Conquering the mind game - Hacking Woes

[Foxaunt]

Hello,

Some of you might recognise me from my numerous posts, but if you don't I have 2 horses currently, one of which is a (just turned) 6yo mare, who is currently at fitness/fat camp with me, we are having a problem that i would like advice on, feel free to skip the ramble and go for the paragraph in bold.

We have been attempting to hack out but she is a bit nappy to start, only when we are on our own. I will add here that this horse does not get phased, spooked, wound up, or fizzy when she hacks with others, even if the other horses are a bit skitty. We can't always find people to hack with, my yard is full of lovely people that typically ride during the day. Let's just say that for now, hacking in company is not something I can organise, at least not as regularly as needed for fat camp, we need to be able to go on our own.

I know this is a big ask, for a baby horse to hack confidently away from others, into what is basically an open grass field, with a pheasant shoot farm thing (??) surrounding most of the first bit of hacking, and deer everywhere. I never thought my animal-loving childhood self would grow up to hate any animal, but deer don't count; what they lack in brains, sense of direction, or the ability to stay put for 5 seconds, they make up for in.... uhh...

So, digression aside, the napping I can get through, but when we are out, and we start getting the feeling like we are getting a bit tense, i start turning back for home - in the hopes that, if something did happen, we would at least be headed in the right direction. Inadvertently reinforcing that 'when things are a bit scary we don't have to do anymore', probably.

I should clarify that aside from baby horse excitability she has never given me cause to worry, no major spooks, no bolts, blah blah blah you get the picture, but she is still really tense. When you've ridden a tense horse on a hack, you know the feeling. Something bubbling just underneath.

My problem is also that there's no "short" route i can do, the shortest hacking track i can do goes around an open grass field that is about 15 acres, we are not allowed to cut through it, so 'short' would be maybe doing one side and then turning back for home anyways.

How can i mentally conquer this first field, i think she will be largely fine but even so, its scary! hacking on your own is scary!

other pertinent points:

• Long reining/in hand, it's even more exciting for her and i have less control if something were to go wrong. I'm 5ft1 on a good day, she is a big, stocky, 16.2 mare.
• someone on foot does not make a blind bit of difference
• she is fine to school/taking her off the yard on a box/generally leaving other horses

Any words of advice? Thank you lovely H&H Peeps

 

[scruffyponies]

Nobody has said it yet, so I will:

Sing. It regulates your breathing.

 

[Flame_]

Do you have farm rides locally? You would be removing the "must return home" option by hacking from the box not the yard, you would have much better odds of not encountering any traumatic hazards (like herds of deer, herds of cyclists, etc) and you have the reassurance of a relatively safe and controlled situation and help on site if it didn't go well to begin with.

 

[scats]

If hacking out is something you want to do from home on your own, then you’re probably going to have not many options other than just feel the tension and do it anyway. I do know the feeling well though, if it’s any consolation. My mare does the ‘rock solid balloon about to burst thing’ and her head comes up stupidly high. It’s a horrible feeling and I don’t 100% trust her!

If you ride her in the school first to get her a bit mentally and physically tired, is she any better?

 

[GinaGeo]

My normal approach has always been "your safer on top". And with most of my horses I have been. I now have two in my ownership that sometimes need me to be on the floor. It has taken me awhile to get my head round it, it goes against everything I've been taught, but it has helped my big, young horse with a very strong fight or flight reaction to gain confidence. My horses always do a lot of In Hand work when I back them, but he needed more.

What I have done is to go back a step. Really solidify the work In-Hand. Teach her how to be brave and how to react when something scares her.

I actually did the free TRT Online Training which might be worth a look at, and some of the exercises were very useful, and it made me be much stricter with the rules. Which in turn made him feel more secure.

He went out with a Lunge Line and Halter at first. Progressed on to Halter under bridle with long lead rope tied round his neck, and if I needed to I would slide off. Because of the work we'd done with me on the floor, he would look to me to make the decisions and look after him. I haven't had to get off him for ages now, but he's now asking me what his answer should be. Before he'd just leave or explode.

 

[sportsmansB]

Funny enough I can get my brave pants on better in trot in these situations
The general positivity I find carries me along
My horse can be a complete arse hole and when I feel him get looky, I 'trot on' and it helps both of us, gets him in front of the leg and makes me focus

Appreciate might not work in your circs but worth a try if it would

 

[timefort]

Can you ride in the arena as well? I ask because some days my 20 year old should know better type has exactly the tension you describe (other days she's chilled on the end of the buckle). We get through the tense days with a lot of concentrating on the good things (currently lots of "ooh pretty bluebells"!), trying not to acknowledge the tension, making her work with transitions/yielding etc and thinking about good what ifs - all easier said than done I know. If she remains tense then it's straight into the arena so she doesn't associate being tense with getting out of work (even if we've turned around before doing a full route). Usually after a couple of sessions like this she starts to improve.

Also as someone else has commented - my tension got a lot better the minute I ignored the "you must ride through it" brigade and got off. If J is tense because she's uncertain, having me being tense on her back doesn't help. On the ground she's respectful and we both relax. Now I mentally know I can get off I'm much more inclined to stay on.

 

[ApacheWarrior1]

Hello,

Some of you might recognise me from my numerous posts, but if you don't I have 2 horses currently, one of which is a (just turned) 6yo mare, who is currently at fitness/fat camp with me, we are having a problem that i would like advice on, feel free to skip the ramble and go for the paragraph in bold.

We have been attempting to hack out but she is a bit nappy to start, only when we are on our own. I will add here that this horse does not get phased, spooked, wound up, or fizzy when she hacks with others, even if the other horses are a bit skitty. We can't always find people to hack with, my yard is full of lovely people that typically ride during the day. Let's just say that for now, hacking in company is not something I can organise, at least not as regularly as needed for fat camp, we need to be able to go on our own.

I know this is a big ask, for a baby horse to hack confidently away from others, into what is basically an open grass field, with a pheasant shoot farm thing (??) surrounding most of the first bit of hacking, and deer everywhere. I never thought my animal-loving childhood self would grow up to hate any animal, but deer don't count; what they lack in brains, sense of direction, or the ability to stay put for 5 seconds, they make up for in.... uhh...

So, digression aside, the napping I can get through, but when we are out, and we start getting the feeling like we are getting a bit tense, i start turning back for home - in the hopes that, if something did happen, we would at least be headed in the right direction. Inadvertently reinforcing that 'when things are a bit scary we don't have to do anymore', probably.

I should clarify that aside from baby horse excitability she has never given me cause to worry, no major spooks, no bolts, blah blah blah you get the picture, but she is still really tense. When you've ridden a tense horse on a hack, you know the feeling. Something bubbling just underneath.

My problem is also that there's no "short" route i can do, the shortest hacking track i can do goes around an open grass field that is about 15 acres, we are not allowed to cut through it, so 'short' would be maybe doing one side and then turning back for home anyways.

How can i mentally conquer this first field, i think she will be largely fine but even so, its scary! hacking on your own is scary!

other pertinent points:

• Long reining/in hand, it's even more exciting for her and i have less control if something were to go wrong. I'm 5ft1 on a good day, she is a big, stocky, 16.2 mare.
• someone on foot does not make a blind bit of difference
• she is fine to school/taking her off the yard on a box/generally leaving other horses

Any words of advice? Thank you lovely H&H Peeps

I know exactly how you feel Foxaunt, I have a little cob who is an absolute saint in almost any situation, but we have recently moved to a new yard and so everything is new to both of us.... and I am a very nervous anxious passenger! he has hacked out at previous yard solo round the fields but has had the odd moment of wanting to go home, and this has carried on a couple of times at our new yard, when he was quite happy to leave the other horse we were with in order to go home on his own....I have found that leading him round everywhere in hand helps us a lot - it takes all the pressure off me, and therefore he is much more relaxed, and we just walk the route a few times until he is familiar with it.... I also sing to him and talk to him all the time, keeps me focused and relaxed and we have some lovely times together.

 

[pixie27]

Funny enough I can get my brave pants on better in trot in these situations
The general positivity I find carries me along
My horse can be a complete arse hole and when I feel him get looky, I 'trot on' and it helps both of us, gets him in front of the leg and makes me focus

Appreciate might not work in your circs but worth a try if it would

This is what I used to do. If horse was feeling tense/I was feeling tense, I'd pop him straight into trot and make sure he was working and forward/off my leg. Took a long while to get brave enough to do that though!

I also did a lot of leg yielding and bending and flexing - anything that gave us both something to think about.

I really feel you though, when I first got my old boy, we could either do 15 mins down a country lane then turn and come back, or do an hour round a huuuge field. We used to creep our way down the lane, both of us not breathing, me so tense I was basically off the saddle, him so tense it was like a riding a log. Trotting + leg yielding + flexing/bending + all of the singing and inane chatter + forcing myself to sit like a literal sack of potatoes helped!

Do you have a trusted friend/rider/instructor who can get on and do it for you? I find it v helpful to know a horse can do something if they're ridden in the right way. (And equally, knowing how they'll react if there's too much pressure/if the tension topples over.

 

[black and brown]

I totally agree with getting into trot as soon as possible. Walking along waiting for something to happen because you are both tense and not breathing is horrible. I've found trotting focuses the mind and gives me more confidence. I feel for you and totally understand your concerns!

 

[JoannaC]

When I first hacked my mare out when first backed I found the further I went the better she was and I agree with the push on in trot when they get tense. For some reason she always got more wound up on the short routes but would settle nicely on the longer ones.