Hacking fun!!

[Sags_Deer]

Any ideas on how to calm my horse, he just loves hacking v good with traffic but spooks (dont mind that bit), but go to canter up fields he just leaps in the air, and if i meet other horses even if im hacking with a friend, he just gets beside himself. Ive tried him on equine america calmer not had much effect yet. I was glad to get home in one piece yesterday i can tell you, not scared of him but he was just full of it and not good when things such as cars on the road!!! please dont say just school my horse cos i think hacking is important. He is on simple systems feed so no sugar corn etc in his diet.

 

[AmyMay]

How much grub is he getting??

 

[Sags_Deer]

not v much i can tell you.

 

[NeilM]

As far as other horses are concerned, I have a little experience here. I ride a young New Forest, who has, in the past, lived in a riding school, but for the past couple of years (prior to us buying him) seems to have been a little starved of company.

When I first started hacking him out, at the first sign of any other horse (apart from our other NF), he would just stop and stare until the other horse passed by. If the horse(s) were seen on another path, he would get excited and try to get to them, not madly, but if I wanted to turn right and they had gone left, he would need some persuasion.

In the end, two things have cured him, one, and this caused a big step forward, was when he was generally messing about because of a man, his(small) dog and a lady on a horse. All of them were coming up a wide track towards us, and H just would not move. I dismounted and walked him past all three, telling him what a nelly he was being. This of course dented his pride a little, the indignity of being led past another horse was not good for his ego. The second part has been to hack him in an area where we come across other riders, both alone and in groups fairly frequently. Sometimes we will stop for a chat and sometimes we just pass, are overtaken or overtake.

He now has no problems around other horses, and the whole process only took a couple of weekend rides.

He is still keen to catch up with strangers and this can be used to my advantage in getting him motivated to overcome some of his other little issues, but I am always in control and to be fair he is much calmer about the whole situation, so it never gets silly.