Horse will not leave the starting box!! HELP!

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j17bow

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We have a 15.3hh belgian warmblood 11yrs old, who is a fab hunter, very scopey and jumps clear sj, does a lovely dressage test, but come to XC competitions and we can rarely get him 3 strides out of the box! If he does go he will go clear, and training days he is fine.

Here is what we have tried so far (not in any particular order), so any other suggestions would be very much appreciated!

- Being nice, coaxing, trying to walk through box and out.
- Not starting from box, but just beside
- Kicking on! Lunge whips cracking behind etc.
- Pairs hunter trials with him going first
- Different riders
- Travelling him to comps alone, and then in company
- Starting in competition conditions - counting down, others warming up etc

None of the above have much effect - he is basically napping, and I know there won't be a magic cure, but I wondered if anyone else suffered similar probs?

Thanks in advance!
 
That must be very frustrating. Is it possible you could canter straight from the practice fence without stopping, if you have a friendly enough venue that will allow you?
 
hi
i'd try taking a friend (of his not yours ;) )to a xc schooling day
take his friend away and have someone hold "friend" about half way round the course out of sight ,start him out the box as if you were at a comp but be prepared to be there all day until you get the little sod to go
do whatever you have to for him to go and DO NOT go home until he goes one way or another ,i'd even have a controller halter on him (without rider) and drag him if that is what it would take
by very nice to him (won the national nice ) for even the tiniest step forward and keep repeating until he catches up with "friend" then simply lots of pats and go home ,to try and give him the impression of "what was all the fuss about"

i'd hire venues and try to do this at least 3-4 times and keep letting him catch up with his friend ,always go through the box because you need to start the way you mean to continue and keep his friend out of sight then when you compete again take his friend away before the xc start and hopefully he will think his friend is waiting on the course "as normal" and catch up with him

it will take a few times to break the habit but he sounds worth it

thats ^ what i'd do with a horse like this but it will take time and patience and is not a quick fix ,good luck i know there is nothing worse as my horse can be very nappy and its very frustrating
 
I made a start box in our field and practice starting out if it and counting down. Then i would canter off and jump something easy. Then back to the box and do it all again. Repeat until every one is tired. Then keep doing it every couple if days. Now our horse can count down and as soon as she hears 5, 4, 3, etc she starts wanting to go. It's the old repetition repetition bit.
 
Ive seen a horse who was like this,if you stood him in the box for the off he was a real pain,bouncing and napping, he goes through easily in canter, but your timimg neeeds to be right, the person trots around outside the box the then at about 10 seconds circles in canter 2 seconds enters through the box and away,
 
If i could edit my last post, id say if the cantering in doesnt work id be doing the same as fourlegsgood and going for repetition, choose a day and repeat as. Any times as you can
 
You can't canter through the box at BE (and therefore anything run under BE rules) - its dangerous riding and they can penalise you or eliminate you.

There are a few people out there who work on this kind of thing - what does your trainer say?
 
mine used to do this, dont no if it would work with yours but i used to circle behind the start box for a bit doing lots of walk - canter - canter - walk transitions and really get him firing off the leg so once in the start box would put my leg on and hed really go. Almost trying to get him fizzing over the top so may not work for a lot of horses!
 
Thanks guys. Yes it is VERY frustrating! but we try not to let this show hence why we have used other riders.

He does tend to start on practice days, we count down and have horses behind him and he still goes, its literally just at events.

I think if I can crack the napping in general it may work, I might try the starting box at home then trot off down the lane away from home?

Trainers options have all been tried -pairs/ being nice /xc training days etc.

Long road ahead....

Thanks
 
does he nap at any other times? How much in front of the leg is he?
Had a similar problem a couple of years ago resulting in being eliminated before fence 2 at Eland due to not wanting to leave the horses in the warm up. Boot camp resulted in 2 lessons with accredited BE trainer who introduced us to Mr Whippy every time I felt him back off (Please note short stick with big flappy bit on, so makes more noise than anything else before I get shot by the bunny huggers:p ) Problem solved. Still occasionally give him a reminder when I start if going away from the collecting area, just to make sure his mind is on the job.
 
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