Petalpoos
Well-Known Member
Sorry for the long post but I need some help here! I have been riding for 50 years, mostly TBs and warmbloods and suspect I am now being had by a pony ☹. I am hoping that someone on the forum may have experienced something similar and be able to suggest a solution.
I have a haflinger mare, 13 y.o. She was backed and lightly ridden a bit as a 5 year old but not ridden afterwards as I bought her to be a companion to my other horse. I started riding her again in March last year, just hacking 3 or 4 times a week to keep her weight down. As expected, she was a bit of a piglet at first, absolute pain to mount, bargey etc. etc., but she has got over all of that and is now pretty well mannered and hacks out nicely, with or without others.
Except: over the last couple of months she has started having issues when we get to certain bridges on our regular ride along an abandoned railway line. The bridges have the same surface as the main ride, i.e they are not concrete or anything nasty. Basically, she stops. She does not attempt to turn around, back up, rear or take any other evasive action. She simply will not go forwards. If I approach the bridge at trot, she slows to a walk about 50 100 metres back from the bridge (irrespective of my Thelwell-kicking-child impressions) and then stops something like 20 metres before the bridge.
I have never managed to get her to take a step forward from when she stops:
Not through squeezing or kicking.
Not (to my shame as I dont like hitting) through giving her a good couple of slaps behind the girth and on the bum with a stick, no response whatsoever.
No reaction if I simply sit there and wait, although my max for that was 15 minutes. She just happily stands there and rests a hoof.
If I get off and lead her she grudgingly allows herself to be pulled along until I remount once we are on the bridge and then off she merrily goes with no problem.
There are 2 bridges she particularly dislikes and will always stop at unless I am riding with someone else or if I am out with my dog and the dog goes across in front. She occasionally refuses to move off from my leg if I stop and talk to walkers, but I can eventually persuade her to move after a few seconds. She has only once stopped at a bridge on the way home, hence my belief that I am being had, big time.
I suspect I am now probably just reinforcing this behavior by not being able to get past it. It's not the end of the world, but it's a pain and I don't want it to get worse. I know many of you have far more experience than me, so any ideas please?
I have a haflinger mare, 13 y.o. She was backed and lightly ridden a bit as a 5 year old but not ridden afterwards as I bought her to be a companion to my other horse. I started riding her again in March last year, just hacking 3 or 4 times a week to keep her weight down. As expected, she was a bit of a piglet at first, absolute pain to mount, bargey etc. etc., but she has got over all of that and is now pretty well mannered and hacks out nicely, with or without others.
Except: over the last couple of months she has started having issues when we get to certain bridges on our regular ride along an abandoned railway line. The bridges have the same surface as the main ride, i.e they are not concrete or anything nasty. Basically, she stops. She does not attempt to turn around, back up, rear or take any other evasive action. She simply will not go forwards. If I approach the bridge at trot, she slows to a walk about 50 100 metres back from the bridge (irrespective of my Thelwell-kicking-child impressions) and then stops something like 20 metres before the bridge.
I have never managed to get her to take a step forward from when she stops:
Not through squeezing or kicking.
Not (to my shame as I dont like hitting) through giving her a good couple of slaps behind the girth and on the bum with a stick, no response whatsoever.
No reaction if I simply sit there and wait, although my max for that was 15 minutes. She just happily stands there and rests a hoof.
If I get off and lead her she grudgingly allows herself to be pulled along until I remount once we are on the bridge and then off she merrily goes with no problem.
There are 2 bridges she particularly dislikes and will always stop at unless I am riding with someone else or if I am out with my dog and the dog goes across in front. She occasionally refuses to move off from my leg if I stop and talk to walkers, but I can eventually persuade her to move after a few seconds. She has only once stopped at a bridge on the way home, hence my belief that I am being had, big time.
I suspect I am now probably just reinforcing this behavior by not being able to get past it. It's not the end of the world, but it's a pain and I don't want it to get worse. I know many of you have far more experience than me, so any ideas please?