Horse runs off at the canter

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hiluxfautras

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hello,

Two years ago I got this quarter cross horse mainly to go out on walks. She's really great outside. She's not afraid of anything, takes the lead, goes wherever I ask her to go, walks calmly, trots or canters calmly ... So here everything ok. But during winter time when we also want to do some dressage indoors, here's where the problems start. ( even when riding outdoors in a dressage arena ) So being inside is not the problem.

She's a very energetic horse so we already did a lot of ground work in order to teach her to stay calm and relaxed. She does this very well.
We already walk and trot in a calm relaxed way. This being already quite a lot considering that when I got her she didn't even know how to walk in a relaxed way.

When wanting to go to the canter, she does this rather well on the right hand side. Too fast yes oké but manageable and she does slow down. She takes the canter in a rather 'calm' way. On the left hand side however it is almost dangerous ... She kind of explodes taking the canter, panicks takes off like crazy ! Slowing her down does eventually succeed but still....
Calming her down afterwards does take a while but she does eventually calm down. Being soaking wet even after a few small laps in canter .....

I've been doing a lot of ground work also on the longe and here the same, she canters way too fast, sometimes putting her both hind legs next to each other like she's hopping around like a rabbit
Then we tried to canter at the longe by putting some beams on the ground. She does pay attention to these and does actually fall into trot. But now I don't know where to go from here ....

We already had her checked out by an ostheopath and there are no medical issues. So where does this panic come from ? And What can I do about it ?

If anyone would recognise this, please all your tips and information are very much appreciated. She is a very good horse and has a lot of potential. If she just would calm down when cantering we could go on but we are stuck at this level....


Thanks
 
The saddle? Teeth? You?

If the saddle is uneven in its flocking it may pinch over the inside shoulder during canter on that rein. The other thing I was thinking is how even are you? Are you a balanced rider? Do you sit level? Do you tense when asking her to canter on that rein in anticipation- this could trigger the 'panic' effect. Have you had someone else try her in canter?
 
we had a saddle fitter checking out the saddle on her. So that is ruled out.
but wouldn't she do the same then on the right hand side if the saddle were the problem ?

I had her ridden by my teacher and he is a very good rider ( he himself takes lessons from a highly qualified tristan tucker trainer ) and he also had that problem.

I really do pay attention not to tense up when wanting to take the canter but she's so clever that she sometimes already knows that now the canter is gonna follow and the already freaks out. We do not always begin on the right hand side, but change sides so the cannot foresee it but it 's like she's reading our mind and already puts all her weight on the hind legs and jumps - but really jumps into canter even before being asked ! We go back to the trot then because it wasn't asked ....
In the beginning she would take the right hand side canter on the left hand even on a cirle. But now because we're focussing also on keeping her head straight instead of with a little bent inside, the already takes the right canter but far too explosive !
 
You say she has no medical issues but has she actually been looked at properly by a vet, an osteopath cannot diagnose problems and it sounds to me as if there is pain somewhere that is causing her to run and panic, the using both hind legs together suggests something is amiss, a decent equine vet would be my next step.
 
be positive said:
You say she has no medical issues but has she actually been looked at properly by a vet, an osteopath cannot diagnose problems and it sounds to me as if there is pain somewhere that is causing her to run and panic, the using both hind legs together suggests something is amiss, a decent equine vet would be my next step.
Click to expand...

Yes. Among other things, the bunny hopping is something I've seen in a horse with a hind suspensory problem.
 
I will have her checked out by my vet but she did already do an investigation on her and could not find a reason.
What kind of check up are we talking about than ? X rays of the spine ? don't know what 'hind suspensory ' means
 
The bunny hoping can also come when they are tense, my mare does it sometimes when she is excited and she has been checked by a good equine vet and has regular physio from a qualified lady who was on the Olympic physio team

This may not be popular but it helped me! When she leaps into canter bring back to trot and repeat, if this doesn't work after 2 attempts come back to walk and back up, all as quick as possible repeat over and over again. However if she uses backing up as an evasion at all then I wouldn't do this very much if at all.
Also ask for canter on a 20 metre circle just as you come off the track, the come back to trot before you hit the tra k again. Repeat repeat until that half a circle is nice, then gradually increase a a stride at a time. Lots of praise when she gets it right or much better
 
What does she do on when on the lunge with no gadgets? Does she show the same behaviour? When cantering in straight lines is she balanced?
Horses can act differently on each rein depending on what is hurting/pinching etc.
 
I did contact my vet who is specialised in horses and she is convinced that it is a mental problem . She does not do this when we are out on walks, than she canters calmly , she does prefer the right hand side canter but does take the left too soo... here no signs of pain or stress or panic at all ....

When on a lunge with no gadgets she does go a lot faster and does ddo the bunny hopping sometimes. ....
Backing up on : yes she does use this to avoid any other thing asked so that might not be the best solution then ...
 
What does your trainer think the issue is? that she is ok in straight lines out hacking does not mean there is no pain as they are under less pressure, although it could be down to her being tense in the school and just panicking rather than relaxing they usually settle on the lunge with no tack forcing anything, if you want to work through it get your trainer more involved with working her, you need some sort of plan to go through different exercises to see what works best for her.

Several things to try, going into forward seat so she can relax and lift her back and keep cantering quietly encouraging her to really settle, lots of stroking the neck and praise when she tries hard.
Loose schooling if you can, again to get her as relaxed as possible.
Lots of transitions into canter back to walk, keeping really relaxed and quiet when you ask but I think this may wind her up even more which is why you would benefit from more involvement from the trainer as he is best placed to see what is working and give you ideas, I would also suggest that you consider getting him to ride her as he may be more experienced and able to do so.

I still think there is likely to be a physical reason, vets often say it is behavioural when they don't know what else to do, it is the easy option as problems such as this can be very difficult to diagnose definitively.
 
I had a small meeting now this morning with our vet who is presenting this case to a prof specialised in the movement system of horses and she will keep me informed as to if there could be an issue that she did not think of. If there are investigations that we can do to examine her in order to be sure now definitely that all medical issues can be ruled out.

However, I still believe that - knowing my horse - it is all in her mind and that when she relaxes she does do a relaxed left hand side canter.
My trainer now is gonna ride her again at eacht beginning of our lesson in order to sense what is going on and where it does go wrong.

I don't believe that my vet will say that its behavioural - she's not like that at all. She is a good rider too and she works with arabian horses next to her job as a vet.
I need a few excercises I can do in order to teach her to calm down while in canter on the left side.
Small circles okay I can do that.

Continuing even after she is soaking wet ? because that is also the time that she has calmed down a little ....
She does not have full papers but there seems to be quite a bit of blood in her. She does piaffe and passage ( don't know if this is the right word ) without any problem ! but a simple canter ???

working on the lunge I will continue too hoping this will help her too. In this case it cannot be my as a rider doing the wrong things now.
 
update : so we went on training again last saturday but because my trainer had a competition to go to, I had to train on my own. I decided to take it very easy and only to focus on her becoming calm and relaxed.Therefore I now tried riding her with looser rains ( but still in contact ). She seemed to be very calm and responsive during walking and during trotting also. So I tried it in the canter as well and first of all on her good side ( right) and it did go very well. Then we tried her difficult problem side . I had taken a very light seating leaning a bit forward ( just like the jumping position ) as to not disturb her in the back but she kicked after my legs that went a bit backwards ...) So instead of doing that I just lightened my seat, just like standing a little bit in the stirups and after a circle or two she lowered her neck and seemed to calm down. I could then also largen a little the circle we were werking on.
Second time I tried it, I could even put my hands completely forwards giving her all the liberty in the reins, and she didn't shoot off or run away !!! What a feeling !! I was so happy that I gave her lots of praises and finished my training.
going back tonight and I hope I will be able to show this progress to my trainer. Anyone who can explain this ?

I must say that there were more riders in the arena than on other times but could this be the only reason ?
 
Going into a light seat often helps the horse relax as you are not pushing from your seat, however hard you try to sit quietly just being there is enough for some to tense up and rush underneath you, you have found something that works so you can now build on it, you should gradually be able to start sitting but have the option of coming off her back if she gets tense at any point.
Putting your hands forward so she has nothing to fight is a great idea, it is a lovely feeling when you trust enough to be able to do that, it sounds as if you are making real progress.
 
Years ago my old mare would do this when trying to get her to take her right lead. She could canter in the left lead on a tiny circle to the right to avoid taking that lead, and when she finally took it she would just tear around the arena full speed. My trainer at the time would have everyone else come to the middle of the arena while we did this.

In her case it wasn't pain. She had never learned to take that lead because until then she'd always been a trail horse and no one ever asked. So she had always taken her left lead. She literally had to learn how to take that lead. And like any righty or lefty, when left to her own choice she'd choose her favorite side. I ran into a similar, but much less explosive issue, with my youngster who dislikes her left lead because she's very weak on that side.

With my older mare she needed to learn to relax in general, so she'd explode into that right lead we'd slow down and do it again. If I got a couple of good strides or even just a quiet transition (because the explosion could still come as she cantered around the arena) we quit. I think what really helped was that I'd work her just at a walk and trot until she was relaxed and reaching down before we tried the canter. If she was tight, and behind the bit as she often would do, there was no hope. That your mare is bunny hopping on her hinds makes me wonder if she also doesn't quite know how to use her body in that direction.

With my young mare, it's mostly strength. I spend twice as much time on doing work on the circle on her weak side as on her strong side and again, I wait to ask until she's relaxed into her trot. As she gained strength on that side, and suppleness on the other, she was able to take that lead more comfortably and consistently. It's still a bit too fast, but as long as she's reasonably relaxed I'm ok with that for now.

If you have a physio out to look at her they should be able to look at her muscle development and tell you what her "handedness" is. There's a good chance it's the side she prefers to lead with. If it's extreme the way it was for my youngster, you could see this yourself just standing behind her because one side of her back will be clearly more muscled than the other.
 
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We continue to work on that difficult left side, first walking and trotting. We want her to do a calm walk a calm trot. Only then we go to the canter on the left hand side.She explodes into the canter on this side but it has become less. We have intensified the amount of training sessions and it seems to help too. When in the left canter, the first rounds are too fast but then when slightly loosening the reins after having asked her to slow down, she does actually slow down a few strides and then we go to the trot with a lot of prais. Let her relax, walking trotting and start all over again. I notice that the number of rounds we have to do in a too fast canter before slowing down are decreasing bit by bit so I 'm very happy with this.
In the beginning she would take the right leg canter even on the left hand side. This only happens very few now. She is learning to take the left hand canter right away but still is overreacting a little. But I 'm very pleased.
So with more training sessions during the week, it seems to have helped her more.
 
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