Difficult decision

Slave2Magic

Slave2Magic

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My mare has always been a touch temperamental. In the last few weeks she has discovered a new evasion tactic. If I ask her to canter she refuses to go forward and bucks. She has had saddle, teeth and back checked. All fine. She canters on the lunge with no problems. I am really loosing confidence in riding her. I haven't come off her but its so hard knowing I have had this horse for 5 years and she doesn't seem to enjoy being ridden. I am considering selling her. She has good breeding and I would be totally honest about her quirks. I know there are people who could ride her through it and I know there are some that will say she must be in pain somewhere but I genuinely beleive that she is just evading work. Thoughts please or suggestions welcome.
 
Could you get someone else to get on her first and ride her through it a bit and then you get on and be firm? my gelding is a bit like this (altho not as extreme) - just need to kind of ignore him and carry on. Obviously this is easier said than done if you are having some confidence probs. good luck.
 
Agree with Maletto my horse does the same but I just ignore him. However once you are even a little bit scared of them they have got you and a vicious circle starts!!!! Get someone proffessional to ride it for a while they can ride the horse through it also they can teach you how to ride through it!!!!
 
Slave2Magic said:
My mare has always been a touch temperamental. In the last few weeks she has discovered a new evasion tactic. If I ask her to canter she refuses to go forward and bucks. She has had saddle, teeth and back checked. All fine. She canters on the lunge with no problems. I am really loosing confidence in riding her. I haven't come off her but its so hard knowing I have had this horse for 5 years and she doesn't seem to enjoy being ridden. I am considering selling her. She has good breeding and I would be totally honest about her quirks. I know there are people who could ride her through it and I know there are some that will say she must be in pain somewhere but I genuinely beleive that she is just evading work. Thoughts please or suggestions welcome.
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I have had canter issues with my lad for the last 2 yrs :( He refused to canter unless it was disunited(little sod had learnt i couldnt sit to it and ride him through it,and gave up thinking he had some issues with back/spine etc)!
Friend lunged him this year with me on him after i through the towel in and was going to have him thoroughly examined(should have done it sooner but believed i could ride him through it)...did this on a few occasions and low and behold he could do it off the lunge!Have been building him up and he is going amazingly now!If he gets upset he will revert but i drop back to trot let him settle,then ask again,and he gets it right!Hasnt done his party trick in a long time now :)
Dont know if you will get any ideas from above,but good luck and i hope you solve her problem,which sounds very much like evasion!
 
Thanks guys. I'm starting to think I'm going mad. She doesn't disunite in canter. She is actually very balanced which makes the situation even more hard to understand. I haven't tried cantering on a hack as we only have road hacking. I used to canter her on the gallops but haven't even done that lately as I don't want her ditching me and buggering off! When I came back from the yard earlier I felt so down about it but have regained a bit of determination this evening.
 
My last horse was fine cantering on the left rein, but as soon as we cantered on the right rein he bucked non stop. All things teeth, saddle and back e.t.c. were all fine.

So after finding out the monkey was fine we started the training. I worked through it by working on a 20 metre circle and asking for walk and leg yield in the walk on a 10 metre then yielding to a 20 metre, once on the 20 metre as for canter. If the monkey bucked I pushed him through it then once bucking stopped brought back to walk. Then repeated the cycle.

If you can, it is best to push through the bucks by riding them forwards, once they stop bucking (they cant maintain it for long if you stay on board) then reward by bringing back to walk.

Good luck. I know what a nightmare it is and how many times I just wanted to get off and let someone else sort it. But in the end, my horse was fab and was a very sucessful show horse! Took about a month to sort out and never ever had anymore bucking.
 
How horrible for you. Have you tried getting a teacher to help you through it? I hadn't jumped my mare in years as she had developed the habit of stopping before every fence then bombing at it the second time, but within half an hour of having someone on the ground telling me what to do she was jumping perfectly again. Sometimes it can really help having someone there who's objective and who won't let you give in to your nerves...

Hope you sort it - do keep us updated.
 
When my gelding started doing this, he was suffering from front feet pain, hock pain and subsequently sacroiliac pain. I'd get a good vet to have a check as well.
 
Had an idea last night and now have one outsmarted mare:) When I schooled her this afternoon I put 2 poles on the ground and trotted her over them. I know that she generally goes into canter after the poles and she did! Repeated it a few times and then kept her cantering round the arena. We will continue with the poles until she will canter without them being there. Here's hoping it works.
 
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