Advice appreciated!

[asaun05]

Hi everyone, this is my 2nd post if you didn’t see the last one.

I have a very stocky and powerful irish cob gelding called Seanie that I’ve been having a few issues with, and was wondering if anyone had experienced something similar!
He is 5 years old - 6 next month - and had quite a bad past as was rushed and abused by previous owners in Ireland. It took us 18 months to get to where we are now with him as he arrived here absolutely petrified and almost feral He’s been going very well recently and has been very light in the hand to school (for the first time ever) and so I thought it would be fun to mix things up a bit and get on him bareback in the school. He can be very sharp, but I only intended to walk and have a very steady trot, but we ended up cantering around the school (unintentionally) with a very confused and stressed Seanie. Not the outcome I was hoping for! I got on him bareback again the next day just to walk round and not leave him with only bad memories of bareback, and he was very tense and nervous about it - this was yesterday. Today, I took him on a hack with our other horse and we had a short trot, and he would not keep his head down at all like he usually does. He was being very silly with his head and I can’t help feeling guilty that I may have caused this with the bareback! It feels like we’ve gone back to square one and I was wondering if anyone has experienced similar and can give me a few tips!
The competing season starts soon and it feels like all we’ve worked for is for nothing now... and after one small mistake! Arghh!

 

[littleshetland]

Perhaps leave the bareback stuff alone for a (long) while. I would say, take a step back in your training regime ie. go back a stage or two so he regains confidence and knows exactly what you're asking of him.

 

[meleeka]

Are you sure there’s nothing physical wrong, such as a sore back somewhere?

 

[asaun05]

Are you sure there’s nothing physical wrong, such as a sore back somewhere?

We have all our horses backs checked regularly and massages once a month, we also have our tack checked regularly and all good. He’s kind of known for being sharp at times, but I thought we had a step forward and now I think the bareback freaked him out and he’s gone down a step

 

[meleeka]

We have all our horses backs checked regularly and massages once a month, we also have our tack checked regularly and all good. He’s kind of known for being sharp at times, but I thought we had a step forward and now I think the bareback freaked him out and he’s gone down a step

That’s good to know. In that case, just take it easy for a while until he’s got over it. He’s obviously not one that accepts new things easily, but in sure he’ll learn to in time. Cobs can be much more sensitive than people think.