Advice needed please

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janice160

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Can anyone offer advice please. Our Mare is a huge 16.3 hanoverian/cleveland bay. She can be a bit of a handful at times but the majority of the time she is very loving and even sometimes a little on the lazy side. However, my daughter has worked wonders with her and is show jumping her with great results. My niece who doesn't compete but is a confident rider also rides her sometimes out hacking. Yesterday my neice went out on her and went with three other riders on two mares and one gelding. They went to a place where our girl, for some reason, always gets jittery and nervous and we tend to avoid. It is a wooded area with a lake and attracts walkers and families and was particularly busy yesterday. I'm told that our mare was fine to start with but then decided she wasn't going any further and spun round. She was made to follow the others into the woods where she started to buck and rear and kick out at the other horses. This isn't like her although she can buck when she gets excited. Apparently it was so bad that my niece jumped off and tried to walk her. There are gates which have to be opened and to cut a long story short she pulled out of my nieces hand and galloped off but when she came to another gate she turned round and galloped back (i'm told at them!). She was caught and my niece boarded and rode back. She said she had never been as scared in all her life and the others have said that she was acting mental. One of them has asked that we don't ride her again until she is checked out. We now don't know what way to go forward. My daughter is her main rider and has great results with her. Has anyone else experienced a one off mad moment and with what results. Do we get her checked out or not?
 
I agree with amymay, I wouldn't dwell on it and would let your daughter continue to ride her as they clearly get on well together and have a good understanding. From your description, it sounds to me as if the mare just got a bit overwhelmed at being somewhere you usually don't go, which would have been made worse by the fact it was busy at the time - some horses are extremely sensitive to noise and people milling about. To me it sounds as though she felt pressured into going somewhere that she hasn't been completely comfortable with in the past, and just panicked - but this certainly doesn't mean there is anything 'wrong' with her and it's not something I personally would worry about.
Has your niece lost confidence from what happened? - if so perhaps encourage her to ride somewhere that the horse feels comfortable, if this particular area is somewhere that upsets your horse on a regular basis then it's perhaps something to work on slowly in the future x
 
If you know that she always gets jittery there, either avoid the route or get your daughter to work with her to make her less jittery on that route,

If you feel that there is something wrong with the mare, get her vet checked but it seems unlikely to me.
 
Probably not relavent but are there any pigs in that area? My cob, who is as good as gold 99.9% of the time, has had 2 such episodes and both triggered by pigs. First incident was a crazy bolt along a bridlepath which I have ridden hundreds of times before, and out onto a road. Pig had arrived a few days before and was rooting around in a pen next to the path.
Second incident was caused by a local farmer just clearing out his pig barn at the end of winter. The smell was very strong, and more than enough to trigger the same panic reaction in my horse.
Might be worth asking a few questions and perhaps avoiding that area in future.
 
The only thing that turns my lovely kind dope on a rope into a quivering crazy nutcase is cows, especially black and white ones. She is genuinely terrified of them and can smell them a mile off. She suddenly can become very tense and I know that there must be cattle in the close vicinity. She has bolted with me once when they came running across a field at her. As I said she is usually the original dope on a rope any other time! It is possible your mare may have sensed or smelt something she didn't understand but most likely your niece was just nervous and it's caused a reaction in your mare
 
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Thanks for that, it's got me thinking. There is a farm at the other side of the woods but not sure if they keep pigs. Funny because I have another horse and when I got him the previous owner said the only thing that worries him is pigs
 
Do you think your niece can handle your horse in most situations, i think you say she hacks her regularly, any problems before - not necessarily so extreme? Is it typical she goes out in groups? some horses are overly excited/naughty in larger groups.

Can you walk the route and check it for things like pigs? I too would be taking her on this route regularly, possibly with one good well behaved horse and a calm, competent hacking companion
 
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