Anyone have a horse like this.. positive stories please.

[EquestrianFairy]

I have a PBA, he is sharp, spooky and Strong.

He has the mental age and experience of a 4/5yo.

I bought him with the Intention of doing BS within a year, obviously I would have done it sooner but he is much more backward than I first thought.

Every jump lesson we have to start with poles on the ground, he will act like they will kill him otherwise- slowly building up to small x poles and small straights.
Quite often he will go over a jump 3/4 times then suddenly he will decide it's got a monster under it and we have to start all over again (pole on ground etc) even though he may have jumped it already a few times.

He is very sharp, he refuses when you *think* he is going over, he is forward and strong then BAM he says no. I'm learning to stay on but I just feel like I may be fighting a loosing battle.
I guess I'm looking for some people who have had the same issues and whether the horse WAS able to be worked through it?

He has an amazing talented jump (when he jumps) and I know he could be an amazing show jumper if he wasn't so inconsistent.

 

[TheMule]

How long have you been perservering for?
It doesn't sound worth it to me, sounds like there's a mis-match in what you want to do vs what the horse is mentally capable of achieving

 

[DD]

my pba was backed at 4 then turned away until this summer as mentally he was/is very babyish. he is now and has just started ridden work.

 

[EquestrianFairy]

He is actually 10.
He just seems to be mentally akin to a 4yoz

I've had him 4 months.

We've tried 5 different instructors because he's such a quirky horse that it's taken me a while to find someone who works for us both.

 

[DabDab]

Not exactly a positive story I'm afraid.....my horse is very like this (though isn't really spooky or strong). He's foot perfect xc but has always detested showjumps. With a lot of work I have got him jumping in a happy relaxed forward way over tracks up to about a meter (which is nothing to him really, he has bags of scope), but that's in arenas he knows. In an arena he feels uncomfortable in or if he's tired, or if something happens to upset him, he just stops jumping. So I've stopped show jumping at competitions now - it's just not worth the money or embarrassment of trying to compete a horse who might fly round or might down tools in either the warmup or the ring.

Sorry not to be more positive. Unfortunately if they are very wary of something there is always the chance it will resurface when they're stressed, distracted, in pain etc

 

[canteron]

Maybe time to really think what you want - if the red rosette is important (and there is nothing wrong in this) then maybe this isn't the horse for you. If however the bond is the important thing then I would do everything I could to build up the horses confidence in every other area of life and see where that takes you/what it teaches you before being very direct in your showjumping ambitions.

To me it smells of a lack of confidence in the horse from its previous life/you/etc, but there are many lovely ready made horses out there which could do the job just perfectly and yes, I have seen many amazing transformations in a horse (not least my own) but it is up to you which journey you want to go on.

 

[stencilface]

Yes. My sister's Welsh x TB pony was like this when we got him aged 8. Would rush fences, sometimes plunging and leaping to get over it. If you interfered too much it would melt his brain and he'd soon and refuse to go anywhere near it, speedwalking backwards. He was worse with ground poles than anything else, would always approach at warp speed. We let a horse whisperer use him to demonstrate at a show, he was still charging over the pole by the end of the demo. We sent him away to be schooled by a showjumper, he got sent home early after he ditched the guy (just through his speed and plunging) and they never charged us.

He sometimes liked it if you had complete control, we rode him in a rubber Pelham which he liked, but settled on a cherry roller fulmer as it gave you some control without taking his completely. You just had to get his sweet spot and he'd jump anything, but take too much contact and he'd spin. It was a skill and some to get him the other side, had numerous comments about how kids shouldn't ride him (we were teens). He'd spin on hacks at canter spots if he sensed you were about to canter, and often we used to reverse him past stuff to use his evasion to our advantage! Maybe these days we'd know better people to help, or maybe we'd scan him and find all kinds of issues, this was the 90s!

I think he was strapped in and spurred too much when young due to his obvious talent and he was very good looking. We never sold him and he lived out til 28 as a happy hacker.

 

[rifruffian]

I have a PBA, (Arabian/TB) who has been with me for around eight years; (the horse is 14yo).
We don't jump, it is not my passion
This horse was extremely difficult initially, dangerous at times. After several years he is now a useful hack......but it was a painful experience at times; even now nothing can be taken for granted.

 

[Abi90]

I had an ISH who on paper was bred to jump. He was very similar, back to being frightened of poles every session. He was a very good jumper with great technique and never touched a pole when you did fight him over a fence but every fence was a fight. He just did not want to do it, he would take a lead off another horse but on his own he was awful.

I persevered for 18 months then gave up and found up a dressage and hacking home, he's now a "wee dude" and her horse of a lifetime.

Sometimes it isn't worth it for your or them

 

[tiga71]

I have a ISH who is very like this. Hear is our story:

I got him from lady at our yard who got scared of him. She bought from dealer when he had just come over from Ireland as green 5 year old. She was too nervous for a youngster and he was big and strong but a lovely horse. I got him when he was green and 6. We knew he was green.

Started jumping lessons and he was fine. Bit rushy but tried hard and was figuring out where his feet were. Has lots of scope. Started doing the Wobbleberries challenge (he was 7) and things going well. Few baby clear rounds, confident cross country schooling. Then he just started refusing show jumps. Got worse and refused to even go over tiny, tiny jumps. I came off a few times and lost all confidence. He was so worried that even my trainer struggled jumping him.

We knew he was lacking confidence but were struggling so needed another pair of eyes. Got an eventer who does natural horsemanship and groundwork out to look at him. She said she thought he had possibly been hit over poles or rapped. He was so scared of anything pole like underneath him. We started doing lots of ground work and 'hunt the jump' game. Basically using a lot of reward based training to get him happy and confident going over poles and then progressing to jumping different stuff with me on the ground. Did that for 2-3 weeks, every day, sometimes twice a day.

Then he went to my SJ trainer for 2 weeks boot camp. I did the groundwork once a day and she jumped him once a day. Didn't make him jump, just asked him to jump, he could look and then come back to jump. Lots of rewards.

Came back home and kept up the in hand jumping every other day and ridden jumping every other day. We are now 4 months in and are back to cantering into jumps with fillers and jumping up to 80 cm. But are taking it very slowly. I take him out xc schooling once a week, jumping at trainers once a week, jumping at different venue once a week and jump at home. Little but often to keep his confidence up, and mine to be honest.

I think in another month we will be ready to try a low key clear round. It is really slow progress but we are making progress so i am happy with that. I have deferred my Wobbleberry challenge to next year - whether we will be ready is another matter.

I love him so if we can only ever do a 70 cm clear round, that is fine. I am never going to be a serious competitor anyway. It is hard work and so frustrating at times, but we will keep going and see what happens.

 

[EquestrianFairy]

Thankyou all.

I genuinely think he enjoys jumping, he gets excited and ears pricked etc.
Often, when he is relaxed (or maybe I should say when WE are relaxed) he will take me to the jump and jump it like a pro.

He can't be fought over a fence, the more you fight the more he fights back.

Other times he decides it's a troll and must simpley be put on the floor before he even considers going near it. I can't deny that I'm sure I play a part, he has knocked my confidence also.

He has a varied workload and I take him all sorts of scary places like the beach or new Forstery hacks or the scary fun rides.

I just feel our progress is so painfully slow that maybe it's just not going to happen.

 

[Abi90]

Don't get me wrong, mine improved and some days he loved it and would jump around 85cm like it was the best thing in the world then the next day it was all terrifying again. He was so inconsistent that there was no point taking him anywhere as you would either win or get eliminated at the first fence. Had I wanted to take another 6 years we may have go somewhere.

To put it in perspective my youngester has only jumped 4 times in her life and has made comparatively more progress in a few weeks than he had in 18 months.

 

[DabDab]

Thankyou all.

I genuinely think he enjoys jumping, he gets excited and ears pricked etc.
Often, when he is relaxed (or maybe I should say when WE are relaxed) he will take me to the jump and jump it like a pro.

He can't be fought over a fence, the more you fight the more he fights back.

Other times he decides it's a troll and must simpley be put on the floor before he even considers going near it. I can't deny that I'm sure I play a part, he has knocked my confidence also.

He has a varied workload and I take him all sorts of scary places like the beach or new Forstery hacks or the scary fun rides.

I just feel our progress is so painfully slow that maybe it's just not going to happen.

Oh mine loves it when it's all going to plan, it's just not worth trying to compete him that's all. I still get a lot out of jumping him, I think it's good for his mental outlook in general. I take him xc schooling every couple of weeks because he's uber fun to do that on.

 

[EquestrianFairy]

Don't get me wrong, mine improved and some days he loved it and would jump around 85cm like it was the best thing in the world then the next day it was all terrifying again. He was so inconsistent that there was no point taking him anywhere as you would either win or get eliminated at the first fence. Had I wanted to take another 6 years we may have go somewhere.

To put it in perspective my youngester has only jumped 4 times in her life and has made comparatively more progress in a few weeks than he had in 18 months.

^^^ this is exactly what I'm concerned about, i was watching a 4yo who hadn't even seen jumps before do better than we were in a lesson :-(

 

[Abi90]

^^^ this is exactly what I'm concerned about, i was watching a 4yo who hadn't even seen jumps before do better than we were in a lesson :-(

To me it depends what you want. If you're completely in love with the horse then instead of infuriating yourself find something than he likes consistently and do that instead be it TREC or dressage or whatever. If you badly want to do the jumping then frankly life is too short to faff around with a horse that doesn't share your opinion, find him a home that does share his opinion on jumping and get yourself a horse that enjoys it.

 

[Frumpoon]

I have had 2 horses that have presented with elements of this behaviour, each very different. One turned out to have damage to the lens of the eye hence the spookiness, the other had terrible kissing spines and hind suspensory damage hence the last minute ducking out of fences. Both very good genuine horses who were simply reacting to their physical impairments

 

[Puff]

I had a mare like this when I was younger and turned out she was incredibly sore, some days worse than others, and sometimes she'd start off ok in a session then must have tweaked herself and there was no getting her over the jump. After some back treatments she was a lot better, she did always have an attitude though so needed riding every stride to a jump mind, I still never 'trusted' or enjoyed jumping her. I think some horses are more stoic with putting up with pain, others like my pony will put up with far less- and fair play to them!

 

[blitznbobs]

Some horses just don't like jumping or find it too stressful... I think stopping is the hardest thing to overcome and a 'dirty' stop (i.e. One you don't see coming) is terrible for riders confidence. If jumping is what you want to do find another horse, if you want to build a relationship with this horse stick to ones he doesn't stop at for a few months and then tweak the course up a bit but don't expect to be able to jump at any competitive level soon (or ever) that way if horse does come good you'll be happy and if it doesn't then you're not going to be disappointed

 

[ycbm]

Mine was a wobbler. Bred from a GP SJ stallion, sometimes jumped beautifully, sometimes crashed through them. I gave up jumping, then several years later he 'broke' and his neck x rays showed he was born with wobblers.

 

[southerncomfort]

With horses you have to work with what you've got.

It sounds like you've been trying to work through this for a while with little or no improvement. It might be time to accept that show jumping isn't the job for this horse. I'm sure their is something that he is good at and enjoys, it just depends how important show jumping is to you and whether you'd be happier finding another horse that enjoys it as much as you.

 

[Clannad48]

One of ours was, on paper, the perfect event horse - superb breeding, very flashy looks for dressage, could jump the moon when she wanted - however there were times when in the ring she decided that 'Nope not going to jump today' and at one competition knocked down every fence apart from the Joker. Nothing physically wrong with her just didn't like competing sometimes. Decided to try our hand at Endurance - she loved it -even at the end of a competition class she wanted to go again with the next class., and she competed successfully for a couple of years. Now due to lack of time she is now just a 'happy hacker' and is in her element, she looks happy and relaxed.

Sometimes a horse just doesn't like competing and you just have to accept it. Sorry but it's a sad truth. We spent a lot of time, effort and money trying to work out if there was a reason for her not wanting to compete, turns out nothing wrong, she just didn't want to. I think that sometimes a horse just wants to be a horse, mooching around with its mates.

 

[JillA]

In your shoes I'd be trying her on magnesium oxide for a couple of weeks. May be magnesium deficiency, may not but at least that will eliminate it as an underlying cause - if she is no better in a couple of weeks that isn't the problem. Cheap and easy way to diagnose by therapy

 

[Red-1]

I helped someone with a pony like this. For ages he would go well, had energy, pazzaz, jumped beautifully, neat as a cat. Then, for some reason (maybe because he had touched a pole) he would go spooky and nervous, over jump, scare himself, more spooky.

A few times we took it right back, to walking over poles and work up from there, and he would go great guns for a while, then not.

I was happy with the owner's decision that this particular pony, whilst talented, was not enjoying the jumping. They bought their daughter another horse, and the pony had a quieter life.

 

[oldjumper]

I have a PBA, he is sharp, spooky and Strong.

He has the mental age and experience of a 4/5yo.

I bought him with the Intention of doing BS within a year, obviously I would have done it sooner but he is much more backward than I first thought.

Every jump lesson we have to start with poles on the ground, he will act like they will kill him otherwise- slowly building up to small x poles and small straights.
Quite often he will go over a jump 3/4 times then suddenly he will decide it's got a monster under it and we have to start all over again (pole on ground etc) even though he may have jumped it already a few times.

He is very sharp, he refuses when you *think* he is going over, he is forward and strong then BAM he says no. I'm learning to stay on but I just feel like I may be fighting a loosing battle.
I guess I'm looking for some people who have had the same issues and whether the horse WAS able to be worked through it?

He has an amazing talented jump (when he jumps) and I know he could be an amazing show jumper if he wasn't so inconsistent.

Yes - I've got one similar. I was warned pre purchase it wouldn't compete at anything other than lowest level and had proved it by failing at absolutely everything! It suited me in every other way so I decided I didn't need a jumper any longer and bought it. Of course you have to try....and it turns out to have a jump like nothing I'd ever sat on before. So once I'd sorted everything I could think of (including stage 3 ulcers) pressed on and spent 2 years trying to turn it into a SJ. Eventually, I realised nothing conventional was going to work and decided to make building up confidence an end in itself. 6 months of freaking out at poles on the ground, maybe jumping or maybe not.....but going over poles/tiny jumps every single day - ridden and in hand, walking and trotting over all sorts of obstacles, we are making very, very slow progress. Do I think he will have the confidence to carry me to fences one day? - yes. Do I think he will ever make a SJ? - no.
If SJ is the important thing to you, I would advise looking for a braver horse. If you like everything else about this horse enough to keep it anyway, enjoy making the best of what you have.

 

[Meredith]

Commiserations OP. I too had a PBA similar to yours. She had a fantastic jump but would only jump rustics not coloured poles. If she was so inclined the dirty stop would come out of the blue sending me into orbit and over the jump without her. No amount of schooling ever made it any better.

So, with a a mare you compromise, with a chestnut mare you renegotiate and with a PBA chestnut mare you send for the arbitrator!

So I only did what she enjoyed which was hacking, low level hunting and fun rides.
Sometimes you have to choose and I chose to do things she enjoyed.

You alone can decide what the future holds for you both.
Best of luck.

 

[rachk89]

Is he OK to work with in flat work?

To me he sounds like he doesn't like jumping, even if he is talented. Some horses are just like that, they just don't like doing it.

My horse will spook at the fillers for show jumps and hunter jumps if they aren't part of an actual jump. Make it an actual jump and he'll fly over it every time. He never refuses, he always wants to jump, he finds nothing scary (except when it's not a jump as I say, explain that one).

He doesn't like hacking though. Makes him terrified, he shakes most of the way round, constantly jumps at things, and this isn't even on roads, it's in places he's been before, and with horses he trusts. He's not a hacking horse (unless you're very brave). He'll go up the track next to his field and in fields on the land of the yard, it's the best I can get out of him.

I would sell your horse and get one that likes the job unfortunately, sorry. If you want to compete in jumping, he's unlikely to be your horse.

 

[EquestrianFairy]

Jumping is my "thing" its what i love most.

I adore this horse and he has changed so much since he first arrived, he trusts me now, has better manners and i think quite likes me as his person.
Hes far far more relaxed and chilled and generally a pleasure to be around.

He has progressed, its just so painfully slow and inconsistent.

Maybe i might find a professional to ride him and see if he is the same with them, just incase it is infact me.

 

[ester]

What do you know about his history EF?

 

[Chinchilla]

No offence but 4 months isn't very long, you said that's how long you've had him?
If competing/jumping is very important to you I would set yourself a goal, a decent time frame, within which you will try and sort this horse - get him checked for pain or whatever, try calmers, talk to previous owners to try and get to the bottom of why he could be acting the way he is, try different trainers/methods - it doesn't matter how long it is, a year, 2 years, 5...but I think he needs more of a chance, and I think you need to give yourselves as a combination more of a chance, because it sounds like you care about him a lot, and if he felt like the right horse enough for you to buy him then try and remember he's still the horse you wanted to bring home.

Four months is nothing for an animal which can compete/work for years; there was a 17yo at Burghley on the TV today! You said he's 10, so theoretically he could have almost a decade more doing 'stuff' (ie competitions).

That said if you get to the end of your set time frame and he's still not right then sell him to a nonjumping home, where he can be happy, and get yourself a showjumper so you can be happy too.
I know it's not much but hope this helps at least a bit. Good luck x

 

[Remi'sMum]

Sorry to trot out the 'have you considered pain' line, but you've described my mares behaviour jumping to a tee. She was talented and clearly enjoyed jumping. Often she'd fly, and loved every minute, other times she'd stop - sharp quirky stops that I couldn't feel coming from on board, and instructors couldn't see coming from the ground. Poles' on the ground were the devil incarnate, without exception. At first we tried to work through it, putting it down to quirky mareish behaviour.

Tuned out she had bony changes in the lumbo-sacral spine that were causing intermittent nerve pinching.

She's now retired completely from ridden work on the basis of that diagnosis 😥😥