Hacking advice

[Maz55]

Hi I'm looking for some advice. My mare is super to hack in company provided she's in front. If the horse with me gets too far in front or turns away she panics and rushes to catch up. On her own she's fine heading away from home but rushes as soon as I turn for home and if I try to slow her down/half halt she gets very uptight (cantering on spot). Any advice please? Thanks

 

[TheHairyOne]

2 seperate things to deal with steming from the same thing which is a bit of insecurity imo.

My last horse who rushed home i spent a while turning back round to go back out if he rushed. I was also lucky enough to have a 1/2 hour figure of 8 route so could ride past the yard and keep going. It was luckily offroad and I only did it when I had time as it resulted in some spectacular napping. It did however work and he is now a fablous hack.

The in company thing i find a bit harder as what you need is a really good hacking buddy on a really good horse. Beg borrow and steal one of them and practice, practice, practice. Start by being upside, then try and slow just a little bit to let the other horse be half a horsr infront. Then go back to upsides if she gets tense, rinse, repeat until you can go at the back. Ive not solved the not liking other horses going out of sight in front with my boy, but he is perfectly happy to be the one leaving, so i can turn away so i dont get any stupidity. Which is good as his protests can be very interesting! Good luck.

 

[Maz55]

Thank you. I'll try that. Like yours she's fine leaving just not being left lol. She will reluctantly walk behind with her nose up the other horses tail but panics if other horse more than a metre in front! If the horse disappears she takes off to catch up and I have little say in the matter. I'd have to walk in the other direction so she thinks she's the one leaving. This stops the initial panic but not helpful having the extra distance if I then need to join other horse! Hopefully though that situation won't arise too often!!

 

[meesha]

Group lessons have helped mine, you are in an enclosed area when asking horse to be independent from others, mine still likes to try to catch up with one in front if all doing same exercise together but is 500% better than he was. He also used to hack with nose in bum of one in front and would panic if others went out of site round a corner, just keep persevering ... He needs o understand that if a horse goes away he will be fine. Xc in a group is also helpful.