Does my horse have performance anxiety?

TheChestnutThing

TheChestnutThing

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I have a 5 year old KWPN gelding that i have had endless issues with.
He was bought and bred to jump.
He doesnt have a great temperment on the ground and can be lazy and defiant under saddle.
After numerous issues with being a bit on the very lazy side which we fixed, he started not wanting to jump. Turned out he needed a new saddle...again. We sorted that.
He pops 1.20m in a grid and individual fences no issues. He pops mainly around 90/1m at home and is competing 90cm.
He is well behaved at shows.

Then he started to say no at shows. I couldn't get him over the first fence.
So I passed him to a professional. He would jump everythibg in warm up and still say no in the arena.
He literally canters to a stop if that makes sense.
We took shows out the equation. Bought ANOTHER new saddle and went back to basics. New trainer.
Horse is going beautifully at home. Popping around no questions asked.

So I enter him in a show. 3 months after the last disaster.
The show was at our yard as I am lucky enough to stable at a registered venue. The same arena he sees every day and is schooled in. The same jumps.
He is tanky and strong so I take him for a hack and then 6 riders to go before me I pop him over the warm up cross. Its set at 60cm. He says no. So I smack him and he cat leaps over it a few times.
Cat leaps the 90cm vertical. I didn't even bother with the oxer. I canter straight into arena and he won't tke contact but is moving. And then slows down, so I add leg. He ignores. He gets a smack. He ignores. He slows down even more through the start and canters to a stop. I make a second attempt and realise he is going to give me the same answer so I retire.

Has anyone else had issues like this?

My instuctor is probably in the top 5 in our country and an ex grand prix and derby rider and his son is a grand pric rider.
He told me to sell as I came out the arena.

For 18 months I have been working with the horse and its been 1 step forward 7 steps back. And just when we were getting somewhere he starts acting up again.

He was FULLY revetted (5 stage X rays and bloods) 2 months ago and is not sore. Saddle and tack fits. Teeth were done 2 months ago. Physio didn't need to treat anything when she was here last week.

How can I help him?
Does he have performance anxiety?
Or does he simply not give a continental?

To add: I myself am an open show jumper who decided that I needed a new project horse (aka the one in question).
 
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He could be anxious which causes him to shut down, become tense and then stop, then he gets smacked which he then ignores by shutting down further so now he switches off before he even gets going, if he does not jump a practice jump well there is no point in compounding the issue by entering the ring, a stressed shut down horse will never go in and change how it goes so you are best pulling out if they have given such a poor show over the jumps in the warm up.

Have you tried giving him a real break from jumping, he is obviously talented enough but if he is not enjoying it you cannot force him to be interested, either find him a new home where he does not get put under pressure to be a jumping horse or take a step back for a few months and let him have fun hacking, flatwork and small fun jumping sessions that are well within his comfort zone and when you do go to another competition do just a few warm up fences give him a pat and take him home, teach him that he will not be pressurised or punished and see if he can start to enjoy life again, I suspect he may have a physical issue that has not been found or he was pushed to quickly and learnt how to shut down, someone I used to help called it "defending themselves" which I think is a good description of what your horse seems to be doing.
 
To add: I don't want to force him to do anything he doesn't. IE I know he is bred to jump but it doesn't mean he wants to. However if he is schoolinf happily round at home and shows are the issue even if the show is at home.....am at my wits end....
Tomorrow I have asked a friend who jumped the 1.40m and 3 Star eventing in the UK before moving to SA to see if she can nurse him around the course. My instructor just said he won't do it. He doesn't have the right attitude. Sell.

I love jumping. But every single time he does this it makes me that little bit more frustrated and that little bit more angry and the horse doesn't seem to care. He is almost pleased with himself.
 
be positive said:
He could be anxious which causes him to shut down, become tense and then stop, then he gets smacked which he then ignores by shutting down further so now he switches off before he even gets going, if he does not jump a practice jump well there is no point in compounding the issue by entering the ring, a stressed shut down horse will never go in and change how it goes so you are best pulling out if they have given such a poor show over the jumps in the warm up.

Have you tried giving him a real break from jumping, he is obviously talented enough but if he is not enjoying it you cannot force him to be interested, either find him a new home where he does not get put under pressure to be a jumping horse or take a step back for a few months and let him have fun hacking, flatwork and small fun jumping sessions that are well within his comfort zone and when you do go to another competition do just a few warm up fences give him a pat and take him home, teach him that he will not be pressurised or punished and see if he can start to enjoy life again, I suspect he may have a physical issue that has not been found or he was pushed to quickly and learnt how to shut down, someone I used to help called it "defending themselves" which I think is a good description of what your horse seems to be doing.
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He has has 2 breaks....one of spelling when i realised he just didn't have the correct mind at his age so I chucked him out for 3 months and before we got going again for this round when literally all I did for 3 weeks was hack bareback and let him do what he wanted. Then started hacking in a saddle and asking him for things and he was pulling me into XC fences out on hacks. So brought him back into the arena but only after I had hacked first and then 10 to 20 mins of polo pony schooling so to speak as advised by my intructor between lessons so he never thought he was working or got bored. And popping tiny crosses etc. Then building it up in lessons.
 
But you are right... he does shut down so to speak in the ring. That is a very accurate description. He is like that kid whose mom keeps calling him and he throws a complete deaf ear.

I can assure you that there is nothing physical wrong. If there was he would be acting the same way all the time and not just at shows.
 
TheChestnutThing said:
But you are right... he does shut down so to speak in the ring. That is a very accurate description. He is like that kid whose mom keeps calling him and he throws a complete deaf ear.

I can assure you that there is nothing physical wrong. If there was he would be acting the same way all the time and not just at shows.
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There is a reason he shuts down, it may not be physical in the true sense but it is in that he becomes tense so something hurts, not necessarily the pain of an injury but the pain of him holding himself and being shut down, just like a child who expects a slap for being cheeky will flinch even if they have never actually felt contact from mums hand the threat is enough.

I do think some, probably many, horses don't enjoy the work that they should be more than capable of and that it is best to find them another job, I have always had more than one so if something bought to do a job didn't prove to be any good at it then I have been able to move on to something else with them or sell, I had one talented jumper who just didn't cope with too much pressure, on a good day he would win, on a bad he was eliminated and there was not much in between.
 
You've been told repeatedly by the horse and by several professionals to give up trying to jump him.

I agree with them all.

I don't think you can necessarily rule out a physical problem. I had one just like him. A KWPN by a GP showjumper who I bought to event. He would sometimes jump one perfect round and refuse to jump at all twenty minutes later. He would school beautifully at a venue and then two days later refuse to jump a single one of the fences he had been doing two days earlier. He hunted well up to a metre, but I gave up jumping and did dressage with him. At ten, he went ataxic suddenly and neck x rays showed he was born a wobbler.

When your horse competes he has to deal with other horses in the warm up, leaving the others in the collecting ring, and any tension you have when you are being judged by spectators or competing. Something in that lot tips him over the edge. Reading your post, I can't really understand why you are still trying to make him.

I'm sorry not to be more helpful, but I've been there.
 
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Sounds like he does just find it stressful and can't get passed it. The atmosphere and routine of a show is setting off an anxiety about what he might be asked to do (probably not the best way of describing but hopefully you get my drift). So if you want to continue with him you'll need to come up with a way to unfry his brain and build it back up in iddy biddy steps. So maybe some xc with other horses, just letting him follow, arena hire where you just do a couple of jumps on the first few trips, gradually building up to full courses, going to show but not going into the ring, clear rounds where you just go in jump one fence and leave.

You may of course have already tried many of these things, and/or knowing your horse think that they are unlikely to work. In which case then retraining for another discipline and selling is probably a the best thing to do. I have a horse who doesn't really do showjumps, but he's never had a problem with xc (loves it in fact) so I've kept plugging away at the showjumping in dribs and drabs, and I can now take him to most environments and he will stay calm, confident and forward to the fences at 80-90cm. I don't know how much it will affect him if I try to step up in height, but I don't really need him to be a showjumper so it doesn't matter too much.

All the best with whatever you decide
 
My friend (ex GP and 3 *) jumped him today at the show. He tried his luck with her at vertical in warm up so she smacked. He jumped it beautifully afterwards. Coming into oxer in warm up he stopped dirty. She gave him a hiding. He popped it nicely and went into the ring. Gave her an almost stop at jump one. Smacked. He then pinged the rest of ther course including the joker like it was caveletti.

Not sure what this means for me though now.
 
IMO there's no point in forcing horses to do jobs they hate .
I have a driving horse here boy did he loath being driven his stress levels in competition where off the scale .
After a season of training he had a break and when he came back in the spring he was back to the madness we started with I decided life was to short and broke him to ride a short attempt was made to do dressage and we hit the same issue .
He then turned to hunting and that was his thing .
Just because a horse is bred and physically suitable for a job does not mean it wants to do the job .
 
TheChestnutThing said:
My friend (ex GP and 3 *) jumped him today at the show. He tried his luck with her at vertical in warm up so she smacked. He jumped it beautifully afterwards. Coming into oxer in warm up he stopped dirty. She gave him a hiding. He popped it nicely and went into the ring. Gave her an almost stop at jump one. Smacked. He then pinged the rest of ther course including the joker like it was caveletti.

Not sure what this means for me though now.
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It means you are allowing your horse to be beaten into doing something that he has tried hard to tell you he does not like :(
 
15 years ago I took over the ride on a grade B showjumper who had been 'retired' at the grand old age of 10. He was sold for a song to a friend of mine because he just didn't want to jump any longer. Stunning trakehner, built to jump and as far as we were aware no physical issues.

He had got so bad that if you took him into the school and someone had left a little fence up he would be drenched in sweat and wouldn't take his eyes off the fence. Some people thought that was because he was excited to be going jumping, but personally I thought it was anxiety. Once he realised that life was more hacking than jumping then he chilled out. [he's still going strong btw!]

Tbh - if jumping is what you want to do, then I don't think this is the horse for it. There's no shame in selling on a horse that isn't right for its job and there will be a home out there that's just right for him.
 
It's heartbreaking when they have so much talent but can't do the job either because of physical or mental problems.
He is shouting loud and clear he's not happy jumping, why beat him round when you could be having fun with something that enjoys the job and he could be having fun doing some other job.
 
It sounds like he's raising the stakes i.e. Slowly grinding to a halt wasn't giving you the message so now he's tried a dirty stop. That didn't work for him this time so what is he going to have to do to get you to listen? How much of a beating will you have to give him next time?

It sounds like you want to jump and he's doesn't so sell and get something that is more compatible
 
catroo said:
It sounds like he's raising the stakes i.e. Slowly grinding to a halt wasn't giving you the message so now he's tried a dirty stop. That didn't work for him this time so what is he going to have to do to get you to listen? How much of a beating will you have to give him next time?

It sounds like you want to jump and he's doesn't so sell and get something that is more compatible
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This. Keeping upping the anti with him will not work long term. This does not sound like a horse who is green and unsure, he sounds like a horse who is, quite emphatically, saying no.

What does it mean for you? Well, you now have a horse that you have to hit and chase round a course of jumps. That doesn't sound like much fun to me.
 
Thank you everyone.

Due to the fact that people will decide to try and jump him, i have decided to full lease him to a dressage/hack or showing home. That way I can then keep an eye on him and make sure that he is not forced to jump or put in any situation where someone says but he is bred to do this....

It leaves me limited as to what I can then "replace" him with as i would ideally need the cash from the sale but his welfare is first and foremost to me especially after what happened to a previous horse I sold on.
 
TheChestnutThing said:
Thank you everyone.

Due to the fact that people will decide to try and jump him, i have decided to full lease him to a dressage/hack or showing home. That way I can then keep an eye on him and make sure that he is not forced to jump or put in any situation where someone says but he is bred to do this....

It leaves me limited as to what I can then "replace" him with as i would ideally need the cash from the sale but his welfare is first and foremost to me especially after what happened to a previous horse I sold on.
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You are a very good person.
 
Great solution for your horse :) good luck finding a new ride - handy jumpers can often turn up in the strangest of places, so you may find something fun without having to break the bank
 
TheChestnutThing said:
Thank you everyone.

Due to the fact that people will decide to try and jump him, i have decided to full lease him to a dressage/hack or showing home. That way I can then keep an eye on him and make sure that he is not forced to jump or put in any situation where someone says but he is bred to do this....

It leaves me limited as to what I can then "replace" him with as i would ideally need the cash from the sale but his welfare is first and foremost to me especially after what happened to a previous horse I sold on.
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Where's the like button! Hope you find him a lovely home and a new buddy for yourself.
 
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