Tierra
Well-Known Member
This could be a bit long
Background on my horse: 16hh danish warmblood x connemara. PSG level dressage and very established at that level. Was brought on and competed by a list 2 UK dressage rider upto PSG. She used him for many demos and took him out and about a lot.
She sold him at around 8 years old to a UK YR who did a lot of BYRDs team stuff with him. Hes been through a couple of homes since and then returned to his original owner, who, at this time, happened to be my trainer.
Id just started dressage and he was sold as a school master. One thing i should stress here... Jack is what id call an exploiter. Any weakness you have, he'll find it and he'll exploit it. That was part of the reason he was chosen for me... as he'd be a good teacher
Now, Jack has a trick - a rather naughty one which happened to occur today when my OH was there. How to deal with this is what we disagree'd on.
Jack will run, without warning. He'll spot something that scares him and he just goes. Head in your face, bucking, leaping, twisting and walk to full speed in a half second. Now, hes finicky with his mouth.... he's got a very soft mouth and he doesnt like it being messed with. Jack would be PERFECT for teaching people with nasty sawing hands not to do that because in honesty; he'd be on his back legs waving at people.
He's always done this running off trick. Indeed when he was younger he actually span and THEN ran off which ditched my trainer a few times. These days, the spinning has gone and he just runs.
Now, my trainer always taught me to try and bring him back mainly with my thigh asking him to stop; not to get angry with him... to get him back to walk and then continue completly ignoring the behaviour. Her reasoning for this is that she always described jack as a horse that you didnt want to confront.
Ive always gone along with this and his behaviour hasnt gotten worse. We have days where he does this (either because hes not been worked enough or when he genuinely spooks at something), and days when he doesnt. When hes in decent work; it rarely happens.
The new head rider at the livery yard im on saw him do this and told me i should whip him straight round onto a 10 metre circle. I wasnt convinced about this as jacks other trick is to take advantage of a weak outside hand. Unless he's listening to you and working correctly into both hands, 10 metre circles give him an opportunity to scoot off through his outside shoulder (and he thinks this is GREAT fun and usually runs off bucking
)
I let said trainer have a sit on him before christmas and jack did spook at something and run. Said rider tried to drag him round onto a 10 metre circle and because he was already slightly unseated and jacks head at this point was almost in his face, he went straight out through his outside shoulder and ran off, dropping said trainer on the floor.
The guys comments were that he'd ride with draw reins on days when he was a little fresh, to add more control and stop him getting his head up when he spooks. This is a no go for me. I hate them and wont use them.
So - some opinions please. Jack hasnt been ridden for 4 days and i hopped on today to a rather exciteable horsey. It was apparent immediatly we were going to have some fun
I managed 30 minutes of pretty crappy work with him. We had some nice enough trot but it was intersperced with random "monster! MONSTER!'" running off moments
As usual, id bring him back to walk and just carry on... my OH criticised this saying i should be punishing the behaviour. For me, when jack comes back to walk and settles, hes done as he's asked. Id never smack him mid way through his spooky-run off things as i think it would make it worse (yelling at him makes it considerably worse)
Most of the time, my horse is sensational. He's beautifully schooled, he keeps me on my toes and concentrating and im still learning loads from him. For me, this behaviour is just part of him and it doesnt bother me. Other people's thoughts though?
(One last point to mention. Jack had an injury in his mouth a couple of years go where all the tissue that attaches the underneath of the tongue to his mouth was torn apart. He had a lot of stitches in his mouth but part of those didnt take and the result is that his tongue is more flexible than most horses. He also became more sensitive in his mouth after this and although the vets have said they dont believe he is in pain (he still works the same), he does get worried if someone messes with his mouth. So... for instance... when he runs, if you instantly grabbed at him, i think there'd be a huge chance of him turning himself over... which is why i use my legs to stop and generally dont touch the front end)
Would you be punishing him for this in some way? Ive never thought to until both my OH and the head rider on our yard said i should where as i tend to just laugh and put it down to jack being jack
Background on my horse: 16hh danish warmblood x connemara. PSG level dressage and very established at that level. Was brought on and competed by a list 2 UK dressage rider upto PSG. She used him for many demos and took him out and about a lot.
She sold him at around 8 years old to a UK YR who did a lot of BYRDs team stuff with him. Hes been through a couple of homes since and then returned to his original owner, who, at this time, happened to be my trainer.
Id just started dressage and he was sold as a school master. One thing i should stress here... Jack is what id call an exploiter. Any weakness you have, he'll find it and he'll exploit it. That was part of the reason he was chosen for me... as he'd be a good teacher
Now, Jack has a trick - a rather naughty one which happened to occur today when my OH was there. How to deal with this is what we disagree'd on.
Jack will run, without warning. He'll spot something that scares him and he just goes. Head in your face, bucking, leaping, twisting and walk to full speed in a half second. Now, hes finicky with his mouth.... he's got a very soft mouth and he doesnt like it being messed with. Jack would be PERFECT for teaching people with nasty sawing hands not to do that because in honesty; he'd be on his back legs waving at people.
He's always done this running off trick. Indeed when he was younger he actually span and THEN ran off which ditched my trainer a few times. These days, the spinning has gone and he just runs.
Now, my trainer always taught me to try and bring him back mainly with my thigh asking him to stop; not to get angry with him... to get him back to walk and then continue completly ignoring the behaviour. Her reasoning for this is that she always described jack as a horse that you didnt want to confront.
Ive always gone along with this and his behaviour hasnt gotten worse. We have days where he does this (either because hes not been worked enough or when he genuinely spooks at something), and days when he doesnt. When hes in decent work; it rarely happens.
The new head rider at the livery yard im on saw him do this and told me i should whip him straight round onto a 10 metre circle. I wasnt convinced about this as jacks other trick is to take advantage of a weak outside hand. Unless he's listening to you and working correctly into both hands, 10 metre circles give him an opportunity to scoot off through his outside shoulder (and he thinks this is GREAT fun and usually runs off bucking
I let said trainer have a sit on him before christmas and jack did spook at something and run. Said rider tried to drag him round onto a 10 metre circle and because he was already slightly unseated and jacks head at this point was almost in his face, he went straight out through his outside shoulder and ran off, dropping said trainer on the floor.
The guys comments were that he'd ride with draw reins on days when he was a little fresh, to add more control and stop him getting his head up when he spooks. This is a no go for me. I hate them and wont use them.
So - some opinions please. Jack hasnt been ridden for 4 days and i hopped on today to a rather exciteable horsey. It was apparent immediatly we were going to have some fun
Most of the time, my horse is sensational. He's beautifully schooled, he keeps me on my toes and concentrating and im still learning loads from him. For me, this behaviour is just part of him and it doesnt bother me. Other people's thoughts though?
(One last point to mention. Jack had an injury in his mouth a couple of years go where all the tissue that attaches the underneath of the tongue to his mouth was torn apart. He had a lot of stitches in his mouth but part of those didnt take and the result is that his tongue is more flexible than most horses. He also became more sensitive in his mouth after this and although the vets have said they dont believe he is in pain (he still works the same), he does get worried if someone messes with his mouth. So... for instance... when he runs, if you instantly grabbed at him, i think there'd be a huge chance of him turning himself over... which is why i use my legs to stop and generally dont touch the front end)
Would you be punishing him for this in some way? Ive never thought to until both my OH and the head rider on our yard said i should where as i tend to just laugh and put it down to jack being jack
