Hi need some advice for new horse please

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Hi i have had my new boy Wally for 2 weeks now ,he is a 17.2 9 year old dutch warmblood ,he is the sweetest horse . My problem is he is really spooky in the school ,he is bombproof out hacking ,he is not spooky in the school in walk he will go past anything :) but soon as you start trotting he looks at everything as if he hasnt seen it before !!! he can throw some really big spooks , he has already had me off :eek: i lunged him in the school and he was fine ,walked him in hand after to see if he would spook ,nothing ?? my instructor has ridden him as well and he is even more spooky with her :eek: any advice would be great many thanks :D
 
sounds a bit like an evasion to me :) just try to ignore them and carry on I'm sure he;ll soon realise they are not working, I had a mare that was exactly the same. I'm sure he;ll settle.
 
Assuming you have eliminated all the usual back, saddle, teeth etc I would tend to agree with Swampdonkey. It is early days and he may just need a little more time to settle and get to know you. Pictures please or have I missed an earlier post?
 
yeah i thought that , he may of got out of work with previous owner by doing this ,Thanks for you reply x
 
I have dentist coming tomorrow :) saddle would be the next to get checked :D i havent posted a lot on here but will put some pics up :D x
 
Hia. Congrats on your new horse!

2 weeks is not very long, so you may need to allow him a bit more time to settle in. My mare took about 3 months!! But she is a real stress head at the best of times. That said, he can't be allowed to get away with stuff and, as the previous response said, the spooking whilst trotting in the manege sounds like an evasion, as he's not doing it consistently, only when you up the work level.
Spooking is a great way for a horse to get out of working in an outline / engaging with his rider and working harder than he might like! Likely he's testing the boundaries a bit, even more so as he's new to you and in a new home.
My mare is also very spooky in the school. Jumps lined up around the outside of the ring (which she sees every time she's in the school) are all terrifying monsters. The only way I've got her over this is being very firm and consistant and insisting with my leg that she go past on the track I ask for every time. Friends suggested a schooling whip (I never usually ride with a whip of any kind, rightly or wrongly) but this only served to produce some stunning broncing action, so I've really found that relying on my leg to contain her and keep channeling her forward is the best, though not always an easy, solution. Lots of praise when she does go past obediently has also been part of the process.

You say your boy is ok out hacking, so that's great news.

Wish you all the best with your new friend! :)
 
Thanks for your advice ,i have to agree with you :) im sure he will settle in soon i hope lol , just dont want to keep falling off :eek: he is such a nice horse with really nice paces ,he was mostly used as a show jumper before but im into dressage ,its funny thou as he spooks at the jumps :D xx
 
congrats on your new horse :D i would also say he's just taking the p. as long as you have had everything chacked back, teeth, saddle etc. and all is good, then all that you have left to do is just get on with it and show him he is not going to avoid working and by spooking he's making more work for himself as you will not stop until he's done it properly. he'll soon get it :D and an added bonus to his spooking, at least you're learning how to stick to your saddle more which can only ever be a positive thing to learn :D
 
Sounds like he perhaps finds it not very interesting & is livening it up a bit. Keep his attention on you, same as with a horse who's silly hacking, by keeping him busy. So lots of variation & transitions & different exercises to keep him busy. Main rule is to change whatever you're doing as soon as you feel you are losing his attention. Plus my favourite, to school on hacks more.
 
sorry not read all the replies, but as long as health etc checks out - I can confirm that this is a CUNNING PLAN to get out of doing anything remotely more than walk in a school.

Last horse really did enjoy this little game - he was ex riding school (they sacked him due to his attitude problem), and as soon as you asked for anything more than a plod, the school walls would start coming at him, the letters morphed into triphids, the sand became too hot to walk on, and he just had to canter flat out sideways to escape this lunatic woman who thinks trotting is FUN.

Queue a very long pair of spurs, a very long whip, a velcro seat saver, and eventually a horse that realised he couldn's take the mic.

Shy "pretends" something's really scary at one end of the school and rushes forwards, but he just makes me laugh, poor lad.

I feel your pain ;)
 
ha ha i had to laugh reading that :) sounds exactly like Wally .i have just found out his previous owner always schooled him in spurs ,il get him checked and if still cant find nothing i think the spurs will have to come out :) x
 
hmmmmm i think this cunning plan must have been communicated via the horsey underground network to try and obliterate our attempts at control :p

Definitely get the spurs and a whip on side, and if necessary (dare I say this) get someone to LUNGE you both to start with - that will shock the very bones of him ;)
 
Sounds like he is taking the mick and testing you. When he does spook does he get to go back into a walk? If so he probably thinks spooking= less work and his own way. Make sure you keep trotting him round, carry a schooling whip and give him a tap once he spooks and a sharp "ah" the moment he trots forward praise him.
 
I wish you could get a velcro seat saver, but no, alas - I stick my bum on a Heather Moffett seat saver, and that works pretty well. I could do with superglueing my bum to the saddle sometimes, but haven't cos I would then be unable to jump. *sigh* ;)
 
Thanks everyone for your great advice , i had dentist out today he needed a lot done bless him !! im hoping this may help with his spooking but probably not , i will have to get tougher and braver lol x
 
Dare I mention the hackamore word ??? :eek: Works wonder when His Nibs has trouble with his mouth, just a temporary thing.

Other thing I used on last horse is a pelham - certainly had a lot more respect for the school in that - forgot to mention this, sorry. xx
 
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