Building Confidence

Sophire

Sophire

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I've recently acquired a 6yro TB, never raced, not done too much.

She has the basics, and I'm taking it really slow with her as she's a bit behind and has a tendency to go backwards when worried. I'm trying to make everything as stress free and easy for her, however she is going to at some point going to need to - for lack of a better phrase - man up! I'm hoping as her confidence grows in me, which it is, we'll get better.

Her flatwork is coming on, she's moving forward and opening her stride up. She certainly becoming more balanced and is finding it easier to carry herself. She has been XC schooling, hunted and even been to BSJA on a ticket and I'd like to event her, low level before hopefully looking to get to BE100.

My only issue now is her difficulty with poles. She will walk up to a pole, slam on the brakes a few strides out and reverse. I'll make her go over and we'll hop it and move on, but due to this we've been taking it slowly and asking her to walk over them. I thought doing more and making it normal would help, however she winds herself up and is now more worried than before? It's a bit infuriating as she'll loose jump, and I know although she was eliminated at a double, she's been out and jumped the first 6 fences of a British Nervous!

I don't know if this specifically worried her, but I'm just wanting to move forward, without causing more damage mentally to her. Does anyone have any hints or tips? They'll come much appreciated!
 
My retired horse (racehorse then event horse then show horse) evented at novice before changing careers to a show horse but is terrified of poles on the ground even at the age of 19. So does she need to do poles on the ground? Why did she get eliminated jumping - will doing the poles on the ground help or are you better just working on small fences? I would personally say to leave them for now and concentrate on other things, so as you say the confidence, getting her to really listening to you etc.

If you do want to do the pole work my suggestion would be just to have lots of poles in the school, keep riding round them, not over them, then narrowing gaps between them until she is happily trotting through a very small gap between poles and then hopefully she will start going over them.
 
What does she think if you lead her over them rather than riding, is she still anxious? I'd probably go back and start from there tbh.

however, we've got a pony on our yard that's just arrived that's done BE90 and is scared of poles on the gorund - it's just never been taught the basics, just taught to 'go over jumps' any old how. So it could be that he's literally never seen them before?
 
Good advice above. Some horses also associate poles on the ground with past pain e.g. if she did BSJA before she was confident then she may have had a crash - hurt legs plus poles on ground - plus or minus rider hitting her (more pain to associate with the poles on the ground). Horses do make strange associations sometimes.
Some horses also don't like banging their hooves on the poles if they make a mistake or the pole rolls, so fixed poles may help (nail a block of wood on the end so they don't roll.
Agree too with Morgan123 that it might just be new to her.
So, as others say, poles everywhere and lead her over them. Pole in gateway to field, in doorway to stable, etc. etc.
If possible have another horse go in front and do multiple poles every day (I would probably aim for 50+ just walking back and forward).
 
She is still anxious if I'm leading her, so I think it's safer for us both if I'm on her, although she will lunge over them now more calmly than before.

I'd like her to go over poles comfortably in order to use them to benefit her flatwork, to help with lengthening her stride, improving her rhythm and raised poles to help her engage her hind end more. Also when I begin jumping her, which I haven't yet, I want ehr to be able to jump a grid to aid her technique. She was eliminated at a double, she jumped in and not out, and then refused the first part when represented, so I think the combination was a worry to her. Ultimately I want her to be happy over poles before I begin jumping, but maybe it's not to be?
 
Yes I agree with you it is really useful to be able to work them over poles as there are so many good exercises you can do but perhaps the more you play around with them just scattered around the arena the more relaxed she might get.
 
I have an ex eventer who was competing novice as a 6 year old, he is also terrified of poles on the ground, goodness knows what happened to him but I just dont push it with him as there's no reason too.
 
With regard to her tendency to reverse.. my ex-racer did this continually and I have very nearly eliminated it by doing the following - as soon as they start to go backwards take a strong contact and put your leg on until the moment they stop or take a step forward at which point you release the contact immediately. Many horses learn to back up when under pressure because the rider will generally allow with the hands to encourage the horse forwards when in fact it is actually rewarding the horse for going backwards as it becomes their route to you releasing the pressure. Obvious really but not until you stop and think about it! Hope that helps with one aspect of your issue x
 
Lulup said:
With regard to her tendency to reverse.. my ex-racer did this continually and I have very nearly eliminated it by doing the following - as soon as they start to go backwards take a strong contact and put your leg on until the moment they stop or take a step forward at which point you release the contact immediately. Many horses learn to back up when under pressure because the rider will generally allow with the hands to encourage the horse forwards when in fact it is actually rewarding the horse for going backwards as it becomes their route to you releasing the pressure. Obvious really but not until you stop and think about it! Hope that helps with one aspect of your issue x
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This is good in theory. I would just like to add that some TBs with sensitive mouths will overreact to the contact and may rear, so it is often safer to just turn them instead (small tight circles). This works on the same principle in that they have to keep the contact, but it also helps prevent rearing or bucking. The outside rein contact remains identical to what you would normally want to ride with, rather than increased or decreased, and an open rein is used on the inside rein (along with the inside leg aid) to ensure that the horse turns instead of still going backward.
 
Yay finally something about marey! :P

What's she like trotting over little logs out hacking? Or non coloured poles? Or poles in the field?

Sorry, nothing very useful to add, will speak to my RI though, she's a bit of a genius when it comes to stuff like this xx
 
Do you lunge her at all? I'd start by doing that in all gaits then return to walk. Line up some poles end to end so there is no easy way around and lunge her over them. She will probably overreact but from the ground you can keep pushing her over without worrying about yourself and without discouraging her accidentally by trying to slow her or keep her in rhythm. After a while she will be calm going over the one pole. Then remove the extra ones so she has to go over a narrower space. Gradually introduce speed control and add parallel poles. It may take a few sessions but as a general rule, if a horse is scared of something, as long as they know how to lunge, you can lunge them over/past/into the scary thing as long as you don't give up immediately.
 
Thank you all for your advice.

She's best to lunge over poles than to lead or ride. I'm lunging her maybe 1/2x a week at the moment so will keep using poles when doing this.

Yesterday I had the vet out for my other mare for vaccs and teeth, and she looked at her mouth too to see if she just needed a quick rasp. It looks as if in her 6yrs she's not had her teeth done, not too surprising for the amount she's been passed around. She needs wolf teeth removing and her very sharp teeth rasped. Have booked this in for next week but I think it explains a lot about her behavior in general as well as with the poles/fences, I think she's been caught in the mouth once too many times. For the next week I'm going to stick to lunging her in a headcollar and may possibly see what she thinks of a hackamore. I have her back booked in to be done too as unfortunately she had to cancel our appointment yesterday. Once I know she's OK in both respects we'll continue out learning curve.

She's a really sweet mare and really wants to try so she deserves to be given the opportunity to show herself without being in pain!

With regards to reversing, she's not sharp enough to think of rearing or bucking. She simply backs up until pressure is released, then she'll move forward again. It's not actually an issue for me, she's just expressing her thoughts on what I'm asking. Providing I give her the opportunity to assess what I'm asking, she's always more than willing to give anything a go.

I'll take all advice on board and keep you updated, although I have been working around poles constantly as there's always a full course up in the school with poles dotted around. She doesn't spook at them anymore, and I think maybe her worry is to do with her mouth, hence why we haven't improved!
 
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