Feel like giving up.

frazzled

frazzled

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We have been having problems with our superstar pony recently. Up until camp this year my daughter and this pony had been flying together. Well placed at pretty much everything they did and having loads of fun. He then had a couple of weeks off and since then disaster after disaster culminating in her coming off twice today at team showjumping.
He has had his teeth checked, his saddle checked, his back checked.Everything fine. He is very fit and well. He has also started to buck a little bit. He is still usually very well behaved when we go to lessons but is worse when at rallies and competitions.
She is outgrowing him and is quite top heavy on him but by no means far to big.
Nothing in his diet or routine has changed apart from recently being stable bound because of the weather but the problems preceded this.
My next move is to get the vet out and just get him completely checked out just in case there is an underlying physical cause that we haven't found yet.
We have tried giving him a break from jumping and do not over jump him at home. He does a whole variety of activities and hacking.
Any suggestions about other things we could try would be much appreciated.
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Is there someone experienced you know that you could ask to ride him, and see if he does the same with them?
Failing that, hire an experienced instructor for an hour to the same end - is it a problem with everyone or just your daughter. That would be a good start I think.
 
If you don't think it's anything physical I, personally, would give him a month or two off, bring him back into work slowly after that time and then reassess...but that's just my opinion.
 
My mate has a pony that cannot have time off, even if it's 2 weeks off - he behaves like a complete idiot for about 3 months after. They just keep him in work all the time. Agree as above - get him checked physically & then have someone experienced ride him and see what they think
 
^Normally I would say 'time off' in something like this but it sounds ike the couple of weeks off have made him feel like working properly is too exciting so I'd try and leave a 'good' memory in his mind before turning him away.

I think I'd get a fierce professional to ride him a few times and remind him of his place, then turn him away for a couple of months, then bring him back and if neccessary, get a prof to school him the first few rides when he comes back into work.
 
Forgot to say that he went to our PC instructor for a week where he was well behaved but did do the bucking thing. She did not jump him so will try getting someone experienced to try that with him. Thankyou for the suggestion.
 
I would ask the vet to consider ulcers. Maybe try an antacid in the run up to the vet check and see if there is a change in behaviour. If there is a change you can then ask the vet to scope for ulcers.

http://www.feedmark.com/Product.asp?Product=Settelex
This is a good one.

The other thing is if the pony is 1/10 lame you might not notice and your daughter would not be aware enough to know. I know that when my horse was 1/10 lame he changed completely and his jumping disintegrated yet to the causal observer he was fine. I only realised something was not right as he was heavy in one rein and he was the most even horse ever. In the end he was diagnosed with spavins.
 
Sorry to hear you are having a few problems. Why did he have the two weeks off initially? Was it just to give him a break after camp or was there another reason? How did she come off in the jumping? Through bucking or last minute stops? If stopping is the problem, and you say he is not doing in at home or in lessons, but mainly at competitions, could your daughter be getting tense/worried at things going wrong in public and getting into a Catch 22 situation? So had one bad experience at a competition, then going to the next one worrying that things are going to go wrong and the pony picking up on her nerves?
 
He had the two weeks off because he had done a lot of competing followed by area eventing ( at which they were well placed) then camp literally the next day. We went away and I felt a break was only fair to him.
I think she is now begining to get a bit tense because things have been going wrong and up until then he had been pretty much perfect. A chicken and egg scenario!!!!
She came off today because of the stopping.
I think she is also getting anxious because she knows her time with him is limited because she is growing so much. She loves this pony dearly and moving up is going to be very difficult.
Both of us are feeling a bit demoralised at the moment but not really going to give up! Just want to sort things out.
 
Could it be he's leg weary, from the sounds of it he's had a very busy time and nobody or pony can be perfect everytime. Sounds more like you want to sell said pony on for a lot of money as from what you've said he's worth it, but not if he's putting in stops. If your daughter is getting tense riding him put her on something else for awhile.
 
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Could it be he's leg weary, from the sounds of it he's had a very busy time and nobody or pony can be perfect everytime. Sounds more like you want to sell said pony on for a lot of money as from what you've said he's worth it, but not if he's putting in stops. If your daughter is getting tense riding him put her on something else for awhile.

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He had a busy summer and then was rested and has not been that busy since then. Maybe one competition a month if that and fun kids pony stuff the rest of the time. I do not want to sell this pony because we are both very attached to him however my daughter is growing out of him. I will only move him on to the right person so no I do not want to sell him to someone for" lots of money''. Please don't make assumptions about people. At no point did I even say I was selling him.
Yes, when he is on form he is worth his weight in gold .
I just want to try and work out why he behaving in such an out of character way. I know no pony is perfect all the time, I am not stupid. I feel I owe it to him as he has been so good to us. We do not have the luxury of just putting her on something else , he is our only pony and his welfare is of paramount importance to me.
 
My loan pony started doing the same recently - he is an ex affliated jumping pony and after years of going out winning every weekend started stopping and refusing to jump with his owner (not every time out - just sometimes)

I took him on this year and during the summer he has done the same with me 4 or 5 times - most recently twice in two weeks, both times I fell off as they were such dirty stops!! He is either fantatsic out at shows (i.e. wins!) or just won't jump at all.

I have concluded that after so much hard work jumping in his past, he has just had enough, and although at times is very willing, I have to be very careful about how much jumping I now do with him! I found if I did lots of jumping practice in the run up to a show, that would switch him off.

I have actually moved him to a different yard for the winter where the hacking is fantastic and we're going to just have the winter doing lots of long hacks and the very occasional show. I'm also going right back to basicis with height (as in doing baby classes) so he feels happy jumping with no pressure at all - and have been advised not to jump at all at home and definately not in the week before a show!

Two weeks ago I took him to a local show and we did the cross poles class!! Its the most relaxed he has ever felt jumping and I really think this will be the key to getting him going nicely again. I even got a special rossette too!! I was also advised to take him out hunting to get him thinking forward again ! There are some mock hunts near me so I may have a go. When we're hacking, we jump any logs etc we can find - and he flies over them so I'm hoping that I'm making jumping fun again for him.

I asked loads of people for advice on my pony - and found that it sounds very very common for ponies to just go 'sour' about jumping and start to stop. Also - once your daughter starts to tense up he is likely to do it more (I know as both my recent falls were quite dramatic - one of them leading to a trip to a&e). I find my pony knows straight away when I'm not 100% about a jump too - and thats when he'll stop. In the summer we did a hunter trial and after walking the course there were three jumps I didn't like the look of - and he stopped at all three of them!!

My pony never stops at home - which is why I didn't think it was pain related. I had all the checks done too - back, saddle, teeth and all were fine.

Good luck - perhaps just give him some time off to chill and then start again right at the beginning little classes again.
 
Thankyou Maxapple , I think that is the approach we are going to take; try and build up their confidence together again. Hope all goes well with you and your pony.
 
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