Horse napping and not going forward when she needs the toilet

[Marilyn91]

I have a rising 6 year old Connemara mare. She used to have a serious bolting problem and was basically unrideable. Very clever, very sensitive type, worried and anxious, more "go" than "whoa". She was professionally rebacked in August. For the past four months she's been ridden only by me (my instructor has sat on her twice just to get a feel). I typically hack twice a week, school twice a week and do groundwork or fun stuff once a week. These days she is pretty much a reformed character and is very sweet and willing.

Recently, she has started to balk and refuse to go forward. The first time it happened, we were out hacking and I figured she was either scared of something and/or wanted to go home. So I got off and led her (she was even difficult to lead) so I grabbed a stick and waved it. She went forward but quite sluggish. After a few minutes, she pooed, then suddenly started going forward totally normally. I got back on. All fine. This has happened a few times now.

My lesson on Wednesday went great, so when I went to ride her alone today, I wasn't anticipating any problems. However, as soon as I got on, she refused to move. I tried squeezing, kicking, clucking, moving her in a circle. She was essentially dead to all my aids. At that point, I dismounted, went to the tackroom to grab a whip, lunged her for a few rounds at a fast canter and then got back on and sent her strongly forward with the whip and trotted a few circles. At that point, I decided to call it a win and dismounted. I brought her back to her stable and the first thing she did was do a poo.

She seems to have a problem going to the bathroom outside, especially with a rider on. Any advice on how to ger her to go, in both senses of the word?! I was hoping to take her to a little show in May, but now I'm having visions of us standing at the entrance not going anywhere. Help!

 

[Wheresthehoofpick]

Or is the pooing a stress response after a scary event?
I've had two horses who would nap and spook - the stress poo always followed. It's the release. She is only young.

 

[[153312]]

I thought it's quite usual for them to be reluctant to go forwards when they need to 'go'...? It's also normal for them to empty their bowels if on edge to make them lighter should they need to run away from a threat. As for solutions, though, I am not sure.

 

[Marilyn91]

Or is the pooing a stress response after a scary event?
I've had two horses who would nap and spook - the stress poo always followed. It's the release. She is only young.

I see what you're saying but I genuinely don't think it's fear. She didn't spook at anything. Out hacking we were walking along, all fine, then suddenly she became very sluggish.... Then after a bit of convincing, she pooed and went forward totally normally again. Same thing happened several times. In my lesson on Wedneday she pooed on the lunge already, so she was fine under saddle.

 

[SilverLinings]

I've known a few horses like that. If you watch ferral horses (or horses in a field) they will stand still to defecate unless startled by something or actually running away from something they think is a threat. It is a natural behaviour, just one that humans usually train out so that horses don't break off from their work each time they need to go (London would have been a nightmare if cab horses were slamming the brakes on all the time so that they could defecate whilst stationary!).

The ones I've had like this I let stop when they needed to go on a hack, but they knew that they were expected to keep working if in an arena, this meant that they didn't stop in competition situations. You need to be aware that we are asking horses to behave in a way that they wouldn't necessarily choose to behave when we ask them to keep moving whilst defecating, so a bit of patience is required.

With mine, I started by asking them to move off just before they had finished (after initially allowing them to come to a standstill), and after a few times I would start asking them to move off a bit sooner, until eventually they would just start to slow down and I would ask them to keep going before they actually stopped. I was riding them 5-6 days a week, and the whole process probably took only 3-4 weeks, with some reminders after that for the next month or two. They seemed to be happier to accept what I was asking this was than if I just went straight in with preventing them from stopping at all (having initially tried that with the first horse).