Advice please - completely baffled as to how to proceed.

If you box her up and hack her in a loop from and back to the lorry does she hot up to get back to the box or is she ok with this? If she's OK or if you haven't tried it, might be worth a go for a while and she may get more confident. I had a pony that jogged sideways all the way home yanking the reins out of your hands, she was never really dangerous but it was blooming annoying. She improved just by going out nearly every day on long rides but I do reckon its harder to fix than most napping.
 
How long (time wise) into the ride does she start to play up? Does she do it consistently after say 30 mins on an hours hack, after an hour on a 2 hour hack etc?

If she always does it say after 45mins and you just figure thats halfway since most of your hacks are say 1 1/2 hrs it could be that mentally she's now had enough and wants to go home. What is she like if you go out hacking for say 3 or 4 hours or wiz round a quick 30 min loop?
 
I have had my TB for 3 years now and although I feel safe hacking out 95% of the time, there is the 5% when he is a git, there can be no logical explanation, but a lot of the time they are 'self winders' I am also very laid back, but sometimes you just have to know when you are beat!
I have another TB who can hack out on his own, but I dont because it is just too much hassle. Do something different for a while and keep coming back to it, she will get there in the end.
 
we have an ex racer who is exactly like this, perfect on the way out and a nightmare on the way home, jogging sideways etc and would never stand at a junction, after about 4 years we got to a point where she would do a very fast bouncy walk home but only on a long rein, we learnt to accept this! If she was silly on a hack she was made to work hard, i.e on the bridle, doing shoulder in or leg yield etc and when she walked she was given a bit of rein and a pat, like i say it did take alot of time. She was better on her own and worse in company, she would only walk home if she was infront. she is now retired from BSJA and any other form of work as she isnt a quiet hack and her lungs cant keep up with her (COPD). Good luck im sure you will get there eventually
 
Sounds just like my mare!! She is also ex PTP. I have the same problem- an angel going out (will go past anything, even stuff other horses wont), but get to a path on the way home and she is a nightmare, she does the jogging, sideways etc until she gets to a point where she will plant and then run backwards (and she doesnt care what is behind her which is pretty scary). I try to keep as long rein as possible and I can tell when she is going to 'start'- I have found that distracting her by riding her between hand and leg & getting her to leg yield etc works. If you have missed that 'moment' most of the time I have to get off (usually because we are stuck in a barb wire fence or a holly bush) and then get back on a few 100 yards later. She is 100% in the summer, but I have now decided not to hack alone as it has knocked my confidence a little. She is generally better in company (we just wont mention the hoof prints in the local golf course from reversing backwards up it last week)... My vet suggested it could be that she doesnt want to go home because to her it meant being in a stable when she was younger- I try to have her out as much as poss so not sure about that theory! Def a TB thing as one I used to ride did a similar thing.... If you find a solution, I would love to hear it!! What is she like at shows?
 
She will still hot up once we are on the way back, even if it's somewhere she hasn't been before.
I want to box her up and take her to the local woods regularly (with another horse) but since Cybele was PTS in September we have just had the three, and it would mean leaving my broodmare who has suffered terrible separation anxiety since losing Cybele (they were inseparable) so I haven't been able to do this. I have a new one arriving on sunday, so this means there will be someone to stay with Tills and I can crack on with taking Boo adventuring!
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Before I resorted to getting off and walking home I did used to try and make her 'work' by doing loads of lateral work and flexing, but it's not long before her brain explodes with all of that!
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I've had horses that have rushed on the way home before, but they've always done it in company as well as alone, and they've always grown out of it. None of them have ever been as bad as Boo though!
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I know what you mean about them not caring what is around them once they start performing... sitting on something that has seemingly no awareness of its own mortality isn't my idea of a good time!
Boo has never done what you've described (planting and then running backwards at high speed) whilst out on the road, but knowing her as well as I do means I make sure I'm on the floor and trying to diffuse the situation before it gets to that point - she has done it a few times in the past when hacking around fields though.


She's not really been to that many shows - when I first had her she would come out the box and expect to race, so we went to quite a few venues just to lunge/ride around. She's done a couple of very low key outings, but I'm not at the stage where I'd put her in a very busy collecting ring, lets put it that way!
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Having said that she's not been out since September, and has grown up in attitude a lot since then, so I may be doing her a disservice.
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A friend of mine cured a horse just like this by always - ALWAYS - going straight into the school and working her, quite hard, upon returning from a hack.

He kept the hacks relatively short, obviously, so the horse didn't ever get over-worked or tired out, but she soon learned that going back home meant working in the school (which she wasn't wild about), and stopped being so over-keen to get home!

A simple solution, but quite effective!
 
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If you had a horse that was a complete angel to hack on the outward journey but that turned into a nightmare as soon as you turned for home/reached the half way point on a circular route how would you go about trying resolve the issue?


Horse is question is a 5yo ex-racer and I am 100% sure that she is not being naughty. She is emotionally very (over) sensitive and physically very (over) reactive.
She is fantastic to handle in every other respect and is always keen to please me, except for on a return journey when hacked out alone
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Before anyone asks she is absolutely fine physically - back, teeth, saddle all perfect - it seems to be a complete psychological issue
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Snap, I have one of those in Black. It wasn't too bad when she wasn't broken as I would just let her march on at her own pace and made sure I stopped well before a junction so that I never caused an accident.

Once she was restricted to only walking it turned into a complete nightmare as she didn't want to walk and cantering sideways and throwing ones head all over the place is much more fun, I even got off and led her home once, I couldn't make an issue out of it as I wasn't supposed to be going faster than walk, my usual method would have been to send her forward but that was not an option.

I've stopped hacking her.
 
OK, this may not work but I got Ty over this by doing the following:

Taking him out on a ride and waiting until the tenseness begins
Got off and let him graze!

He was so shocked his adrenaline level came straight down and he chilled right out. Got back on 5 mins later and road him home - right as rain.

Not saying this will work with every horse but I found that I was pre empting his moods and inadvertantly tensing up.....getting off and grazing chilled us both (although I never did quite get the taste for grass - joke!)

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This is such a simple solution and I have never even thought of trying it - it think it might well work with my mare, my only worry is getting back on lol
 
Have you tried riding past your yard on the way back - i.e continuing the ride past your stables and onwards for a mile or 2?

I used to do this with serial napper who refused to leave and then came back at double speed - though not pratting about like yours.

It was a real problem to begin with because he tried to nap back to the yard and refused to walk on and it was just the same as on the way out.

But eventually we got through that and it did seem to stop him rushing on the way back, as the way home didn't necessarily end at home if you see what I mean?
 
I wou;dn't do anything which is going to frustrate her or make her feel anything different is going on. So, no getting off, don't understand why you would do this anyway, a bit dangerous and sending her very ambiguous signals about the outcome of her bad behaviour, fuss & grass when she is tense, talking softly all that stuff just makes her sure she was right to get stressed as you clearly are too.

In your shoes I would start by walking her 100 yards up the road and then turn for home, ignore her bad behaviour, when you get home repeat the exercise, do this until you get some improvement with virtually no change in your manner. When she is good & walks calmy - call it a day.
Next week go for 200 yards & continue for few weeks getting furthe and further from home till she doesn't assume at any point that getting home means she can stop work.
 
Do you actually HAVE to hack out on your own? We've had one or two horses that just found it so traumatic for various reasons that it was kinder not to put them through it. (and indeed safer, like you my current yard is surrounded by busy roads and half a mile from a big village)
We probably get a bit obsessed with giving horses variety - if they can go out in the field, be led out for a pick of grass, be lunged or long reined as well as working in the school then they're usually pretty content. If you can get her out to the odd show, just for a ride around, so much the better.
My mare is a bit neurotic on the roads and I wouldn't trust her on her own, but is fine to ride in the fields or on the tracks around the yard. Very luckily for me, I'm about to move to a yard on a large farm, so she'll get more off road riding, but I don't think with her varied routine and trips to shows, clinics and the trainer she's missing out by not being made to tangle with the juggernauts, kids on trials bikes, pushchairs and delivery vans on a regular basis!
 
Thanks DD. When she's fully fixed lets hope you can get back to hacking out again
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Will definitely try letting her shift on the way home, but with her history of wanting to bolt I'm just worried it will escalate into incontrollable speed
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She's one of those horses that bowls along, not pulling, but then you realise that you have absolutely s*d all control!
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I do this quite frequently, but the adrenaline levels never come down enough for me to realistically be able to get back on - she doesn't graze, just snatches and continues to leap 4' off the floor if anything scares her, or even if nothing scares her!
Perhaps she's not as food orientated as Ty.... he was a man after all!
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No, this is the Mujadil mare. I know where you are going with the long reining though, it was the making of my Bones filly
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I wouldn't dare risk long reining on our roads though, although she (Boo) does plenty around the fields and tracks here.

BTW, the Ballet Master filly I PM'd you about arrives on sunday
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Yup - as soon as we are home is is 100% happy to go straight out again, and will go backwards and forwards past our road without even glancing in the direction of home. It doesn't seem that she particularly *wants* to go home, just that if she is headed on the way home she completely over boils and loses the plot
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I think you have misunderstood....
I get off *before* we turn for home, while she is still going well, so getting off isn't a reward for her bad behaviour. She is more confident with me on the floor, and is led with a bridle and a pressure halter, so it's not really a case of being dangerous at all. Being dangerous would be me trying to tough it out on top, resulting in her turning herself inside out on the tarmac which is dangerous enough in itself, let alone with traffic involved.
I don't quite understand the 'the horse has won if you get off' mentality?
She is given fuss and grass while she is relaxed, and once she begins to tense I withdraw it so as not to reward her for her tense behaviour.
When walking her back if she starts jogging or gets elevated I will halt her and back her up a few steps, pause and then offer her to walk sensibly forwards. I use clear vocal commands (Woah, back up, wait and walk on) and a good girl, a stroke and sometimes a mint when she does as requested. She is not shouted at, nor talked to in a cooing voice.

I may try your approach in hand, but the state she gets in under saddle isn't a case of 'being able to ignore it and get home' because of the traffic element.
 
The answer to that is not really.. but the company I get to hack out in is very sporadic and usually not the most pleasant atmosphere, so I was keen to get some independence before the summer comes. Our roadwork is a big part of their fitness regime, and we have a fruit farm behind us which I ride around which is a good substitute for roadwork, but in the summer when they are harvesting it is out of bounds mostly
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The thing I don't understand is that she seems to love going out, but hates coming home! I think we may just have to do sponsored rides forever... Land's End to John O'Groats, repeatedly!!!
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hmm see I often think my girl must hate going home as she gets so stressed out- also why run backwards as it doesnt get us home any quicker & neither does the sideways bit!! Hence why the vet said it may be that she was in 24/7 when in training. Its like she 'zones' out- you cannot get through?? I have tried taking her in the school afterwards etc but doesnt seem to make a difference. The only thing I do is just sit there as calmly as possible and ride it out, unless it on the road in which case I will get off! But havent found any other fixes. She can be nuts at shows too, which is a pain- having a horse you can only school but not actually take to shows!! But if I am in a brave mood I will just get on with in- she is 100% in ALL other ways and a real sweetie. They sound rather similar!! Next time I am having an eventfull hack, at least I know I am not alone, hehe!
 
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