Horse rushing home

meleeka

meleeka

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Any tips to deal with this? Is it just a case of practice makes perfect? Horse is coming back into work after a long time in the field. Not currently ridden but either led or long reined. Going out in company isn’t an option (horse previously good as gold on his own).
 
Asking him to halt a lot on the way home. If there's grass about then stop to graze and relax. Maybe then he will decide he doesn't want to rush home.
 
ahhh, my Fell's specialty when I got him (ridden). I basically spent time doing a mix of making him stand, circling or even turning back to head back out again -I like mule's suggestion of grazing too.
 
I had success with circling but not tight circles, we made them as big as we could and stayed on the circle until we could take a steady step towards home. If the next step was rushed just back on the circle. It sorted it out in just a few sessions but timing as ever is key.
 
I guess it would depend on what is causing it. If just pure excitement or maybe lack of confidence, my guess would be frequent hacking and time would sort this out and make it less boring, and i would just try to ignore/discourage unwanted behaviour but not make a massive deal about it, unless you felt that was required but there are far more competent riders than me on this board. I suspect you're experienced enough to know if the issue escalates to seek help on the ground or get on board.
 
I think it depends on how enthusiastic they are. My mare would go nuts if i started trying to halt, leg yield, circle etc. all the way home! We do practice standing because that is a requirement i must have but generally i sit quietly, brace reins and hold on to strap i use for my air jacket (it stays on the saddle full time) this stops me fiddling with the reins and winding her up even more. A quiet consistent contact that makes it uncomfortable for her to jog/ be silly so she finds her pace and we go home. I've tried pretty much everything with her and this works for us. Anything else sends her doolally and is just not productive!
 
Try not to make life easier for your horse by following their speed with your seat. Keep a consistent contact and think, walk, without bracing. Probably haven't explained that well, but it's a bit like leading in hand, a bouncy horse. You carry on doing what you're doing, almost oblivious to their demands to set the pace.
If it's possible to walk past the yard gate and do a short detour, try that, if not, on return to the yard, don't reward unwanted behaviour by immediately getting off and untacking. Make him stand quietly and just sit in the saddle for a few minutes to 're enforce the idea that rushing is a waste of time.
 
It's a difficult thing to fix because it's almost like napping in reverse - they want to get back to home/their herd so they get faster as soon as they realise that they're heading home. It's still an evasion though, as they are doing something in a way you don't want.

I've had several that start to march out at the halfway point when hacked out alone, and we had one, just retired, who would do it in company - he wanted to get back to his stable sufficiently that having a friend with him was irrelevant. He was better if I took another horse with him - he got very good at ride and lead!

I don't have any constructive suggestions however, except to work him hard enough that he doesn't have enough energy to care!
 
Where I am it is difficult, I have 1.5 miles straight out and straight back in even though I can alter the route outside of that, there's no way round it. Part of him rushing back was lack of confidence and the other part is just pony who has been allowed to get away with it in the past. I've worked on it how I described both ridden and in hand and its really helped massively-he's very quick on the uptake so he soon realised that walking nicely at my speed meant he got home faster than trying to tank. I still do it if I feel he's on too much of a mission and he settles right back down. I mean, he is forward on the way out on the way back he was something else. I tried to wear him out, but some of these native ponies take alot of wearing out!
 
MotherOfChickens said:
Where I am it is difficult, I have 1.5 miles straight out and straight back in even though I can alter the route outside of that, there's no way round it. Part of him rushing back was lack of confidence and the other part is just pony who has been allowed to get away with it in the past. I've worked on it how I described both ridden and in hand and its really helped massively-he's very quick on the uptake so he soon realised that walking nicely at my speed meant he got home faster than trying to tank. I still do it if I feel he's on too much of a mission and he settles right back down. I mean, he is forward on the way out on the way back he was something else. I tried to wear him out, but some of these native ponies take alot of wearing out!
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I have a mile that I can’t alter which is part of the problem I think. I’ve tried increasing the distance gradually but that involves turning back the way we came which hasn’t helped. I believe it’s lack of confidence causing. He’s too polite to refuse to go (he was awful with napping when I got him many years ago) so I think the the only way I’m going to sort that is to keep doing it but some good ideas here, thank you everyone.
 
Look at it from his point of view - home = food and rest and relaxation, so he is bound to be keen to get there. So change it around to home = more hard work before he gets to eat and chill. Work him in circles and serpentines in the school or field, ideally at trot but at walk with rein backs if you are concerned about cooling him down. Use the time to school him in whatever you need him to improve on. We had one like that and she soon changed her mind :)
 
Do you have somewhere you can work him when you get back home? If so, I'd work him as hard as possible after arriving back at the yard so that coming home doesn't mean the reward of finishing and going back to doing what he wants to do. I have 1/2 a mile of out and back before I can make a choice of direction so this was the only way. We'd go for a hack then do a good 20 minutes of cantering and lateral work in the school which soon stopped the rushing!
 
Antw23uk said:
I think it depends on how enthusiastic they are. My mare would go nuts if i started trying to halt, leg yield, circle etc. all the way home! We do practice standing because that is a requirement i must have but generally i sit quietly, brace reins and hold on to strap i use for my air jacket (it stays on the saddle full time) this stops me fiddling with the reins and winding her up even more. A quiet consistent contact that makes it uncomfortable for her to jog/ be silly so she finds her pace and we go home. I've tried pretty much everything with her and this works for us. Anything else sends her doolally and is just not productive!
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Agree with the above that method never used for mine and just pretty much blew her head.
I also tried the work her in the school when I got back didn't make a difference.
I just had to sit and ignore try not to interfere with the reins and use my seat to steady her.
 
annagain said:
Do you have somewhere you can work him when you get back home? If so, I'd work him as hard as possible after arriving back at the yard so that coming home doesn't mean the reward of finishing and going back to doing what he wants to do. I have 1/2 a mile of out and back before I can make a choice of direction so this was the only way. We'd go for a hack then do a good 20 minutes of cantering and lateral work in the school which soon stopped the rushing!
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The thing is horses dotn think like us, they live in the now and in the now they want to get home ASAP. I think it would be wrong to assume a horse desperate and/ or excited to get home is going to slow down and change its behaviour because it might or might not get more work when its in a place it wants to be .. ie. home!
 
annagain said:
Do you have somewhere you can work him when you get back home? If so, I'd work him as hard as possible after arriving back at the yard so that coming home doesn't mean the reward of finishing and going back to doing what he wants to do. !
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No I don’t, just a field.
 
meleeka said:
I have a mile that I can’t alter which is part of the problem I think. I’ve tried increasing the distance gradually but that involves turning back the way we came which hasn’t helped. I believe it’s lack of confidence causing. He’s too polite to refuse to go (he was awful with napping when I got him many years ago) so I think the the only way I’m going to sort that is to keep doing it but some good ideas here, thank you everyone.
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We are in the fortunate position of having lots of 'loops' available very close to home, although we can't actually ride past. We enlisted the help of a neighbour to work on impatience issues. Neighbour was armed with polomints, the longer the horse stood while we chatted the more mints she was given. This translated into better waiting at road junctions etc too.
 
Pearlsasinger said:
We are in the fortunate position of having lots of 'loops' available very close to home, although we can't actually ride past. We enlisted the help of a neighbour to work on impatience issues. Neighbour was armed with polomints, the longer the horse stood while we chatted the more mints she was given. This translated into better waiting at road junctions etc too.
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Oh that’s an excellent idea and one that I can do easily. I could also use treats myself which I stupidly hadn’t thought of. He’d sell his soul for a polo so that should work well😀
 
I turn him in a circle every time he goes faster than I want. He soon learnt to walk at my pace or round and round we go.The circling really helped lower his head too which was good. Once the pace was reasonable I would do lots of halts and also back up a few steps. I also do different walk speeds from fast to crawling slow. It really got him focused on me and much more control in hand.
 
The problem I have with circles is that the last bit is roadwork. Backing up and halts should work though as it’s a quiet road. I think I will go out armed with polos and get him concentrating on me instead of where he’s going.

Thanks again.
 
Antw23uk said:
The thing is horses dotn think like us, they live in the now and in the now they want to get home ASAP. I think it would be wrong to assume a horse desperate and/ or excited to get home is going to slow down and change its behaviour because it might or might not get more work when its in a place it wants to be .. ie. home!
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Positive and negative reinforcement and aversives - they don't remember but their perceptions change with repeats over days and days. It won't work after one such, but it will over time, we proved it
 
Brought back this old thread because I've started to have this problem. Just started hacking out more again after a quiet winter and he has started this. He knows all the routes well. If I trot he doesn't rush but in walk he was hard work today as we were 4 miles from home when he knew we were on the home run. He stops and stands easily but the walk soon speeds up and loses its rhythm as soon as we set off again. I had wanted to have a chilled ride out but he wasn't having any. The worst part is the stables are in a valley so the last bit is a downhill road with traffic no matter which route we are on so it is a bit awkward trying to get him to quietly walk that bit.
 
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