Advice on calming a "dancy" horse please!?!

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Flashbacksj

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Hello please can you nice people offer some words of wisdom...
Bit of background... <font color="red"> a lady on my yard owns a 11yr old ex race horse...</font>(stopped racing at 5 i think and did dressage with previous owner) the owner isnt the most confident rider but is went not nervous a good one... nice and quiet and balanced etc... <font color="red"> the problem is that her mare will go from very very chilled and wandering hack to a "crazy legs" version... </font>

... take yesterday for example... we hacked out (im helping to build the owners confidence by riding out with her on my trusty bombproof lad) we had a nice walk, a little trot all very calm and controlled... we then heard that there were some people shooting in the local woods so decided to change our route and go onto the roads instead of passing the potentially scary and spook inducing woods...

<font color="red"> As we turned around (which was towards home) her mare began to prance and mess about... </font> she does this sometimes and will move sideways and jog ... but yesterday she was on the spot and did begin to threaten to do (mini) rears... of course nervous owner felt the panic rising and opted to dismount (dont blame her given she is just regaining confidence and didnt want to wreck it)

To avoid the mare winning (and to enable us to complete our ride) we swapped horses, now im not easily unerved and it didnt worry me that she was dancing but nothing <font color="red"> i tried calmed the mare down... i halfhalted, used backstatements... attempted pushing her into trot to get her working rather than dancing... but nothing helped... </font> we got safely home with the owner of the mare 100% chilled on board my trustly man (on the buckle end!)

She is golden in the school... gets a bit excited showjumping... and is often very good hacking... including alone when ive ridden her myself.

for extra info... she is stabled at night and out on limited grass during the day. she has hay (not haylegde) at night and <font color="red">is fed on hi-fi chaff and some carrots (no mix at all) twice a day. </font>

on average she is ridden maybe 2/3 times a week (something the owner wants to try and increase but work and family comitments might limit!)

The owner has asked if i will work with her a bit and take her out to see if i can calm the whole thing down (even when you achieve walk its a rushed one)... <font color="red"> so any tips on how to get her to chill if she does get a bit het-up out hacking?? </font>

The end goal would be a calm and sensible horse for the owner to ride again...

Thanks in advance!

p.s. sorry for the essay
 
my mare does this and nothing works!! I have had mine for 9 years now (welshie x tb) and as soon as we turn for home on a hack even on a circular route she starts. Ive tried everything. She is made worse by hacking out with more horses and even more infuriated if another horse steps out in front of her. I just try to keep her forward in a straight line at whaever pace is easiest at that time. If i try to hold her back she gets so wound up to the point were she will sideways step or back into a car and it becomes dangerous. My problem is made worse by the fact she has a naturally super fast walk and most other horses struggle to keep up with her. Trying to steady her or wait for other horses on the way home drives her insane.
Sorry not that helpfull but i try to sit quiet, keep her forward and straight and have a light contact. I also try not to just turn around and come back the same way on a hack as this is asking for it!
 
Well.....my horse does this....TBH I never really have found a way to 'cure' it because it his personality, I just learn to deal with it.

Like your friends horse, he has no mix- just oil/fibre feeds and magnitude calmer.

I find the more I try to hold him back the worse he gets...so making him stop and half-halting don't do any good. I keep the leg on gently, sit up and ride very lightly but with a contact if that makes sense- I try to keep him going forwards which can be a problem at road junctions - he doesnt know the meaning of standing still lol!

TBH I find the more anxious I get, the worse he becomes- so it may be the rider that has to do some work on herself and her confidence to be able to cope with him....I found riding OH's sofa of a mare and our young but steady highland made me calmer/more confident and now I just pretty much let him get on with it and it doesnt bother me.

Prob not much use to you....sorry, just my experiences but hope it helps a bit.
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PS I never ride him out on a hack straight from the stable- he needs to go out even if for only 15minutes to chill and roll.
 
Long rides and ride forward. After half an hour of fairly fast trotting, most horses are happy to have a plod for a bit. If the horse gets buzzy again, get going again.
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great advice in theory but not always that simple!! my mare can do a full days hunting be absolutely knackered and as soon as we turn for home she will start. It makes no odds whether she has been ridden for 20 mins or 5 hours. (Not trying to be funny, just saying :-) )
 
I agree with the above posts. It took me a long time to get my confidence with mine as I was always worried that if I let her she'd take off on the way home.

I think it's a matter of time and building confidence. I certainly found that riding out with another horse was a great help, I could get on that horse if I was too nervous to ride mine. Over time I realised that, yes, she would try it on, but provided you go with her and don't fight with her everything is ok, so eventually I got the confidence to ride her myself and it was nerve wracking at first, but you do get used to them and their ways and I'm sure over time she'll realise that she means no harm and will feel much more confident on her.

Sorry that didn't help much!
 
Cut out the carrots! lol.. they make some horses loopy.

It's hard, because turning for home on the road, most horses are pretty keen to march back. Like the others have said, I doubt very much you will get this horse to 'plod' back, because she is just not a ploddy type horse. I would try and stay relaxed and not grip or tense on the reins and in time if no battle persists the mare might calm down a bit and become more settled! But possibly try circular routes or just keep moving her back and forth so she doesn't know if she is marching home (if you know what I mean, take some turns off the road and on again, and make it as non-straight for home - as you can.. to make the journey a mis-mash!

Goodluck, the lady is lucky to have someone willing to help.xxx
 
Ditch the carrots, although it may not make any difference but there suger sticks and at least its one thing to cross of the list.

Work the horse like dog once you get back to the yard, so the horse gets into a rountine that schooling comes after hacking, may not be in such a rush to get home every time them, doesnt always work but again its a good thing to try for a few months.
 
Thanks all... unfortunally yesterday was an unplanned turn for home... as i could sence the lady getting more nervous about passing the woods (on my own i would have continued anyway!) if you release your contact completely she will just rush faster...and any attempt to steady her makes her tense not slow... resulting in just a more collected version of the pace you have at the time...

... will work on her over the weekend and next week if i have the time... but i agree with most posts.. she will never be your safe plot 100% of the time... so it might be i have to help the owner rather than change the horse!

will pass on the comment about the carrots! :P heheh xx
 
cross posted... sorry if its obvious but "Nailed" what does QR mean??

Will see if i can source that book... but although willing to help i cant afford to pay to sort someone elses horse out! :P
 
I had months of this .The thing that worked for us was about 3 months only walking on roads no cantering or trotting it wound her up then we progressed to walking only on tracks previously she wouldnt walk only jogged. Now I can walk canter or trot on stubble but it took months of patience and getting her head in right place.I also had to learn to relax rein and not collect which is really hard when you have excited horse.My horse didnt hack out or school she had only sj but I have really good little all rounder now.
 
Don't know if it will help, but with my very forward going endurance horse (so no point working her as she can literally go all day without breaking a sweat), is lateral work. Once she starts to dance (most often once turned to home), I get her thinking &amp; channelling her energy sideways rather than forwards in s straight line. By switching her mind into another direction (literally), and not 'pulling her back', or trying to disengage the back end, she doesn't get frustrated &amp; is an absolute demon at lateral work (not to mention lovely &amp; supple). It can be used to further her education, stimulates her brain into a constructive activity &amp; by gaining focus calms her. Fingers crossed for you!
 
Thanks pip6... i think that might just help actually... if she gets spooky with me i always push her forwards and make he work into the contact a bit more... giveing her brain a focus does seam to help so will try (where i can) the lateral work option...

... would turning circles help do you think?? or will that just wind her up more?
 
I've had a couple of jumping up &amp; down horses &amp; I've found that trying to reason with them is pointless, so if we're somewhere suitable I just kick on &amp; trot/canter forwards.
They can't bunny hop if they're moving forwards, if the rider is nervous though this might not be an option.
Often if you've done a good bit of fast work they'll then happily work a bit more nicely.
Holding them back usually just makes the situation worse.
 
ditto the lateral work if you can but I wouldn't do circles.

Just another thought, if you are heading for home and she starts being silly what would happen if you just turned around and went the other way? I have been known to do this but mine doesn't throw that much at me in the first place but if he is being silly or nappy I will often make him go the opposite way to home at a junction or something.
 
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ditto the lateral work if you can but I wouldn't do circles.

Just another thought, if you are heading for home and she starts being silly what would happen if you just turned around and went the other way? I have been known to do this but mine doesn't throw that much at me in the first place but if he is being silly or nappy I will often make him go the opposite way to home at a junction or something.

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yep- I have been known to adopt this approach- every time he thinks we're heading for home I turn the opposite direction....this is easy for me though because I have off-road hacking in woods directly from the farm, and all the tracks kind of interlink- so I can make him turn away from home for ages until he decides he doesnt know which way he's going lol x
 
Is it only on the way back home? If so I would try riding past home a few times so that she learns that heading for home doesn't necessarily mean going home, or work her in the school once she gets home so that going home isn't so attractive.
Get to the turning for home and if she's being silly just keep going. Once she settles, turn around and go home, if she starts again, keep going past the turning etc, as soon as she's turning round and going home sensibly, allow her to turn for home.
 
her routine once home is normally to be brushed off... rugged if needed, left to cool if need be then tucked up in the stable for the night with her tea and a haynet. once back on home ground she is quiet as a lamb again...
its not always only on the way home although it does seam to fall into being the 2nd half of the ride... and genrally starts when she has grass under her feet... often (although yesterday was the exception) will calm down when you take her onto the roads again.
i worked her once before after a silly hack in the schooling field... doing canter work and transitions... its some of the best canter work ive achieved with her...

... do you think it could be bordom related... given she is being asked to do lots of quiet work to aid the owners confidence building...? does she really just need a good bit of hard work now and again?? x
 
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