Breaking Problems

foxglovehorse

foxglovehorse

New User
Joined
1 March 2013
Messages
9
Location
London
Visit site
Recently I have been having problems with my loan horse Ollie. He's a 6 y/o warmblood gelding but he's quite young for his age! He is fine in the school and jumping him so I ride in a full cheek snaffle with very light hands. I have never had any problems schooling in this but occasionally jump using a continental gag for a bit more control. He is not the kind of horse that hacks on his own as in his last home he never went hacking so he has confidence issues. I normally hack him in the gag but he is still very strong. A couple of days ago I was out hacking with a friend and we walked past where his field is. He didn't want to walk on but i gave with my hands and drove him on and he was fine for a couple of steps. He then spooked at a bush, reared up and literally galloped back to the yard along the road. I was very lucky that we were on quiet country lanes as the consequences could have been dire if a car had come along. I was wondering what sort of bit I could use that would be light enough to not ruin his mouth as he is young but strong enough to prevent him from from running off. I have looked in to riding him in a hackamore but I don't know that much about them.
 
Well I'm not entirely sure what else it could be. I've had his back, teeth and saddle checked and we know each other very well as I like doing natural horsemanship so I know he has confidence in me.
 
well, it's hard to judge based on the limited information but it did sort of strike me that you'd mentioned already he lacked confidence out hacking/ hadn't done much of it..... so I just wondered if that's where the issue is rather than necessarily what metal you put in his mouth?

Also, it strikes me as a bit inconsistent that at some times you ride the horse with very light hands but at other times he needs a gag..... I do appreciate that it is often necessary to bit up for some things (going XC/ hunting, etc) but IMHO it's unusual to need to bit up for a routine hack so again that just makes me think that its more about what's going on in his head than what's going on in his mouth?

I may be off-beat here, I appreciate..... as I say, hard to tell with limited information....
 
Well I only ever use the gag if I'm doing xc or a competition where I need something stronger but I prefer riding him in the snaffle. I think that the lack of confidence probably is the issue but I'm not entirely sure how to get around that issue if I have no breaks so each time there's something spooky we head for home!!
Do you have any ideas?
I've tried having someone walking next to we and leading me but I've had exactly the same problem. I've also tried hacking out with others as normally he is better but on this particular occasion he ran away from the other horse, back to his stable.
 
Maybe a confidence issue. Warmbloods are such wimps! Mine would try and go out backwards, so dragged my dad out on the bike, with him in front and it built up his confidence, took a year or so but once he was used to all the routes he strode out. Still had the odd funny 5 at bins and drain covers, tufts of grass... But he did enjoy hacking in the end.

The woman who had him before had him in a Dutch gag, I was riding him in a snaffle..

Just want to add mine too used to refuse to walk on, spook and run home!! I also started schooling on hacks, had a lovely shoulder in after a while.
 
Last edited:
Ok so maybe it's just a question of repetition and making sure there is always someone there with me no matter what?
How did you get around the running home? Especially if you were only in a snaffle!
 
No bit in the world will stop a horse that is running home in fear. This does not sound like a bitting issue to me in the slightest.
 
so has he already got a pattern of heading for the hills when he gets worried out hacking? If so, I'd sort of view it as a case of breaking the pattern. This could be done in-hand first (e.g. just walking out in-hand with your horse).

You'll need to figure out his initial indications of wanting to head for the hills and nip that in the bud - if you can "stop the thought". There's a number of ways to do this but one of the "nicest" is to find an alternative behaviour and reward that. So, it could be standing, it could be asking for shoulder in, it could be bending the neck round to you - whatever you want really, pick an alternative behaviour and reward it - with nice big carrots if necessary :) Ideally get this established while working on the ground (walking out in-hand) though, rather than risking yourself doing it ridden for the first time.

Alternative approaches could include getting him really confident out hacking in company/ finding a good foot person to go with you/ finding a good person to ride a bike with you, etc, etc.

You could also go with the approach of finding a big enough chunk of metal in the mouth to try and shut down the behaviour, ride it out, but it's a pretty high risk approach - not least because if you fail, you may not only hurt yourself but you may just end up reinforcing to the horse that there is indeed something he should worry about.....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top