Bold to scared horse - have I ruined him?

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Graciedanny

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I have a 5 year old OTTB who I've had for about 2 months now. Things were going great up until last week when we went xc schooling. At the start he was bold as brass and jumped most things first time, but about halfway round he had a bit of a scary moment at the ditch combo. He was fine jumping the ditch but got a dodgy stride to the next element and left his leg and cut it a bit. We tried for quite a while to make him do it again but in the end left it after he jumped the smallest version once because he was just point blank refusing to move as soon as he went near the second element, which is fine as he clearly knocked his confidence. However, after that is was a bit disastrous as he wouldn't jump any jumps first time - or without A LOT of encouragement from me. We just put this down to a confidence knock and hoped next time it would be better.

However today I made a terrible mistake of trying to pop him over the ditch in our field for the first time. I was just planning to have a chilled trot and canter around the field with a loose rein but he was going so relaxed I thought if I ever were going to jump the ditch, right now would be the right time because he was so chilled. As soon as I got up to it he stopped dead, looking back now I feel i should have just left it there but then again that would have taught him if he refuses he gets out of it. So i went round a couple more times and after some encouragement he jumped it twice in a row. We tried it from the other way so he learns it won't eat him and again after a couple of tries he jumped it, but when i went round again he completely refused for no reason - he'd literally just jumped it! we kept going round but after that it just went downhill and lets just say we were out there for more than an hour trying to get him to jump the ditch. We tried poles either side, lunging,walking round it, getting off and NOTHING worked, he just got more and more worked up until we gave up because there was no way he was going over it.

I am absolutely devastated because he was such a lovely horse before and jumped everything, and i'm worried now he's never going to jump a ditch again and also refuse a jump first before jumping it. Does anyone have any advice, had this happen to the or just generally be able to calm my worries?
 
He has clearly had a serious confidence knock, further compounded by todays efforts, I would go right back to basics, build his confidence over coloured poles and not even attempt xc fences until he is flying over everything, you can mock up ditches in the arena, do loads of grids with poles on the ground and when you do go xc the first time forget ditches just let him have fun doing easy confidence building small fences.
These ex racehorses are often bold but lack real confidence so when it goes wrong it really hits them hard, until it goes wrong you think they will do anything asked of them but like many young horses until then they really trust the rider, it can be a major shock to find out they are not invincible and that jumps can bite back, your job now is going to be to get him to trust you as well as himself, I would take as long as you can, maybe do a few things where he can feel really clever and feel completely confident that nothing will get him, if he ever has a fright ensure the next fence or two is back to well within his comfort zone to get him going before trying the one where he had the fright, in fact it is always good to keep going back after a bigger question, it boosts them up and reinforces the confidence that they can have knocked if they have to keep stretching themselves either physically or mentally, I like to end jumping sessions on a good note and if we have pushed the boundaries that may mean popping something tiny and easy so they remember how easy it was rather than ending on the big effort.
 
Have you thought of it being something like ulcers? Assuming that it wasn't a catastrophic almost falling experience and was literally just a bit of a scary moment where you had to reshuffle legs off a weird stride even if he cut himself it doesn't sound like it should have been enough to scare him like that. However putting in the extra effort to stretch/ twist to jump off the dodgy stride could have upset his ulcers and ex-racers are particularly susceptible to them.

Does he have any other symptoms of ulcers?
 
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be positive said:
He has clearly had a serious confidence knock, further compounded by todays efforts, I would go right back to basics, build his confidence over coloured poles and not even attempt xc fences until he is flying over everything, you can mock up ditches in the arena, do loads of grids with poles on the ground and when you do go xc the first time forget ditches just let him have fun doing easy confidence building small fences.
These ex racehorses are often bold but lack real confidence so when it goes wrong it really hits them hard, until it goes wrong you think they will do anything asked of them but like many young horses until then they really trust the rider, it can be a major shock to find out they are not invincible and that jumps can bite back, your job now is going to be to get him to trust you as well as himself, I would take as long as you can, maybe do a few things where he can feel really clever and feel completely confident that nothing will get him, if he ever has a fright ensure the next fence or two is back to well within his comfort zone to get him going before trying the one where he had the fright, in fact it is always good to keep going back after a bigger question, it boosts them up and reinforces the confidence that they can have knocked if they have to keep stretching themselves either physically or mentally, I like to end jumping sessions on a good note and if we have pushed the boundaries that may mean popping something tiny and easy so they remember how easy it was rather than ending on the big effort.
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This. Your post could have been written by me! Except my poor 4 year old gave herself an enormous fright at a ditch out at an event. Completely my fault, I went against my initial plan and trotted her into it (in hindsight, should have walked her up to it to give her time to have a good look). She spooked and I fell off. I haven't even attempted a ditch since then, just tried to have nice confident rides. It hasn't seemed to have knocked her confidence jumping so far, but the real test will be out on XC again, over a ditch. I now feel she's ready to have a crack again. I think you were probably a bit eager attempting a ditch so soon after he got that fright on the XC course. I imagine if you build him up slowly again he should be ok though!
 
Ex-racers are easily scared. A lot of the time the 'happily' pulling you in to a fence that seems like bravado is actually trying to get it over and done with quickly. Mine whittles incessantly jumping, the minute anything goes properly wrong that's it! When everything is going right he has a bit of a cocky tail swish and wiggle after a fence.

The good thing is they're intelligent and you can work through it, but it will take time and going back to basics, then lots of time consolidating his confidence over the 'easy' jumps, till he can do them with his eyes closed. Mine has got better with practicing a few dodgy lines etc, so that he knows now he can get in close or long now and it doesn't necessarily mean bad things will happen.

Just take your time, you'll get back there :)
 
Oh dear what a shame, it will definitely be a lot of work building him back up, but no you have not ruined him. Be positive's advice is spot on, just back off completely and don't even think about ditches for a good while.

My noble steed is instinctively terrified of coloured poles so I spent a long time building him up to go over a pole, then two in a row, then tiny fences etc. And we were getting vaguely competent, but he still used to get his brain in a knot about it all, so he was at the stage of going along with it all, but not being truly confident, which is probably in reality where your boy was at prior to ditchgate. Then my lad somehow managed to have a rotational over an 80cm showjump (I still have no idea how he managed it), and I dusted us off and hoped back on, went back around and jumped it again no problem. Next time out we were back to couldn't possibly walk over a pole on the ground...ho hum....but that's horses for you, and in fact often the confidence knocking baby mistakes and subsequent rebuild make them come back with a far stronger confidence base than before. So don't despair, just make sure the rebuild is as strong as it can possibly, be in no hurry, it will be worth it.

Good luck
 
Like the others have said, take things right back to basics even if that means treating him like he's never seen a jump before let alone x-country. I also wonder if he's tweaked a muscle by getting the wrong stride and therefore it's painful to jump now hence he jumped the ditch then refused next time round. I would concentrate on flatwork and poles for a bit then gradually reintroduce jumping. You may want to get a physio type person out to check if there is a pulled muscle. The cut would obviously take your attention away.
 
I would find a really good instructor who could help you both. there is nothing more confidence giving than having someone on the ground who knows what they are doing and can give you proper advice. I would try to go to a cross country schooling centre where they have fences at different heights and start really small. take your time and everything will be ok. all horse and riders have wobbles
 
I am a Wobbleberry and I have had a similar problem with my green horse getting very nervous over poles. We were going so well and then he gradually got more difficult over SJ and then flat out refused to go over even a tiny pole. We knew it was a confidence issue but underestimated how back to basics we needed to go until he made it very clear.

I got a natural horsemanship woman out, who also events to Novice, to have a look and between her and my SJ trainer we put a plan together. We think he was badly started and has been scared when learning to jump. He tried hard but as we did more jumping he just got more worried and downed tools. So I started doing the 'hunt the jump' game from the ground as well as my trainer jumping him every day - little and often, I had totally lost confidence in jumping him. It was all reward based and when my trainer jumped him she almost showed him the jump and asked him to jump but didn't make him jump it. It was a bit strange for my traditional SJ trainer but the intensive work on both the ground and ridden has really made a difference.

I am now jumping him every few days and getting him out to different venues to push our comfort zone. Slow but steady is our approach.

Google 'hunt the jump' and you might find it useful as a way of getting him confident again on the ground and you can then transfer it to ridden jumping.
 
Squeak said:
Have you thought of it being something like ulcers? Assuming that it wasn't a catastrophic almost falling experience and was literally just a bit of a scary moment where you had to reshuffle legs off a weird stride even if he cut himself it doesn't sound like it should have been enough to scare him like that. However putting in the extra effort to stretch/ twist to jump off the dodgy stride could have upset his ulcers and ex-racers are particularly susceptible to them.

Does he have any other symptoms of ulcers?
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Why ? Ulcers?
I think we can work out what the problem is and BP has given a very good roundup of how to deal with it. All I would reinforce is the always end on a good note even if popping over a pole on the ground. I hope you would understand what I mean by saying dont set yourself up to fail you need to think one step ahead of the horse at all stages.
 
Well there has been a lot of excellent advice. Stay away from jumping ditches, having him checked by a physio, he could well have given himself a knock.

When he is back to jumping confidently and doing pretend ditches and you think he might be ready can you find another horse he could follow over some baby ditches to start with. But only after all the others things that have been suggested.
 
You've not had him long at all, so he doesn't know you well enough to get confidence from you. I start all mine, whether jumped before or not, by lunging over all the small xc fences i can find. When they are finding that easy (and TB's catch on very quickly), then I'll hop on and repeat under saddle.
 
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