Asking for a friend... Nappy horse

[Fools Motto]

Has anyone had a nappy horse, (that literally questions everything asked with a no, shan't, can't in all directions, then an ok because you asked 20 times every day?). Has anyone's nappy horse altered after a period of time and said nappy horse stopped being nappy and was sweet and easy??
My only concern is the horse in question has got a pain somewhere, but investigations are happening slowly, in the meantime, it really is a battle. The owner is losing hope, and thinks once nappy always nappy, and I'm trying to convince that isn't always true.... Good, positive stories welcome!!

 

[Lady Jane]

I think we need to know more back ground info to comment

 

[Boulty]

Yes, the Welsh D I used to have. He nearly went backwards through the yard office window, would rear up at the yard gate to avoid leaving, used to call my bluff reversing so his back feet were dangling on the edge of ditches, once spent 10 minutes pinging along the side of a barn trying to ram my legs into it because I asked him to go a different way back to his stable. Took me 20 minutes (& probably as many dismounts) to hack to the end of the drive & back. Oh & he also bolted down a road with me in company & his first instinct if he was worried was to panic & try to take off at speed (he'd scoot his bum right under him & just launch forward... Or sometimes sideways). Was also deathly afraid of cows.

The bolting / taking off I think was partly related to some physical issues but everything else the main problems were in his head.

Did through a lot of handwalking, some very sympathetic hacking buddies & lots of the shortest hacks in the world (plus a few moments like the barn incident where I quietly sat there & waited for him to realise what I was asking wasn't impossible) get to the stage where he'd hack alone happily even in strange places & would hack in company without losing his mind if the other horses went off & did their own thing.

Things like clinics / XC schooling / certain layouts of warm up did make the napping return to some degree & sometimes just standing him quietly in the middle until he was required to do something was the best option! He was always better if taken somewhere alone as he remained a bit of a div if he went on outings with his friends & was separated from them.

Will admit that pretty much all his issues were ridden ones though. You could bring him in from the field / lead him around the yard without issue although he wasn't happy if other horses were taken away from him when he was stabled & would stress about it.

 

[twobearsarthur]

Definitely not once nappy, always nappy. I had an 18hh Clydesdale x TB. Did all the physical investigations and he was fine. He was horrific. I mean blood, sweat, tears, would nap on the way home horrific. Once I got stuck with him for 3 hours approx 100yds from home. We could literally see his stable from where he just shut down. And when something that size isn’t moving forward there’s very little you can do. Cattle prods were mentioned in jest on more than one occasion. Patience, a lot of time and he eventually stopped stopping and was an amazing horse afterwards. Built his confidence and he went on to become a cracking masters horse that could be ridden by anyone safe as houses no more moonwalking.
I would definitely not try to work through or battle before all physical angles have been ruled out first though.

 

[AmyMay]

I had an ex riding school horse who was very nappy. In the end I just stopped asking, and then took her hunting. (That’s the short version). She turned in to a cracking little horse.

 

[Caol Ila]

My first horse had a PhD in planting. We went through the physical investigations and sorted out her feet, her saddle, but the behaviour was still there. Lots of groundwork and group trail rides later, it went away, and she was a cracking little horse to trail ride alone or in company, to jump, and she would do a sweet First Level dressage test (UK equivalent = Novice-ish), but no higher than that.

 

[Umbongo]

One mare I had was awful. She was used in a riding school and people before me had given up. It took me a couple of hours just to get her out of the yard. She used plant and then mini rear and spin if you used a crop. I used to quietly sit it out, never applying too much pressure and never giving up. A few weeks later of regular solo hacking and she used to storm out of the yard with ears pricked and loving it! Sometimes she had a little wobble and I could feel her tense up ready to stop, but a reassuring squeeze and she was on her way again.

 

[LEC]

Most napping is because of anxiety and poor processing skills. It can be solved with a bit of hard work and patience.

I have ridden 3 homebreds all from the same family and all with a nappy streak.
One it was because of severe anxiety about new things. It’s an absolutely neurotic horse to deal with.
Her brother was nappy because someone had screwed him up. He was a worried horse and someone had tried to force the issue so he just learnt to fight back. It’s actually through solving his issues I got the rides in his sisters.
Their final sister was weak physically and mentally, came across as cocky but under it had anxiety sometimes. Some of the napping was anxiety and some of it was because she was physically weak so found stuff really hard.

I actually don’t worry about physical too much with nappy horses, only if their behaviour changes. If they have always been like that then anxiety is a much bigger cause.

is it a sport horse? sport horses think slow and move fast. Cobs think fast and move slow. What this essentially means is a sport horse tends to react before they have solved the problem. My work with nappy horses basically is around them learning to process things better. I have tonnes of little tricks now to reach then to process quicker and react slower now.

 

[Jenko109]

My first pony was a bad napper.

He would spin and gallop towards home with me given half a chance. Took ages to get him out of the yard etc. Even hacking in company he was barely any better.

He got amazing after time though and the napping stopped completely.

That said, he went on loan to a new rider and reverted back for a month or so. Once she gained his trust, he became just as perfect again.

 

[eahotson]

Most napping is because of anxiety and poor processing skills. It can be solved with a bit of hard work and patience.

I have ridden 3 homebreds all from the same family and all with a nappy streak.
One it was because of severe anxiety about new things. It’s an absolutely neurotic horse to deal with.
Her brother was nappy because someone had screwed him up. He was a worried horse and someone had tried to force the issue so he just learnt to fight back. It’s actually through solving his issues I got the rides in his sisters.
Their final sister was weak physically and mentally, came across as cocky but under it had anxiety sometimes. Some of the napping was anxiety and some of it was because she was physically weak so found stuff really hard.

I actually don’t worry about physical too much with nappy horses, only if their behaviour changes. If they have always been like that then anxiety is a much bigger cause.

is it a sport horse? sport horses think slow and move fast. Cobs think fast and move slow. What this essentially means is a sport horse tends to react before they have solved the problem. My work with nappy horses basically is around them learning to process things better. I have tonnes of little tricks now to reach then to process quicker and react slower now.

Fascinating.

 

[Ratface]

I bought a four year old ride and drive pony mare from travellers. She was a bag of nerves and would refuse to go out of the yard on many occasions. It took a year of quiet groundwork, being led off another horse, progressing to short ridden excursions to regain her confidence. No problem after that.

 

[Gloi]

My first pony started off a bad napper due to never having learned to be ridden without following another. I used to set a point we would get to up the track and get there by grim determination though he planted and spun and ran back to the stables either with or without me. Eventually we got further and in the end could ride anywhere though early on if I ever fell off within a mile or so of the stables he galloped back without me.

 

[scruffyponies]

This is really common behaviour OP. Many 'project' horses are discarded for this type of behaviour, but will go for a confident rider (eventually - not necessarily right away!). Even non nappy horses pick up on hesitant riding and can be quickly turned into nappy ones.
Rearing, spinning, spooking (at nothing), picking innocent items to pretend to be terrified of... all drive from a lack of confidence in the rider. This can start with the horse being anxious, or the rider being hesitant, or both.
It usually goes away once the horse is settled.
As an aside, this is why so many horses mysteriously turn into horrors when they change yard. Not drugged for sale, not lied about by the previous owner, just unsettled by a change of circumstances.

 

[Birker2020]

This is really common behaviour OP. Many 'project' horses are discarded for this type of behaviour, but will go for a confident rider (eventually - not necessarily right away!). Even non nappy horses pick up on hesitant riding and can be quickly turned into nappy ones.
Rearing, spinning, spooking (at nothing), picking innocent items to pretend to be terrified of... all drive from a lack of confidence in the rider. This can start with the horse being anxious, or the rider being hesitant, or both.
It usually goes away once the horse is settled.
As an aside, this is why so many horses mysteriously turn into horrors when they change yard. Not drugged for sale, not lied about by the previous owner, just unsettled by a change of circumstances.

Very good answer SP. I agree with a lot of what you have said.

 

[Tarragon]

This is why I like to build a really good relationship with my ponies in-hand before backing or riding. We go miles together just out walking, see all sorts of things and have many shared experiences and are already a team We both know that there is nothing that can faze us or that we cannot work out.

 

[Cortez]

Yes of course you can train a nappy horse not to nap, it's a product of incorrect training and riding in the first place.

 

[Red-1]

YES! I bought my heart horse for half price, because he was a known napper/rearer. Reared every day, could stay up there, or up and down, for a loooong time.

This is him a few years later...



I always wore a neckstrap. Didn't pressure him. If he wanted to rear, I just let him. Waited it out. Once he paused (wondering why I was just sitting there), I politely asked him to do whatever it was I needed (usually turn left). He would flip out again, up and down, up and down. I would just sit...

In the end, he realised that I could be relied upon, so asked for help when he needed it and no longer needed to rear.

The bridle-less is because, whenever we had an issue I quit the reins anyway, as reins had a negative connotation. I simply switched to the neckstrap. So, for him, the neckstrap was actually a more reliable piece of equipment.

In the end, he was the easiest horse to event. Would stroll off the lorry, wander over to the warmup, do his best, stroll back. Hacked like a champ. Everything in a snaffle, no fancy noseband, no martingale - but always a neckstrap as it became what we did, not because he really needed it.