Hacking woes (and general horse woes).

alicesmith

alicesmith

Active Member
Joined
8 July 2014
Messages
46
Visit site
So bit of background - until December, pony and I were getting on splendidly, schooling well, about to start jumping work again, hacking for up to an hour and a half in company or alone with minimal problems (pony is very spooky). Then mid December, he injured his eye, leading to two and a half months off work. Brought him back into work in the arena fine; however, the horse I have now is almost completely different to the horse I used to have.
While he's never been a confident hacker, we've never had huge issues before, but recently he's found that everything is terrifying and he feels the need to bounce about and snort at the smallest things. The last time I hacked under saddle (which also happened to be the first time since before Xmas), we had a situation where he was wound up by another horse, leading to him doing three huge bunny hops and taking off with me for a couple of hundred meters. Have been long reining him since then to get him used to going out again, and he's generally been fine, but today he was mad. Admittedly, we had a similar situation to before, where he was a little wound up at the start from my friends' horse trotting up and down the fence line, but he went up in the air a bunch of times, span around in circles, and spent half the walk jogging.
I'm a confident rider, but this has knocked me quite a lot - I'm used to having to chivvy him on, not hang on for dear life (in the saddle or on the ground). He's also becoming very bolshy, and I have a natural horsemanship woman coming soon to help me work through that, and will be asking her about the hacking issues, but just wanted to know if anyone has any tips? Has anyone been in a similar situation? Should I keep long-reining him out and riding him in the arena only until I feel he's calmed down? I get that the main problem is he's getting used to going out again, but he's been in and out of work a few times in the two years I've had him (accident prone, typical), and this is a completely new side of him. The only difference in feed etc is that I've put him on a calmer (semi-ironic, but it's for his nerves); nothing else has changed since he was last in work.


TL/DR; Help! Horse has turned into a maniac when out hacking, problem solvers required!
 
I'd take him off the calmer for starters - if it's the only thing that's changed it's worth trying without. Horses don't always read the rule book!
 
The hooligan returned from injury (albeit 2 years) a different horse. He was always a bit spooky and silly, but it became ridiculously extreme. Vets also said he was fit and healthy for the light hacking and work I wanted to do.

It's been a work in progress to build our relationship back up, but we are headed the right way.
 
My horse was a demon to hack after coming back after time off. He was broncing & rearing and planting. My mum has seen a confidence coach recently regarding riding (it really knocked mums confidence to the point she won't hack anymore) & they've discussed the idea that the horse's world becomes really really small when they have time off and don't leave the yard. This is even worse if they weren't the most confident to start with. I think she makes a good point. We're over a year on now and mine hacked for 4 hours today and didn't put a foot wrong. What helped him and may or may not help you was just consistency. He has hacked out basically every week for almost a year on his own. Not always very far but enough to build his confidence and mine. When I'm not around a confident and competent professional takes him. Hope this helps, good luck!
 
Good point about how they can lose confidence after a break - mine was turned away for the winter, but in at night so basically same route evert day from barn to field and back.
I started out by hand walking him just around the barn as a 'longer way back in' and he found the farm machinery (parked up), dogs, chickens etc terrifying - and he's seen more of that type of thing than any horse ever should :D
He's gradually got more confident but I hand walk and then long rein any routes before riding them - unfortunately I don't have any hacking company so he's got to be able to do it on his own.
Just do tiny bite sized pieces each day - if we have a wobble on a ride I will get off him and lead for a bit - and give him (and yourself) loads of praise when it goes well.
The long reining is great - mine had never done it but has been brilliant.
 
j1ffy said:
I'd take him off the calmer for starters - if it's the only thing that's changed it's worth trying without. Horses don't always read the rule book!
Click to expand...

OP, is the calmer a magnesium based one? If the horse isn't deficient in magnesium then a calmer with it in can make them more spooky from what I have read/heard.

If that is not the issue, then I would be getting the vet back out to check his sight.
 
1. Hack him short distances, gradually increasing how long you're out. The trick is to turn around when YOU want, not when the horse starts playing up. And you have to be paying close attention and make that call when the horse is still focused on you.

2. Hack him in company, so he gets reacquainted and confident with being out and about again, but with his mates about for safety and comfort.

3. This is harder: ride as if he isn't going to be a problem. Some of the best advice Mark Rashid gave me and others at a clinic is "ride how you want the horse to behave." In my case, with sticky canter transitions, if I asked for it like I had doubts she was going to canter, she didn't canter, but if I asked for it assuming she'd hop into it easily, she did. Easier said than done when you've got something in your head, of course. But on those short hacks, act like he's going to behave. If he doesn't, try to shrug it off and not make a big deal out of it. Just try to calmly get him back to planet earth and ride on like nothing happened. Difficult when they are leaping about like idiots, but in my experience, effective if you can do it, because you become the calm leader your horse needs and trust builds trust. If you panic because he does, he will think, "I was right to be scared; my rider's freaked out as well. There are scary things!" Horses don't know that humans get scared of falling off them!

This all assumes that there isn't an underlying medical thing.
 
Last edited:
Everyone else has some good advice here, so I don't have too much to add. But my latest thing with my spooky youngster is to sing/talk to him the whole way round! We have some little spooks still, but it does seem to help a bit! Though whether it helps him or me more I don't know :p I sound totally mad to anyone who happens to pass us, but that doesn't bother me too much. It doesn't really matter what you're saying, I usually just either talk about some inane nonsense or "oh look at those other ponies, say hi to the ponies, hi little coloured pony you're cute, oh yep theres a plastic bag in that hedge, terrifying I know, yep there's also some fisherman there, but I can assure you their tents can't move and they're not coming over here so we're all good, ooo the flowers there are pretty, what do you think? which rug shall I put on you when we get back? is it going to rain? oh yep, that was a bin, you do see them all the time..." I think you get the idea :P
 
Thanks everyone!

Took him out again today; intended on long reining but since I couldn't even get within 15 meters of the gate, and then he freaked out at some invisible monster when I lead him through the gate, I just lead him the whole hack, and he was much better. I'm thinking it really is a lack of confidence thing - like many of you pointed out, him being stabled for a month has made his world really small, and even though he's been 'back in work' for about 2 months, he's mostly just been lunged/schooled.

I'm planning on spending the next few weeks hacking in hand only, keeping riding to the arena, so that we can both build confidence back up! Will also be talking to the natural horsemanship woman about her views on the whole thing.

Also, his calmer is completely herbal based, camomile flowers and mint, etc. In some respects it seems to have worked brilliantly!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top