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Reeis

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Hi all,
I have a horse who is very enthusiastic about hacking. She’s good and calm for a couple mins when we first get out and then everything is full speed and jogging. She does this on the way out and on the way home.
I understand she’s happy to be out and then happy to get home, but is there anything I could do to try and encourage her to calm down and make the hack a bit more enjoyable?
I currently just sit and relax within myself to help her relax, I don’t grab onto her face to try to force her to walk, I keep a contact and half halt when she gets fast. I leave her alone when and if she slows down but she speeds up again after a couple steps.
We only really have one way to hack out, so there’s not a way that I can change up the hacking route so she doesn’t know when we’re heading home. We go down the lanes, the other way is a road that’s way to busy to hack on.
Is there anything I can do? Or not? I’ve tried calmers and they don’t really have an effect. Thanks.
 
I used to have a tb mare a bit like this. The only thing that helped was less rein (no contact) and sometimes a longer route. Also as little feed and as much turnout as possible
 
It's also possible that she's jogging because she is nervous or insecure rather than just jolly. So actually being a calm relatively passive passenger might actually not be helpful to her? She might be calmer if she felt you were in control and dictating events? This has been the key to my jolly hacker :)
 
Broodle said:
It's also possible that she's jogging because she is nervous or insecure rather than just jolly. So actually being a calm relatively passive passenger might actually not be helpful to her? She might be calmer if she felt you were in control and dictating events? This has been the key to my jolly hacker :)
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Totally agree, I have one now who is much better with consistent contact, hand and leg, for confidence.
 
Broodle said:
It's also possible that she's jogging because she is nervous or insecure rather than just jolly. So actually being a calm relatively passive passenger might actually not be helpful to her? She might be calmer if she felt you were in control and dictating events? This has been the key to my jolly hacker :)
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I agree nerves can be calmed by the rider being more in control, schooling while hacking, lateral work, numerous transitions are often better than trying to be passive and leaving them to think too much about what is going on, usually after a few hacks where they are really engaged and working hard, mentally as well as physically, they start to relax and want to spend time on a long rein stretching, I will pick them up and teach them to switch off when I allow rather than wait for them to do so if they are inclined to be tense, reversing your instincts can be productive.
 
Broodle said:
It's also possible that she's jogging because she is nervous or insecure rather than just jolly. So actually being a calm relatively passive passenger might actually not be helpful to her? She might be calmer if she felt you were in control and dictating events? This has been the key to my jolly hacker :)
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I tried being a bit more in control and just works her up even more unfortunately. She’s so much worse if I have a contact and physically try to slow her down unfortunately. But thanks so much for the suggestion!
 
Reeis said:
I tried being a bit more in control and just works her up even more unfortunately. She’s so much worse if I have a contact and physically try to slow her down unfortunately. But thanks so much for the suggestion!
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Fair enough! But I do think that transitions, leg yield, a bit of shoulder fore etc as Be Positive suggests is worth trying. Keeping her brain and body busy, and being able to get your leg on, rather than just trying to slow her down :)
 
I went through a phase when I would turn my horse around when she started jogging. When she was sensible I would resume the original direction. The other thing I found was to do lots of transitions into trot and back to walk.
 
You could try turning small circles when she speeds up, a bit like the one rein stop. No drama, just straight into a tiny circle and go round and round with no leg whatsoever until she grinds to a halt, when you instantly relax all pressure. Set off again and repeat as necessary. My trainer suggested this when my horse used to speed up on hacks, and it did work, but we were hacking on open downs mostly, it wouldn't work on narrow bridleways or roads!
 
Interesting reading these replies as my old horse was a bit like this, nothing to do with anxiety she was just having fun and liked to go everywhere as fast as she could! I found literally just dropping my reins as @Carrottom said was the only thing that worked. Taking a contact would make her think we were gong to canter so she would just jog.

But completely dropping my reins she would just walk (albeit fast) with a few jog steps every now and again which I would correct using my seat and voice. It ended up with us just having to compromise - slightly faster than I wanted to go and slightly slower than she wanted to go!
 
I find a good hard gallop up a long hill helps - clears out the excess forward motion and settles my mare down to start listening properly. If I don't give her some serious speed work every week or so she's not nearly such a nice ride.

I do agree fighting is a futile exercise; riding like a sack of spuds with long reins is much more effective - most well schooled horses are trained to go forward when the rider lifts their weight out of the seat and takes up a contact
 
My girl is like that. I figured she obviously hadn't done enough if she still had energy to jog everwhere. So I started going further trotting everywhere until she was tired enough to walk. She got really fit and could go ages eithout stopping, I ended up doing endurance with her and she was great.
 
Does sound like she is anxious as if it's your only route she should settle. Have you tried a neck strap. Use the neck strap to slow her rather than your hands. Also will she stop to graze? Doing both these things has stopped my horse jogging completely. I found turning him in circles and turning back etc just added to his anxiety. You could also try flexing head to the right for a few strides then left. You don't need short reins and they don't need to be perfect but have found that works well
 
Mr B was a rather stressy type and quite forward going, he'd pick a place on the hack and start to throw his head around, jog and go sideways if I asked him to behave etc. It was very unpleasant and really spoiled hacks for us both. I tried lots of the things suggested here but what actually solved the problem was learning to haveproper control of him in the school (where he never behaved like this) and putting what I learned in the school into practice on a hack. As soon as he snatched the reins and stuck his head up, I flexed him, used plenty of leg and put him on the bit and made sure he stayed there until he was polite to the contact, once he was settled and co-operative the pressure came off but went straight back on if he started up again. It's just really bad manners and I'd let it go on because I didn't feel I could tackle it on a hack. He learned extremely quickly once I made it clear that I wasn't putting up with it but the real breakthrough came from training in the school.
 
Have you the time to go further and/or faster? I always think if my mare is messing about she’s got too much energy to spare so we crack on in trot. A good long trot often settles her for the rest of the hack, she rarely does it now as we hack lots and she’s used to it but really helped at first
 
oldie48 said:
Mr B was a rather stressy type and quite forward going, he'd pick a place on the hack and start to throw his head around, jog and go sideways if I asked him to behave etc. It was very unpleasant and really spoiled hacks for us both. I tried lots of the things suggested here but what actually solved the problem was learning to haveproper control of him in the school (where he never behaved like this) and putting what I learned in the school into practice on a hack. As soon as he snatched the reins and stuck his head up, I flexed him, used plenty of leg and put him on the bit and made sure he stayed there until he was polite to the contact, once he was settled and co-operative the pressure came off but went straight back on if he started up again. It's just really bad manners and I'd let it go on because I didn't feel I could tackle it on a hack. He learned extremely quickly once I made it clear that I wasn't putting up with it but the real breakthrough came from training in the school.
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Agree with this, teaching the horse to let you really be in control is the ultimate fix. then you just have to make sure they hear your request when something else is more interesting ;)
You can make speedy progress on this with some horses. My ex racer was pinging around jogging all over the place until he learnt that he needed to put his head down instead of up when asked. Very basic but it stopped him being able to take over and made his body more relaxed allowing his brain to follow suit. it's turned him from an awkward hack to just a jolly one. Just one example. It could have been using bending or something else, this is just what his issue was.

Do you do schoolwork as well as hacking, OP, and if so what is she like then? does she take over in other ways?
 
I very much agree with getting it sorted in the school. Unfortunately my last horse was beyond help hacking. We sorted him in the school. I had professional help with the hacking. It was going OK until one morning he threw an absolute fit and ran backwards down a very steep drainage ditch at speed . Very nasty. Needless to say we never hacked him again x
 
Has she been used to faster hacks with a previous owner or at a previous yard (so is frustrated expecting fun that never comes)? Could you go in the school first and canter a fair bit to use up some of the energy? Do you only hack rarely (making it exciting/stressful)? Does she jog when with another horse?
 
Is there a steady schoolmaster-type horse in your yard who you could hack out with for a bit to give yours some confidence??

If you're anywhere near East Devon I'd be happy to oblige......

TBH I think this is about confidence; agree with others that you would both benefit from doing some confidence-building exercises at home. I'd be inclined to build some little TREC type articles and lead her around them in the school, no pressure just nice & easy. Then do it mounted, but only when she's ready, don't rush her, you need to give her plenty of time.

Is there any chance you could box out and go somewhere nice for a hack? Just for a change??
 
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