Crushed !

Oh god I hope it isnt the same thing!!
Boss was the most exceptionally genuine horse before this started- he never, ever (and I mean never) stopped in the sj, it just wasnt in his vocabulary to stop. I've retired him from eventing as the problem depresses me and I feel that his heart isnt in it now. I've always felt that Boss's is related to pressure though- thats why Weezy has him to try and instill so fun competition experience without Boss feeling that he's expected to jump great heights etc
 
Arrhh poor you! I don't have any words of wisdom unfortunately but I know how frustrating it is - especially when you have been looking forward to getting him back out there so much. Just a thought - have you had your saddle checked recently - could he have changed shape/put on a little weight due to being off for a bit. As he is a senstive soul he may be noticing something that others wouldn't?
 
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Really sorry to hear this R - it's so soul destroying, isn't it? It's one of those times where you'd pay good money for a 5 minute chat with your horse, isn't it? How useful would a 'c'mon then, what's up?' conversation be?

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God, if only they could talk...it would be sooo much simpler
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I haven't read all the replies so apologies if duplicating or missing the point, but if it were me, I'd eliminate pain then assume it's the brain.

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Yes, i think it's the right approach too. I've done all I can to eliminate the causes...soperhaps time to bring back the experts
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I don't know if you wear spurs, but I certainly think they help with a horse who thinks about stopping - used just sharply enough to say 'don't even think about it'. I wouldn't raise the fences to a decent height until you've had a good run of no stops.

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Yes, we always jump in (v.blunt) spurs for this reason. Although he is a very forward going horse, it's often the case that these sort need the extra 'confidence' that spurs can give.


{quote]I certainly wouldn't be competing until he's not stopping at home. Do RL run Trailblazers? I know you may think this ridiculous, but I'd recommend going to your problem place & doing a really, really low class there - so stride becomes almost irrelevant & you both have the confidence to get round. Go HC if you feel embarrassed (which you shouldn't of course!). Just get his confidence back & try to break the stopping/napping habit.


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No qualms about jumping unaffiliated if it's necessary...in fact we qualified for the TB's finals last year...seems a long time ago now though
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I agree about the not jumping until he's not stopping at home...but he NEVER naps at home the way he was in the ring. At home, the stops have been just that, and caused by bad strides combined with a lack of confidence. He's not actually stopping in the ring....he's getting his faults for a resistance rather than a refusal. He's not close enough to the jump to call it a refusal lol!

There's BSJA at Golden Cross this weekend which we'll probably take the other horse too anyway. I might take Bo along too....and just do the 90cm clear round at the start a couple of times. I think Ian will allow me a bit of leaway and not insist on me leaving the ring if he prats about so it might just do the trick. GC is also a similar venue to RL in as much as you have horses around the edge of the arena watching...

Thanks for all the positive ideas and advice guys....I'm feeling a bit better already
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Arrhh poor you! I don't have any words of wisdom unfortunately but I know how frustrating it is - especially when you have been looking forward to getting him back out there so much. Just a thought - have you had your saddle checked recently - could he have changed shape/put on a little weight due to being off for a bit. As he is a senstive soul he may be noticing something that others wouldn't?

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Hiya...

Yes, he had put on a little weight from his time out....but seems to be back to his 'optimum' weight again now. Saddle wise, we use a fairly thick gel lined saddle pad anyway, and i've given his back a good going over but found nothing untoward. Might be an idea to just get saddler out anyway though i s'pose
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I know how you feel! I had a horse on loan when I was 16, I was told he was an Intermediate eventer and that he would be fine with JRNs. He was a complete sweety but as I later found out he had no confidence when SJ. It took a while to work this out as when I started riding him I was jumping no more than 90cm then slowly going up. It came to a head when I was doing a 110cm working hunter in the rain. Got round to the last fence and he just said no. Then it went down hill from there. Some days he wouldn't jump 2'6 and I fell off him more times in one year than I have done in my life. I would be going in to 3'6 spreads not knowing if I woud be the only one to get to the other side. I was offered him for another year but I decided enough was enough when my sister took him to a pony club ODE round a BE Novice track. She was the only person to have a clear round XC inside the time (on both her horses) but then he dumped her on the 2nd last SJ. I had tried so hard but realised that I couldn't have him any longer as I was losing so much confidence. I often wonder what he is doing now as he was such a lovely little horse.
 
rambo I am so sorry to hear about this. It is so frustrating! I had a pony like this, if had a break he was a little sh1t for the first few shows and then would be fine again once he got back into the swing of things, maybe it is something similiar?
I was up there yesterday and I looked out for you but couldn't see any chestnuts at all! Did you go past the tea van at all??
 
Hiya...Yes, we went past the tea van regularly...and stopped by it a few times for refreshments ! Difficult not to really lol!

We arrived at 12:00, and left around 15:45
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There were several chestnuts there too
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What were you riding and in which classes ?
 
As Boss has said, the fact that there is no rhyme or reason to it is what makes it incredbly difficult to tackle - hence why he has had absolutely nothing to think about for a couple of months but stress free schooling, hacking a his trip out hunting - fingers crossed this will have assisted in re-aligning his brain somewhat towards pressured environments (although he does do it at home, will send you a vid and you can tell me if it looks familiar to what Bo does) and when we start going out he will be so thrilled wth being out again that any thoughts of being a pig will have disappeared
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Lol! We probably passed each other by without realising it !? I don't think we actually got the horses out until about 1:30pm though...maybe even later than that
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The Disco had only just started at 12 so we didn't need to rush
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OH no!!!!!!!!
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poor you!! no wonder you're gutted
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i dont know what to say really than i hope he's ok and its nothing serious

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Has he had an MOT recently? Not to be the profit of doom but D started doing this right before he went lame. I hope you find out what it is.

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have to say that is very similar to what Fiddler did before he was off for 6months
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really really hope he was only having an off day - fingers crossed for you
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Oh no! I know exactly what you are going through.My pony started the exact same thing out of the blue somw years ago. She was a 14hh 6yo chestnut mare. One day we were hacking out approx 6miles daily, then the next se refused to walk 100m from the yard. I had her kept at home - 200m from the nearest EC and had free use of the indoor, turnout paddocks and cross country course, and sometimes left her there overnight. She had no qualms about hacking between home and the EC but refused to go 100m past either entrance alone. She had had a few bad experiences on the road in the previous six months - a post van drove over her hoof on the verge outside my front gate, we both got hit by a bus when i was leading her down the road to her field and a car transporter braked hard when next to her and she reared up and got loose. However with some reasuurance and initially some company she got over her worry and was hacking out perfectly alne and in company for ~6wks.
Then one day we worked in the indoor and i went to walk her up the road to cool off and she refused to go past a road sign which she had passed easily the day before. At first it was planting the feet, then spinning and dancing sideways, then i managed to get her another 5oft down the road then we waited 20mins+ hoping that shed get bred and give in- didnt happen. So i got a few of the boys that worked at the yard to help, they tried riding her as well, and leading her. Only use of the lunge whip worked - not touching her mind just following. So she walked perfectly up and back a few times.
Got her checked out, back, bloods, teeth tack - everything. Nothing showd up. We were showjumping a fair bit at the time - it was May after foot and mouth restrictions had been lifted and we had just started back competing. At firt we were competing at 1m05 (CDlevel) as we had moved up a grade at the end of the previous season. Then after a few weeks we attempted our first RDS Qualifier. This was our first attempt at 1m2 classes (really was probably a bad time for a test run as Qualifiers are very strong courses and this particular course was not a lot smaller than the grade As) and this was the first time she exhibited nappiness at shows. She was jumping clear until she passed the pocket going to the 2nd last fence, she slowed down to a walk and under immense pressure, i managed to get er going forwards again without stopping dead or rearing or anything. We cleared the 2nd last and the treble but got 2 time faults for the nappiness (2 people with 1 time fault qualified!) so were placed 1 outside the 8(?) to qualify. I put it down to my nerves and especially when the following day we won our first ABC (at the time thse were 1m20 classes - not sure if thy still are) I thought it was a one off.
But things got very much worse. My pony was banned from some SJAI venues buts still managed to get some very good results at the venues we did compete at. I ended up avoiding SJAI for the rest of the outdoor season after some very embarrassing days just like yours where pony refused to enter the ring (we used to have to get permission to enter on foot and mount in the arena) and then would stop mid canter 5 or more strides from a jump, oftne just refusing to go to one end of he ring completely.
My friend had similar problems with her the following year, having a record for 14 " falls" in the first round of an ABC before passing the start, then jumping a clear, having a further 7 "falls" in the a=ring (follwed by a warning from the judges that one more rear and she would be bannd from the venue) before the jump off before posting the fastest time with 1 fence down for third place beating the subsequent RDS Champion. We really had our ups and our downs, but eventually managed to beat it through perseverence and patience.
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I did make an effort to get out and do things she found fun such as hutning and her favourit - hunter trials, as well as competing dressage on a ticket - whcih she won.
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Best of luck with your guy, I really hope its just a once off and you dont have to go through what i did.

Edited to say: sorry for hijacking your post - i didnt mean to make this so long!
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Is this something chestnut geldings do?? Antifaz does on occasion but is much better than he used to be. His background is rather different (I would imagine) than your boys as he was jumped rather hard in his youth, fired at jumps and beaten regularly and soundly so when things weren't going his way (wrong stride/difficult or tight turn/going left!) he would throw all his toys out of the pram. Sorry I've got no advice to offer, but hope you find the cause!!
 
Aww Rambo i'm so gutted for you
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he NEVER naps at home the way he was in the ring. At home, the stops have been just that, and caused by bad strides combined with a lack of confidence.

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This sentance says it all to me though, if he is lacking confidence jumping at home wherther it is off of a wrong stride or not (when really i feel he should at least give it a go even if it is seen as he is capable of jumping a 1.30 course) then a whole ring of jumps is really gonna blow his mind.

If he was mine then i would take him right back to basics, starting with trotting poles etc. I think your gonna have to build him back up really slowly as in months not weeks. And then when you feel he is confident enough jumping up to 3ft at home without any stopping then i would start taking him out to some trailblazers or clear rounds.

Also in the meantime i would try to keep things fun and do a lot of varity with him if you can with lots of hacking, jumping small logs in the woods, sponsered rides etc.

I know you say you brought him back into work slowly but maybe it wasn't slow enough for him to 'forget' that it hurts if you know what i mean.

You know Bo better than anyone though so good luck with him, i'm sure you will get to the bottom of it x
 
Thanks Kelly
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I think we're going to take him for a couple of rounds of CR at GC on sunday and see where we go from there. The more i think about it, the more I think he was taking the p155. I guess we'll know more on monday though
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Sorry to hear about that Rambo. Charm's the same and I had to go right back to 2ft 6 classes to build her confidence up. It's something about indoor jumping she doesn't really like.
Working our way back up. We only get mini naps now.
Don't get anything at Brooms when we jump outdoors
 
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