How would you have handled this?

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B_2_B

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I wrote this all out and then HHO decided to delete it, so this is a shorter version :rolleyes:

Basically, pony new to us but out of work for a while and has an aversion to going anywhere herself, and can be very naughty.
She needs a lead off another pony for general leading and especially hacking. Only been hacked once since we've had her and she was quite well behaved having a lead off another rider in front.

Today, after being tacked up good as gold, getting to the bottom of the driveway she decided she would not leave her friends in the paddock beside the track we were meant to go up, took off to the gate and would not leave.
Mostly she just plants herself and won't move any direction apart from back into the yard, or towards the gate, but to begin with she was throwing tantrums and a few mini-rears for good measure.

Wouldn't go with a lead off a non-ridden pony, a ridden pony or someone leading her with a leadrope.
Kicking was as much use as talking to a brick wall, and a schooling whip did nothing.
We had changed her saddle to a better fitting one but changing it back didn't help either.

Eventually got her to go since a tractor came up the road behind and she decided she had better move :rolleyes:
I was leading her, was going to get on when we got out of sight of the ponies, but she decided she'd had enough, whipped round and took herself back down the track, grabbing mouthfulls of grass on the way :rolleyes: When she decides to go somewhere, I can't hold on to her :(

We took the saddle off and gave up on the riding but did get her to go round being led, with an accompanying rider, although she did decide she wanted to go in front and went quite far in front of the ridden horse :confused:

Just can't figure out what exactly her problem is! Seems to depend on her mood whether she will hack happily in company, not go at all, or hack in front after putting up a big fight!

It's so frustrating, she is a lovely pony but she is being wasted here. Nobody wants a small teenage pony with problems :(

Would you just keep at it, don't let her win and hope she comes round eventually, or give up and let her become a field ornament?
When she is out she enjoys it, and is generally well behaved, it's just getting her to go!
 
She won today- she got what she wanted.... it will take all manner of time but I would persist, she does NOT get to go where she wants when she wants.... have you tried someone tempting her to shift with treats/feed?
 
Glad I'm not the only one, she WILL behave!! :D

The problem is I have to go back to Dundee for Uni at the end of August, and as a resuce centre we have to work with what volunteers we get, and atm I am the only one light enough but confident enough to ride her, so I am on a time limit :(

Ofcourseyoucan, I don't think we have any longreins :o If we do, I have no idea how to use them, but could probably find someone who does, I will keep that in mind, but I don't want to do anything I don't know about with her and make it worse :)

Lexiedhb, Didn't try food no, will try that next time if she is naughty again, although I'm not hopeful :p

Thanks GC and Naturally, I might become a familiar face in NL for the next month or so :rolleyes: :o
 
I had a mare that napped and reared when we first brought her home, and we basically left her in the paddock and did nothing with her, as I would not put the kids on a pony that was rearing. She sttled in and then i started riding her, with some (but not a lot) NH help she began going forward a lot more freely and became happier to hack out.

She is now really good at pony club, home, adult riding club etc, although we mostly hack out in a group rather than her on her own.

With her it was just her feeling comfortable in new environment, but sometimes new ponies will try it on.
 
Thanks Jeeve :)
We have had her for a couple of months now, the time I rode her before was the day before I had to go back to Dundee, and I've just come back now so she hasn't been ridden since, but she has had plenty time and is pretty settled.
 
Have you tried sitting it out and lots of patience!? Might be worth a go. I seem to remember a poster in CR having a problem with a planting pony - I think it was TheSpookyPony - I think she really persevered and won in the end - she posted about it a few times so it might be worth searching for her previous posts or pm'ing her. :)
 
Sorry to hear she played up. I don't have much to add, other than, can you tell if it's out of fear or just stubborness? Only a horse I had reared and it was more fear based than naughty. So kicking him on and being firm just made it worse. If I just stood where we were and didn't let him turn, spoke to him gently, and encouraged him forward, after a few mins he would do as I asked and all was ok.

I wouldn't give up. Keep trying different tactics, giving each one sufficient time to see if they make a difference. But as you go back to uni at the end of august, someone else may have to keep up the work if possible.

Hope everything improves :) x
 
Well I did sit there for about half an hour at one point not getting very far at all, but maybe if I sit for longer :p
Will have a look for those posts, thanks Walrus!

She's not scared Sarah, she was almost falling asleep at one point and had a droopy lip while I'm kicking her on and pleading with her to move! :D She only reared at the beginning when I first asked her to go the opposite way to the gate and she had a paddy :p
Thanks, I am next there on Friday so we will see then!
 
Walrus said:
Have you tried sitting it out and lots of patience!? Might be worth a go. I seem to remember a poster in CR having a problem with a planting pony - I think it was TheSpookyPony - I think she really persevered and won in the end - she posted about it a few times so it might be worth searching for her previous posts or pm'ing her. :)
Click to expand...
That is exactly what I did with my stubborn welsh pony! It did mean sitting there for a long time (2 hours in one instance!), but as she was picking fights with me if I didn't react she didn't find it fun and gave up.
 
Just a thought but you also might try pulling her around in a tight circle or backing her up. The idea being to make the doing the right thing easy and make doing the wrong thing a pain in the butt.

Waiting it out is one method but some horses and ponies are perfectly happy to stand there all day and consider it a bit of a reward. When you actually make them move their feet, they have to find another tactic.

Works on the ground too. If you're leading her, be alert to her cues that she's going to stop or take off. As soon as she slows or stops, or as soon as she tries to go, grab halter (headcollar, sorry) in hand, dig that elbow into neck and MAKE her turn, full circle until she's pointed in the right direction again. Then ask her to walk on. Keep doing until she does. Or as I said, back her up - briskly and not stopping until you say stop.

Hopefully she'll decide it's easier to just go.
 
I doubt very much if it was a confidence issue as she was snatching at grass.
She is a nappy naughty pony and needs to be treated as such.

As you are having problems holding her I suggest you do the 'sit it out' programme but what you must do is to not allow her to go forward when she wants to. If she wants to go forward you make her wait so she goes forward on your terms. You sit there just keeping her facing in the direction you want to go. If she turns then you turn her back against the direction she turned and sit. If she backs up you continue to sit. You do not let her eat, you do not think 'I will never get her to go' you sit and think of a place down the road where you are going and you get there. You do not get off, have another pony in front of her or have her chased by a tractor (though I think that was a good one!) If you ride with a friend then you make her go in front. Carry a stick and do not be afraid to use it behind your leg.
 
I have a similar problem with my sons 12.2 Dartmoor. She is fine hacking with company (front or rear), fine being led off another horse, fine being led off the ground. Not OK being the ridden horse leading another :confused: or going out on her own.

She is a planter and reverser. Have had advice to sit deep keep legs on and squeeze as hard as possible and she will get bored and move forward - yeah right :rolleyes: My legs dropped off before she was even remotely bored :D

My problem is I don't have anyone to help me as I have my own stables / land. Friend came over recently and walked out with me but she is moving soon and will be a 2 hour drive away :(

Pony will walk out with someone walking beside her (doesn't have to be close just there). The moment they stop walking she will stop too and will not walk past them. Definately a confidence issue with pony; she is quite spooky and nervey.

I have taken to praising her loads and she is slowly getting better in terms of general handling but the hacking out part is going to be a major long haul. I thought just having another horse with her (regardless of whether it had a rider or not) would have given her confidence to go out but it seems not to be the case.

It can take me 10 minutes to get her out the yard gate on to the road, where she promptly stops for another battle, moves a couple of metres and stops again. It took me 25 minutes the other week to go about 700 yards :eek:

BUT, if I lead her out on foot away from the yard and get on about a mile away she will generally hack out fine then. :confused:
 
OFG said:
I have a similar problem with my sons 12.2 Dartmoor. She is fine hacking with company (front or rear), fine being led off another horse, fine being led off the ground. Not OK being the ridden horse leading another :confused: or going out on her own.

She is a planter and reverser. Have had advice to sit deep keep legs on and squeeze as hard as possible and she will get bored and move forward - yeah right :rolleyes: My legs dropped off before she was even remotely bored :D

It can take me 10 minutes to get her out the yard gate on to the road, where she promptly stops for another battle, moves a couple of metres and stops again. It took me 25 minutes the other week to go about 700 yards :eek:

BUT, if I lead her out on foot away from the yard and get on about a mile away she will generally hack out fine then. :confused:
Click to expand...

Don't you just love Native ponies, I had a Highland pony that was a real little &%*& when I first got him, I was actually quite scared of him to beginning with as he was a rearer and being native had a thron streak about a mile wide, however once I won my first arguement with him they got less and less and my confidence came up and he was a brilliant pony.

You say that you are having problems because you are on your own, but that you can lead and then get on, could you try shortening the lead over a period of time, even by 50yds or so. I was lucky on that when I had my pony I was on a yard that had loads of kids and quite a few adults as well so I could get help when I needed it, but if you're on your own and are starting to have confidence issues then it may be better to try and find another way round this rather than confrontation.
 
sounds like she's being a monkey rather than it being fear, what i have done with one similar is when they plant i ask nicely for a walk on......... get ignored(of course :rolleyes: ) so then i start to move his head side to side, if i get even the teeniest bit of movement forward it's lots of praise. if he's still being stubborn i bring his head right round to my leg and keep it there, eventually he gets uncomfortable and we go round in a circle, which is fine by me because at least he's moving, as we come round to face the way i want to go i ask for forward walk again, sometime we get it some times we don't so we go back to swinging his head again;) etc etc. one day it took an hour to get about 10 yards lol and i was dizzy after countless circles:rolleyes:, but the next day it only took one circle before he thought sod this and walked to the end of the drive:p i didn't ask him to go any further than that but gradually increased the distance over the week and anytime we got stuck just went back to swinging his head and circling. All this with no help on the ground as like a lot of people i'm usually on my own:(:)
 
The ideas to get her moving by circling or backing up are great, because the sticking point seems to be her not moving her feet at all, so any movement is half the battle won I would have thought.

I remember being on a stubbon highland and he would go backwards but not forwards... so we turned around and reined back (in the direction I wanted to go) for some distance. He eventually decided forwards in the direction I wanted to go would be the easy option :rolleyes:
 
Thanks guys! Few more ideas to try next time :)

She will go backwards when I ask for forwards, but I didn't try asking for backwards :p
She will go in circles too but then just stop where she was or run to the side but I will try more circles, and the swinging her head thing :D

Maybe I'll take a book and just sit there reading :p
 
I would take her back to the school when she does this and practice transitions for half an hour. Then turn her back out or whatever to let her know the work has finished. She will soon realise that napping does not get her out of work and that hacking is more pleasant than schooling.
 
This sounds like a confidence issue, and basically she's refusing to go forward, so basically its napping.

IMO the only way to deal with this is to forget riding her, for now, and go right back to square one with groundwork. Use a pressure halti & a parelli stick and teach her to yield away from you with pressure.

She needs to understand that when she's asked to move her feet in whatever direction she's asked, she'll do so. Also get her going backwards and forwards: the reward being that when she does what you ask, i.e. comply with the direction she's being asked to go in, the "reward" will be the release of pressure on the Halti.

You can then ask her to circle you from a distance of 6m circle, backwards, forwards, going away from you, like before.

Only then are you going to progress towards ridden work.

Sorry, but there ain't no short cut to this. Mine was a right stroppy little git when I had him first, refused point blank to hack alone and would rear, spin, plant, try to wipe rider off on the hedge etc etc., and I had a trainer come to help me and this is what we did.

IF you're in a rush, time-wise, then TBH I think you may need to pass this pony on to someone else who has got both the time, patience and the expertise, coz it will take time to gain her confidence in you as her new herd leader and if you rush it, it simply won't work.

Basically there isn't any quick fix IME, its just groundwork, groundwork, and more groundwork, coupled with a determination that the thing WILL work out!

Good luck anyway.
 
Just an update, it only took us an hour and a half today :D
And I did actually ride her round :D :D
She was on lead rein the first half though, but we had tried that the time when I first posted and it hadn't worked at all, but today she apparently decided it would work :rolleyes:

She was even more naughty with the tantrums/rears/bucks/taking off but I stuck with the circles and I put a crupper on her to stop the saddle slipping forward so that helped me stay on :p
I'm surprised she didn't dislocate my fingers today, but I think it was a small step in the right direction!

We've put her back in with the horses now (horses and ponies have been separated for a while) because it's mainly that she takes off back to the paddock to see the ponies and the gelding just whinnies for her all the time.
Not sure if it will help or make it worse but we'll see!
 
Well that is an improvement already! Really pleased to hear you stuck at it! She will soon learn you mean business!

Lets hope that putting her with the others helps. But if not, carry on as you're and don't give in.

Give her a pat from me :D
 
Yeah I told her next time she has to knock another half hour off it!
I think she knew we meant business except she upped her game too and certainly meant business with her rearing this time!

Haha I will, she did get lots of fuss when we got back to the yard, mainly because she actually turned left into the yard when asked :eek: :p instead of racing off down to the paddock.

Back on Sunday and again on Monday so she is only getting one day off then out twice in a row (hopefully :D) :)

The good thing is that if we can even get her to lead rein, there is maybe the riding school option for her.
 
Well you're certainly on the right track! Good news :)

You could always tell her that if she doesn't do as she is asked, you will tell her some of your jokes :eek: Should sort her out :p:D
 
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