A horse's anticipation and fear of pain, and getting him to work through it by reassurance.

Keith_Beef

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For the lesson this Sunday just gone, I was a given my usual horse, a tallish gelding (seventeen hands or so) with very high withers.

I've noticed before that he is reluctant to let me put the saddle on him, but he takes the bit into his mouth really easily, he almost puts the bridle on for himself.

Then when we go out to the arena, he has been reluctant to let me get into the saddle...

Once I'm on his back, he walks stiffly at first. The first few times, I thought it was just genuine stiffness from being in his box, so I would walk him around the arena two or three times before bringing him around to a mounting block. But even after he's already worked for an hour before I go to ride him, he shows the same stiffness.

I make a lot of effort to arrive early at the yard, to be calm and unhurried around him. I show him the brushes before I start to brush him down. I stroke his neck and shoulders before going anywhere near his withers. I show him the gel pad, felt pad and saddle before I put them very gently on his back. He's still a bit reluctant, but not bolshy or aggressive.

The first time I ask him to trot, he needs to be asked quite firmly and he trots stiffly, with limited movement in his shoulders. I can trot him around the arena once, and then he's fine. He'll do short paces, longer paces, faster or slower paces; within a short time he'll go from walk to trot and back to walk, or stand to trot and back to stand, easily. Then it's canter... again, the first time, he's reluctant to do it, but once he's done it he's fine with all the transitions.

Then after the lesson, I walk him back to his box, get him to stand while I open the door, ask him to stand for six or eight seconds in front of the open door before walking quietly inside. And then he stands for me to take off his tack, even if there is already feed in the trough for him.


After the lesson, I was talking with my instructor and told her my theory: it's as if he's scared that he'll feel pain. As if he needs to be shown that the work I want him to do won't hurt him; after he's tried and found out that it doesn't hurt, he's more than willing to do it again.

She replied, "It's not 'as if he's scared and needs reassurance', it's exactly that. That's why I give him to you. You seem to understand him, and he trusts you."

I still can't feel his legs crossing over when we do lateral movements. After six years of riding, I still have a lot of trouble with a seated trot.

But I really felt encouraged that I'd managed to understand the problem and been able to find a way to work through it.
 

SEL

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Does his saddle actually fit? Riding school horses often don't get checked regularly and given they have to carry unbalanced riders at times can get sore.

Or it could be he has a touch of arthritis and needs the slow warm-up
 

Keith_Beef

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Does his saddle actually fit? Riding school horses often don't get checked regularly and given they have to carry unbalanced riders at times can get sore.

I don't know enough about saddle fitting to be able to say whether it fits well, other than that I know that when I've put Dermoflon on his withers, and then ridden him, the dermoflon is still there on his withers and not on the pads or in the gulley of the saddle.

Or it could be he has a touch of arthritis and needs the slow warm-up

I wondered about this, and it's one of the reasons why I took to walking him around the arena two or three times before taking him to the mounting block, and then walking around before beginning to trot.

Compared to other riders in the same lesson, I give him five minutes more time at a walk, before I ask him to trot. Once he gets going, he's fine.
 

LaurenBay

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My share Horse is similar. He does it as he needs a slow warm up due to arthritis. I pop his saddle on, do girth up loose, groom him, do girth up, give him a handful of chaff (needs a small feed before work) do girth up. Then when I get on I just give him a good walk, lots of circles, figures of 8, change of rein etc. He can be a bit stiff until after his first canter and then we glide smoothly in all 3 paces.
 

onlytheponely

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Sadly there are an awful lot of horses and ponies in the centres equestres over here that are worked hard with un-managed pain. I'm in the centres and at competitions regularly with my work and it's heart breaking, I've been here for over 10 years. It's not uncommon to watch some school horses coming down the lorry ramps slightly lame at competitions and they will then be used for 3 or 4 classes at 1m+, their lameness is evident in the ring too. It's awful but I'm yet to go a week without seeing horses being worked that shouldn't be.
I suspect this is the situation for the horse you ride, sadly.
 

flying_high

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For the lesson this Sunday just gone, I was a given my usual horse, a tallish gelding (seventeen hands or so) with very high withers.

I've noticed before that he is reluctant to let me put the saddle on him, but he takes the bit into his mouth really easily, he almost puts the bridle on for himself.

Then when we go out to the arena, he has been reluctant to let me get into the saddle...

Once I'm on his back, he walks stiffly at first. The first few times, I thought it was just genuine stiffness from being in his box, so I would walk him around the arena two or three times before bringing him around to a mounting block. But even after he's already worked for an hour before I go to ride him, he shows the same stiffness.

I make a lot of effort to arrive early at the yard, to be calm and unhurried around him. I show him the brushes before I start to brush him down. I stroke his neck and shoulders before going anywhere near his withers. I show him the gel pad, felt pad and saddle before I put them very gently on his back. He's still a bit reluctant, but not bolshy or aggressive.

The first time I ask him to trot, he needs to be asked quite firmly and he trots stiffly, with limited movement in his shoulders. I can trot him around the arena once, and then he's fine. He'll do short paces, longer paces, faster or slower paces; within a short time he'll go from walk to trot and back to walk, or stand to trot and back to stand, easily. Then it's canter... again, the first time, he's reluctant to do it, but once he's done it he's fine with all the transitions.

Then after the lesson, I walk him back to his box, get him to stand while I open the door, ask him to stand for six or eight seconds in front of the open door before walking quietly inside. And then he stands for me to take off his tack, even if there is already feed in the trough for him.


After the lesson, I was talking with my instructor and told her my theory: it's as if he's scared that he'll feel pain. As if he needs to be shown that the work I want him to do won't hurt him; after he's tried and found out that it doesn't hurt, he's more than willing to do it again.

She replied, "It's not 'as if he's scared and needs reassurance', it's exactly that. That's why I give him to you. You seem to understand him, and he trusts you."

I still can't feel his legs crossing over when we do lateral movements. After six years of riding, I still have a lot of trouble with a seated trot.

But I really felt encouraged that I'd managed to understand the problem and been able to find a way to work through it.

I think it sounds like you read the horse well and sympathetically, and have a good partnership, and aren't asking more from him than is fair.
 

SEL

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I don't know enough about saddle fitting to be able to say whether it fits well, other than that I know that when I've put Dermoflon on his withers, and then ridden him, the dermoflon is still there on his withers and not on the pads or in the gulley of the saddle.



I wondered about this, and it's one of the reasons why I took to walking him around the arena two or three times before taking him to the mounting block, and then walking around before beginning to trot.

Compared to other riders in the same lesson, I give him five minutes more time at a walk, before I ask him to trot. Once he gets going, he's fine.

It's hard when you're on a school horse and all you can do is be as sympathetic as possible - which it sounds like you are. I had a run of lessons a few years ago which I was enjoying until they popped me on a different horse. If she had been my own then ulcers, KS & saddle fit would all have been investigated - but she wasn't. My own horse was back in work then so I made my excuses.
 

Keith_Beef

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It's hard when you're on a school horse and all you can do is be as sympathetic as possible - which it sounds like you are. I had a run of lessons a few years ago which I was enjoying until they popped me on a different horse. If she had been my own then ulcers, KS & saddle fit would all have been investigated - but she wasn't. My own horse was back in work then so I made my excuses.

This place seems to try to take good care of its horses. I've never seen one be ridden while lame.

One day, when our usual instructor was on holiday and there were very few of us for the class, a stand-in gave us an introduction to lunging. She used a horse that had been out of work for a few weeks, but didn't tell us why. It wasn't really obvious, but he was very slightly lame in the rear left leg...

Another horse that I used to ride was sent away, for being navicular; we never used him for jumping, and he never worked for more than two hours in a day.
 
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