Help!! Strong, spooky youngster

T

Tiger21

Active Member
Joined
8 October 2012
Messages
30
Visit site
I have recently purchased an unbroken 4yo 17hh gelding. He is being sent away for breaking early spring but until then I want to as much basic work as possible. I have successfully bitted him and is wearing all tack and I have started taking him for short walks down the track and he is responding well to my voice for walk on and whoa.

In a normal situation he is quiet to lead and I have no problems taking him in from the field or turning him out. However, when out on the track if he sees something that spooks him he shoots forwards or dives round in a circle and from that point on his head shoots up in the air and I am left hanging on the end of the leadrope all the way home as he jogs and pulls me along he takes no notice to sharp tugs on the leadrope. Would anyone reccommend how to solve this or any kind of halter I could try as I am terrified that I let him go and he ends up injuring himself of another horse/rider. I walk him in a lunge line but that is also starting to concern me incase he gets away and tangled. It is so frustrating that we can go out and if he doesn't get a fright from something he will be an angel all the way out and back to the stable. I might add that he has literally been standing in a park for 4 years so everything is new to him.
 
If he is 4 now he will be 5 when he goes to be broken in the spring. If he was mine I would be packing his bag now and getting him into a professional handler asap and wanting him to have a winter of progressive work.

I found the Richard Maxwell halter useful with my yearlings, but the release to pressure has to be taught before the horse can be expected to understand the halter.
 
TBH, if he is good to handle in the normal things like turning out/bringing in/good in the box and for the farrier; if you are sending him away to be professionally broken in the spring I would leave him totally alone until they have him.
Most good breakers far prefer something that hasn't learnt any bad habits (as yours is doing) than something that has been messed with as it takes twice as long to undo the bad behaviour as start with a clean sheet. You could be adding weeks of extra time to his stay with them simply because of letting him get away with that behaviour now.
If you must play with him then I'd suggest a chain over his nose for a bit of extra leverage which is exactly the same as a Dually does.

PS: agree with Alice if you can get him to them now.
 
Thanks for all your replies. The one thing i dont want to do is teach bad habits which is why I was looking for a way of rectifying the situation as soon as possible. He knows to respond to pressure as i have him yielding to pressure eg backing up,hindquarters, dropping his head. He is genuinely scared when he spooks and he choses to get so wound up about it he blocks any instructions. I will maybe give something like a dually a shot to reinforce my message a bit more.

I would have ideally had him away to be backed now as he was supposed to arrive a few weeks earlier than he did so here is the next question... if he goes to a trainer now he will in theory be back with me right in the middle of winter and we only have an outdoor school. I am not hometill 5pm so work with him would be very much weather dependent and limited to a floodlit school during the week. Would i be better putting him away now with the chance of him having to be turned away for a couple of months or leave him all together now and wait till early next year when i should be able to work him consistently when he gets back with a variety of school work and hacking?
 
Very sensible point. If he goes now, costs a small fortune and returns in deepest winter and is not kept in work, you have potentially wasted a lot of time and money.

Perhaps turn him out until after xmas, send him with a view to having him back as the clocks change and we have lighter evenings.
 
Ditto maesfen & aa. If he's genuinely spooked, then walk him out behind a steady older horse, & as his confidence grows gradually let him take the lead past scary objects.
 
Lots of people have horses broken and then turned away for the winter. You then bring him in in the spring and just reinforce what he learned before, before moving forward. But one thing that concerns me is his height. How tall are you? I've seen a lot of people with horses that are really too big for them - not in being ridden, but in groundwork. I am only 5 foot and would never get anything bigger than 15.2 because if the horse puts its head up, I couldn't reach; I would also find it hard to put the saddle on, and take it off, without hauling it around, unless I stood on something. So if you're, say, 5'6", I think 17 hand-plus is too big - and he could still grow, especially when he is fit and muscled up.
 
Dee O'Dorant said:
How is he if you walk him round his own field several times?
Click to expand...

He is fine in his own field. He is running with two other geldings and when caught will walk away from them no problem and when I turn him out he doesn't rush out of the halter he waits until it is off and I give him a pat. Although I have never really walked him around the park the first night he was turned out with them they were right at the other side of the park and he walked over nearer to them no problem before - this is why it is so frustrating because he is usually so good!
 
Marciamac said:
Lots of people have horses broken and then turned away for the winter. You then bring him in in the spring and just reinforce what he learned before, before moving forward. But one thing that concerns me is his height. How tall are you? I've seen a lot of people with horses that are really too big for them - not in being ridden, but in groundwork. I am only 5 foot and would never get anything bigger than 15.2 because if the horse puts its head up, I couldn't reach; I would also find it hard to put the saddle on, and take it off, without hauling it around, unless I stood on something. So if you're, say, 5'6", I think 17 hand-plus is too big - and he could still grow, especially when he is fit and muscled up.
Click to expand...

I am 5'9". My last horse was 17.2hh a so I am used to handling bigger horses. If I go on anything alot smaller I feel like my legs dangle!
 
Most horses do much better having time off after the breaking process no matter what age. I can't imply this enough. But make sure you ride him at the breaker's before you bring him home. Can't enforce that enough either.

My biggest pet peeve is those who harp on about physical maturity while never giving a though to the mental side of things. It's break and let's have a career because your physically mature. Especially with these backwards big babies.

I start for a living. Its one thing I really believe in. They need that time. I echo the others. I much prefer unhandled to handled with bad habits. Not saying your a bad handler at all. Just saying the difference is astonishing. Leading in and out and good for farrier is wonderful, but when things start getting hairy they go downhill rapid.

Terri
 
Equilibrium Ireland said:
Most horses do much better having time off after the breaking process no matter what age. I can't imply this enough. But make sure you ride him at the breaker's before you bring him home. Can't enforce that enough either.

My biggest pet peeve is those who harp on about physical maturity while never giving a though to the mental side of things. It's break and let's have a career because your physically mature. Especially with these backwards big babies.

I start for a living. Its one thing I really believe in. They need that time. I echo the others. I much prefer unhandled to handled with bad habits. Not saying your a bad handler at all. Just saying the difference is astonishing. Leading in and out and good for farrier is wonderful, but when things start getting hairy they go downhill rapid.

Terri
Click to expand...

Thanks for this response. So you think it would not be any disadvantage to have him broken now and turned straight away when he gets home until end of Feb/March? I will have my instructor on hand twice a week for lessons it is going to cost me £200 a week while he is at the trainers so it is not something that I want to have to do twice (re-starting next year) I can lunge and ride confidently but just dont have the experience of backing and breaking to ever attempt it myself but should he, in theory, pick it all up/remember again after a break? The trainer I am using insists on the owners riding atleast every second day for the last 7-10 days which I completely agree with.

Do you think that the breaking process will solve the issue I am having?
 
It probably will. He'll have something else to focus on and I have found horses really do like learning and being engaged.

Good you have found someone good that insist you ride. I'm the exact same. But I have seen people send back horses as "broke" and it's not the case at all. Infuriates me. Truly broken is not being led down the back of the barn with a rider on.

Also when I start mine again after a break it's a non event. Normally with my own they get tacked up. Given a quick lunge and I'm away. To be honest, and I'm prepared for flaming, I break at 3 and give them a couple of breaks depending on many things. I have no splints or soft tissue injuries, or back problems in any of my horses so I haven't ruined or crippled them. But I have also waited til 4 with bigger backwards ones. It's just all by feel. Obviously with client horses I'm not so casual and I get a feel from what they want and what their horse is telling us. But I always recommend a break at their place. Most of my clients will have a plan including the break so it works out quite well for everyone, but most of all for the horse.

Terri
 
He will not forget anything he learns if he has a break.
As for your situation at the moment I would not take him out with just a halter and rope I would use a lunge line and either attach this to the bit or have a halter with a chain over the nose.

This sort of thing turns into a game and, as you know it can become very dangerous.

When he sticks his head up in the air give him a good jerk on the rope to the chain so that he really feels it. He should forget about whatever he is looking at and look at you with new respect.

When he get strong walking him out and starts to get ahead of you, use the pointed end of a hoof pick so that he walks into it. Does no harm but makes them think about doing it again.

A horse of his size and age needs to be doing more than he is. They get bored and that is when they start looking for games to play - on their terms not ours!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top