Hacking Alone, Young horse, help??

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amanda1788

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Hi
I have a young 4 yr old (5 in june) cob gelding. He is a bot green and am working with him in the school, he is fine to hack with other horses, but I am having problems with hacking him on his own.
When walking up to the gate he will start napping, not badly just shaking his head about and trying to turn, so I make him go forward then when out he will go for a while then start napping again but worse, he will rush backwards try and spin round and shake his head, when i try and make him he has bucked, and I can feel that if i keep pushing him he will chuck me off and run back home (as he has done this before but ran to some other horses) I know he's only doing it because he's a baby and he needs me to be confident to give him confidence, but when he starts doing this it makes me really nervous, which only makes the situation worse, so last time i just got off and walke dhim round the track, which i know i shouldnt have done. But what I want to ask was what am i meant to do when he does this, do i just push him on give him tap with whip and hope if he does anything i stay on? As I just don;t know what i'm meant to do? As I am willing to work with him and spend time doing it, but want to make sure i'm doing the right thing. Thanks sorry about long post.
xx
 
I know it can be pretty scary when your on your own and young horses can be so unpredictable. Maybe you should try him out on his own but with someone with you on foot? This will give your horse a bit of confidence as well as yourself. When your horse is going ok like this then see if someone can let you go on your own but they just follow way back and keep an eye of you incase you have a problem. If you go out on your own take a phone! You have done well to get your horse this far! Keep up the good work, keep at it. If you get really nervous see if someone else will take him out for you.
 
It may help if you long rein him (driven method) firstly in the school (use a driving whip, lunge whip or long schooling whip to tap him forwards) then out the gates.
You can't fall off if you are on the ground, and he'll get used to the idea of going forwards with you controlling him from behind.
If things go well, you could remove the long lines when on the furthest point of the hack, then hack him home. Gradually get on earlier and earlier in the hack (assuming you have banks etc to help you up), til he gets used to it.
You have my sympathy - it's so difficult to teach youngsters that there aren't scary monsters without an older horse as a lead file.
Good luck with him.
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My horse used to do exactly the same when I first got him, and like yourself I used to get pretty worried as I wasn't sure what he would do and got off to lead him a few times which is a big no no. All I can say is you need to get him out of this habit ASAP! It may be a good idea to get someone else on him, maybe your instructor or someone? You need to be really firm with these horses and stop them napping before they've even had time to think about it. If it carries on it can get out of hand - mine started doing it in the school/ring for a while too until I started being really firm, using my legs strongly to push him on plus a quick tap with the whip. He would buck in retaliation and it took a long time to overcome, but he did eventually stop napping. Sometimes it took a LOT of patience as he was quite happy to stand in the middle of the road and refuse to move in any direction apart from towards home. But you just have to persist, or get someone more experienced on him.

Whatever you do with your aids, you need to really mean it, they can sense if you're apprehensive.
 
I am sure there will be a dozen different replies/approaches from different people, but if I was in your position I would prefer to work around it than go into a major confrontation. In the end I find this the best approach with most horsey problems! The fact that he is good to hack with other horses makes me think its insecurity. The danger of smacking him for 'napping' is that it could reinforce the fact that hacking on his own is scary and is going to hurt! (Also you might not win!)

Three suggestions: Is there perhaps someone who could come with you on foot a couple of times? This could give him enough confidence, plus they could lead him forward if he suddenly gets panicy.

Alternatively could you long rein him around the roads for a while

Finally, one tactic I have used is to meet someone half way round the ride (I am lucky that various friends I ride with live locally so I can hack up to their house and then go for a ride. This means there is a reward for him in that he meets a comforting other horse. If you do that a few times eventually you can do a ride without meeting them because he will be expecting them around every corner!
 
We had a similar problem with a young one of ours (4 years old) as all he'd done was hack out with others and plodded behind. He would not go infront on a hack but we eventually persuaded him to. It's all down to lack of confidence and they need reassurance. Have you tried hacking him out with other horses or just one horse but made him lead? Also maybe then start allowing the distance between the two increase so, although there is another horse there to assist, if yours bottles out at something it'll will help yours just get that bit braver and used to having to see 'the big bad world' first.

I think our horse had got so used to just seeing the horse in front's backside the reality of what was really out there shocked the hell out of him. He's still not 100% as he's not been worked much recently and I know i will have a few arguments taking him out by himself over the next couple of weeks but he's not a bad horse he just lacks confidence (even though he acts all the big I am in the field etc!). I think the difficulty is trying to not be nervous as they'll pick up on that and think YOU'RE worried about going out and if you are worried then there must be something REALLY scary out there!

Persevere and I think in time you'll have forgotten he was ever like this!
 
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Is there perhaps someone who could come with you on foot a couple of times? This could give him enough confidence, plus they could lead him forward if he suddenly gets panicy.

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We are doing this with my horse at the mo - she is very green and my friend comes out for a run with us on foot to give her some security.

Attempted our first hack out the other day just around the block on our own and she was very brave!!! I think we are getting there - slowly!!
 
I bought a 4yo (5 end of May) a couple of months ago. I havnt started hacking her alone yet, but she is bril in company, I make her go in front a lot of the time, but I know she isnt ready yet to go it alone yet. My plan is to hack her out as much as I can (when the weather is better) in company making her go in front all of the time, then her first hack on her own will be with my partner on foot, just in case. I will try and pick a nice quiet day and hope all goes well. Maybe you just need to build up your young horses confidence a bit more first. Once he has learnt to nap it is a difficult habit to break, perhaps best to go back to hacking with others and make him go in front for a while and then have another go when you feel he is more confident.
 
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