to find the right answer - as you say it took an hour the first time - but he got there in the end, and like most horses, having found the right answer once, he found it much quicker the second time, and ever quicker thereafter.

Humbug says she waits until the horse starts to slow on its own, then pushes it on - i.e. it runs into pressure when it tries to do the right thing. (I think this is what you mean as well). This is what I mean is unlikely to work - and could make things worse.

Pushing on can (and obviously did ) work eventually if the timing is right. I just like to give the horse as much help as possible to find the right answer, and I try to make the right thing really obvious. This way it's safer and less stressful for all - and usually much quicker!

Cheers

kate
www.harmony-project.net