Help! Horse suddenly stops dead cantering on hacks

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MrsHhorses

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Could somebody please give me advice?

I have a new horse -Irish Cob- she hacks out well but 5 of the 6 times I’ve cantered her she’s stopped dead mid way.
She doesn’t fall out of it into trot, she just plants and stops dead.
Today is the first day I’ve fallen off because of it and I’ve really got the wind & confidence knocked out of me.

We don’t have a school to hacking or lunging are my only options.

What am I doing wrong?
I’ve checked with saddler, my balance, legs etc but it still happens.
I’ve never had this with any of my horses so I’m at a loss.
Should I do lunge work on canter before trying again?
Her trot is really fast, like a run so I’ve been working on that with her.

Thank you so much for any advice.
 
My boy used to do this, but mostly as a spook if he saw something unexpected. I did lots of trot 20 strides/canter 20/trot20/canter20 etc, or 10/10/10 if that’s too fast. Don’t know whether that stopped him, but it certainly helped my confidence, seat and control, and the ‘over the handlebars’ trick hasn’t happened again ?
 
I bought an Arab who did the same, it was like hitting a brick wall at the canter. When he did it I did a complete somersault and landed on my back in front of him, winding myself. After that I always had my reins bridged at the canter so my hands linked by the reins would hit his neck and keep me on board if he did it and I was extremely careful to maintain a slight pressure from my legs as I realised he was just waiting for my attention to stray from him and my legs to relax. I am afraid I put it down to a trick he had got away with in his previous homes.
 
My friends horse started doing similar in the school so he went to Newmarket for a loss of performance work up and had had Diastama of the teeth its when food gets stuck in between and can get sore and infected.

So I would get a vet check.
 
cold_feet said:
My boy used to do this, but mostly as a spook if he saw something unexpected. I did lots of trot 20 strides/canter 20/trot20/canter20 etc, or 10/10/10 if that’s too fast. Don’t know whether that stopped him, but it certainly helped my confidence, seat and control, and the ‘over the handlebars’ trick hasn’t happened again ?
Click to expand...

That’s a great idea to build confidence and check my seat for shorter intervals.
Thank you
 
Pinkvboots said:
My friends horse started doing similar in the school so he went to Newmarket for a loss of performance work up and had had Diastama of the teeth its when food gets stuck in between and can get sore and infected.

So I would get a vet check.
Click to expand...

That’s interesting, thank you.
She had her teeth done last week and all looked well but will make a note of this!
 
planete said:
I bought an Arab who did the same, it was like hitting a brick wall at the canter. When he did it I did a complete somersault and landed on my back in front of him, winding myself. After that I always had my reins bridged at the canter so my hands linked by the reins would hit his neck and keep me on board if he did it and I was extremely careful to maintain a slight pressure from my legs as I realised he was just waiting for my attention to stray from him and my legs to relax. I am afraid I put it down to a trick he had got away with in his previous homes.
Click to expand...

That’s exactly what happened today.
I’ve managed to sit the others but today was so quick I went over splat on my back in-front of her.
She casually wandered off to graze…

Great tip for the reins!
I will be doing this!
Thank you for your reply.
 
Did you ride the cob and give it a good ride out before you purchased ? Any signs of this problem then ?
Get her cantering on the lunge rein and keep her going and see if she does this whilst being lunged.
 
MrsHhorses said:
That’s exactly what happened today.
I’ve managed to sit the others but today was so quick I went over splat on my back in-front of her.
She casually wandered off
Great tip for the reins!
I will be doing this!
Thank you for your reply.
Click to expand...
Bridged reins and, only if strictly necessary, a one handed hard stop are my go-to methods with my rather "flamboyantly expressive" Arab. He's all go, and rather disinclined to whoa. He likes to ramp up the speed as much as possible and as soon as possible. We must have done at least a million half halts in the eight years I've had him.
Never mind. He's fabulous and I love him to bits!
 
JumpTheMoon1 said:
Did you ride the cob and give it a good ride out before you purchased ? Any signs of this problem then ?
Get her cantering on the lunge rein and keep her going and see if she does this whilst being lunged.
Click to expand...

Pre purchase I rode her in the school and she cantered fine but needed a bit of leg to keep her going.
They didn’t have any direct hacking so I could only trot her up and down.
Previous owner said she canters happily on hacks so naively assumed she’d be fine as she was in school.

Whereas here I don’t have a school but doorstep hacking.
Maybe she’s not used to it and spooks… or it’s a me problem to work on!

Good idea. I think I will lunge in canter in the field for a while and see if I get the same response.

Thank you.
 
planete said:
I bought an Arab who did the same, it was like hitting a brick wall at the canter. When he did it I did a complete somersault and landed on my back in front of him, winding myself. After that I always had my reins bridged at the canter so my hands linked by the reins would hit his neck and keep me on board if he did it and I was extremely careful to maintain a slight pressure from my legs as I realised he was just waiting for my attention to stray from him and my legs to relax. I am afraid I put it down to a trick he had got away with in his previous homes.
Click to expand...
This is what happened to me too, I was lucky not to end up seriously hurt, I'm nearly 5ft 10" and she was 17hh.

In her case she went to stop at a fence, I kicked and she jumped awkwardly. I lost my balance and tipped foward just as she stopped dead.

I did a complete 360 landing on my back. I had to load and drive home as I was at a show at the time.
 
First and foremost get a vet out, rushing trot and planting canter could well be pain reactions. My mare started planting in canter when she had SI problems. Also, if you can lunge, why can you not ride in the area you lunge in?
 
One of ours occasionally does this if he’s seen something to spook at. First time he did it when we had recently acquired him he had me off, as my other boy is much more of the “leap sideways but speed up” kind of spooker! I’ve learned now that he needs more reassurance, plenty of leg and a slightly more defensive seat as he’s just not as confident and a bit of a backwards thinker! It’s becoming rarer though thank goodness ?
 
I agree with the person who said do short lengths of canter with transitions. If your horse is one whose spook tends to be slam on the brakes you'll likely need to learn how to sit it. I nearly went over the top when mine suddenly decided he needed to stop dead and rub his nose on his fetlock as we were going along the other day.
 
My NF pony does this with less confident riders, then she proceeds to eat grass while they lie on the floor! Our old NF did it when young if her rider lost their balance slightly or lost a stirrup. She thought she was helping, but it wasn’t very helpful at the time!
 
I had one that learned to spook, drop her shoulder and stop dead at canter with virtually no warning at all and drop me out the side door. The original spook was completely genuine and justifiable, the following two not so, cheeky young horse trying it's luck. I felt the thought on the fourth attempt and gave a good hard whack down the offending shoulder and a firm reminder of her duties with my heels and voice. She didn't do it again. Nasty habit
 
MrsHhorses said:
Could somebody please give me advice?

I have a new horse -Irish Cob- she hacks out well but 5 of the 6 times I’ve cantered her she’s stopped dead mid way.
She doesn’t fall out of it into trot, she just plants and stops dead.
Today is the first day I’ve fallen off because of it and I’ve really got the wind & confidence knocked out of me.

We don’t have a school to hacking or lunging are my only options.

What am I doing wrong?
I’ve checked with saddler, my balance, legs etc but it still happens.
I’ve never had this with any of my horses so I’m at a loss.
Should I do lunge work on canter before trying again?
Her trot is really fast, like a run so I’ve been working on that with her.

Thank you so much for any advice.
Click to expand...

It's a cob thing, I had one on loan a year ago, he would do exactly this in the school and out hacking. He would also drop a shoulder, whip round and if he felt you were going, he'd help you along, made sure you'd come off. Everyone who rode him when he was here came off him. He had been in a riding school previously and had obviously learnt some tricks and become a bit stale.
Taking him hunting did improve him, he absolutely loved going along in big groups, became keen, competitive and good fun.
 
My mare started doing this when previously she was fine. Literally tried everything and even different riders. Got her a new saddle. Still did it. Got back man out and turns out she was in pain on one side of her back. Thinks it was from a fall in the field. He did a treatment and a few days after she was a different horse! Have had a further few treatments after that but issue has not arose again.
The guys name was Bruce Hewitt.
 
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