Ideas for sending a lazy pony forwards

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bex1984

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Murphy is more than a little lazy, and basically unless he specifically wants to do something he does the absolute minimum.

He is fed molasses, oil, and Propell Plus (I call this his go-go juice!). In the winter he is fed oats. All of this helps.

If he ignores my leg he is given a very firm smack. On a bad day he ignores the smack. Growling at him works sometimes. So for example, we had a successful jumping session today - but I had to use the whip a lot, and shout and growl at him a lot.

He does a mixture of jumping, hacking and a little schooling. He has lovely sharers who have loads of fun with him too - and adore him, so he is pretty pampered.

Just wondering if anyone has any creative ideas to get him moving? I feel like I am smack smack smack with the whip at the moment.
 
Jorel said:
Dangle a carrot infrot of his nose from a stick while you ride :p

Not constructive sorry - I just couldn't resist hehe :D
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It would probably work - he is pretty food obsessed!

He will go quite fast if I run in front of him - unfortunately I can't ride and run in front of him at the same time.
 
I have a lazy horse.
On the plus side,they are probably not stressed by the whole 'wearing a person' thing, but they are hard work for us 'saddle ornaments'!

I am getting results by being creative. Throw in turns on forehand or quarters,transitions every 5 strides,etc. Most effective however seems to be creative placement of the schooling whip. Time a tap with each hind leg,left right(not very elegant,but effective,you could try using a whip in each hand instead.) Best one of all is a tap on the poll with the whip. (I think of my whip as a fly,designed to annoy and gain attention,but not to hurt.)
 
bex1984 said:
He will go quite fast if I run in front of him - unfortunately I can't ride and run in front of him at the same time.
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In that case what you should actually be asking is if anyone has mastered the technique of being in two places at the same time ;) They did it on Dr Who the other night, go talk to Matt Smith or Karen Gillan :D
 
abitodd said:
I have a lazy horse.
On the plus side,they are probably not stressed by the whole 'wearing a person' thing, but they are hard work for us 'saddle ornaments'!

I am getting results by being creative. Throw in turns on forehand or quarters,transitions every 5 strides,etc. Most effective however seems to be creative placement of the schooling whip. Time a tap with each hind leg,left right(not very elegant,but effective,you could try using a whip in each hand instead.) Best one of all is a tap on the poll with the whip. (I think of my whip as a fly,designed to annoy and gain attention,but not to hurt.)
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He is a very laid back beast, and I wouldn't want to change that, but he can be hard work...I'm used to him but if other people ride they give him back after 5 mins, out of breath and saying they're exhausted!

Will try creative whip use! I do loads of transitions but will add in turns on the forehand etc as he quite likes doing those!
 
bex1984 said:
hmmm the molasses (in the form of molassed chaff) seems to help his energy levels quite a bit.
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It's like eating a bar of chocolate! all this does is give him a sugar high then he's burnt out! Go-go juice?? You're on a fast track to laminitis & liver damage.

I would feed him good hay, speedibeet & chaff and thats it. Then, get on him and like him like you mean it girl!

All this growling business is pointless, send him forward with your leg and seat.

to quote someone on HHO "ride him like you stole him"...
 
Jorel said:
In that case what you should actually be asking is if anyone has mastered the technique of being in two places at the same time ;) They did it on Dr Who the other night, go talk to Matt Smith or Karen Gillan :D
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Or I dangle a cardboard me in front of him?! Could be genius - he won't refuse a jump if I run over it ahead of him - look out olympics, here we come ;)
 
tallyho! said:
It's like eating a bar of chocolate! all this does is give him a sugar high then he's burnt out! Go-go juice?? You're on a fast track to laminitis & liver damage.

I would feed him good hay, speedibeet & chaff and thats it. Then, get on him and like him like you mean it girl!

All this growling business is pointless, send him forward with your leg and seat.

to quote someone on HHO "ride him like you stole him"...
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I agree 100%. Sorry to sound harsh, but it sounds like your horse has mastered the fine art of getting you to do all the work while he sits there smugly doing no work at all! If a hungry lion was behind him, I bet he would move! Perry Wood suggests a visualisation exercise in which you picture exactly that to get your lazy horse going. So get on him, give your reins away, give a light leg aid, imagine that hungry lion then do whatever it takes to get him going! If that means two schooling whips together to take him by surprise or trying a whip *** then go for it! As soon as he goes, reward him by sitting absolutely still and not nagging, come back to a halt and retest your aids. My instructor told me that this retest is crucial and if you don't retest until you get it right you will not improve.

Apart from transitions, a really good exercise for lazy horses is point to points. You go from one point to another eg from one corner of the school to another or from E to B say and when you get there stop and have a rest. It makes them feel like they are trying to get somewhere rather than doing endless pointless circles, and they start to offer you more. Once you get a bit more energy you start saying to your horse well hey we'll just go past this corner but don't worry we'll have a rest in the next corner and so on. I would also do a lot of hacking and possibly cross country in order to build up his motivation and enthusiasm. Do more of the things he likes!

I would also consider his fitness levels. If you have been feeding him a lot of sugary food, I would fat score him to make sure he is not carrying any excess weight, which will make him more lethargic. Then get him on a fitness programme - do as much long slow hacking as you possibly can - 2-3 hours 2-3 times a week ideally if you can fit it in as it really does help them.

Finally, all this is assuming that you've had him checked out and that there is no low grade lameness causing his reluctance to go forward. My mare could go forward when I didn't have a bridle on but couldn't work forward into a contact - turned out to be spavins. Worth a thought but I guess you've already checked that out.
 
keep him in all the time and don't overdo it on the hay, just give him enough to keep him entertained
just feed oats
ride every day and get him as fit as you can, if you're giving him a few days off keep him in and get him brewing
 
deaville said:
keep him in all the time and don't overdo it on the hay, just give him enough to keep him entertained
just feed oats
ride every day and get him as fit as you can, if you're giving him a few days off keep him in and get him brewing
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I honestly hope you are being sarcastic!
 
Unbalanced - thank you, you don't sound harsh at all. I do ask him nicely once, and if he ignores me he gets a really firm smack with the whip. It just annoys me that most of the time he waits for the whip! On a really bad day, it doesn't matter how hard I smack him. On a really good day, he bucks and goes into flat out canter, which is fine, I let him. I always allow and praise him going forward, even on the rare occasions that I didn't ask for it.

His weight is about right and is carefully monitored (he's lost 150kg in the past 3 years!), he is out on restricted grazing 24/7 - this doesn't help his energy levels but is essential to keeping his weight down. I would love to do long hacks - our hacking is rubbish!

Deaville - I think keeping him in and on hay seems a bit counterintuitive to the way a native pony should live?

I should add that he is always like this this time of year, there is no grass in his paddock, he has lost weight, and his coat is changing so he's hot!
 
Jorel said:
I honestly hope you are being sarcastic!
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lost the previous quote - about feeding the horse oats, leaving it in for a few days..

Like Jorel, I really hope you were being sarcastic. Heavily. Sarcastic. Someone may well read your comment and think that sounds like a good idea not knowing about this little thing called Azoturia..
 
I meant just feed a scoop of oat based feed once a day instead of all the other stuff? And enough haylage to keep him entertained, and keeping him in and riding him every day...
 
Luci07 said:
lost the previous quote - about feeding the horse oats, leaving it in for a few days..

Like Jorel, I really hope you were being sarcastic. Heavily. Sarcastic. Someone may well read your comment and think that sounds like a good idea not knowing about this little thing called Azoturia..
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Agreed! Some people never cease to amaze though :(
 
bex1984 said:
I'm sure in Murphy's case this is a schooling/way of riding issue, so this is really where I need ideas.
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Trying to think of more ideas for you:
Lazy ponies are generally REALLY REALLY CLEVER. Set up challenges for him where he has to slow down and use his brain more. That will get him thinking. Ask him to sidepass over a pole, weave in and out of cones, open a gate without taking your hand off the gate, do caveletti - look up horse agility and western trail classes for ideas - the more he is thinking the more motivated he will be.
Let him have more responsibility. Try working towards bridleless riding. Keep the bridle on at first. Let him show you how smart he is and he will have more fun and want to do more.
Do the opposite of what he expects. Ask him to go slower than he wants to go. See if you can get him to move only one foot at a time. Wait for him to ask you to speed up. (This works really well on my mare).
Get someone to video you riding to find out if you are nagging without realising it. If you're in trot, it should be his job to maintain the trot, not yours. Make sure you're not doing rise sit squeeze rise sit squeeze without noticing.
Use a flappy string to send him forwards instead of a schooling whip - either one of those Monty Roberts rope things that I can't type because the computer thinks it's a naughty word??? or a savvy string which you can get off ebay and flap it from side to side, touching him behind your legs (hopefully that makes sense).
 
Are you sure your horse is really the right type of horse for these activities? Not trying to be mean but if you are riding him like you say you are riding him and he still cant be bothered then maybe her doesnt want to do any of it. If he's not naturally an athletic jumping horse then he might not be finding jumping fun or intriuging and its not fair to be forcing him into something he's really not got his heart in. If you only want to have a play around with him and pop over the occasional small set of jumps, then you will find he will be alot more excited when hes doing it occasionally. With the riding in general, stay firm and never let him have a lazy moment, active all the time and if you feel him start to get lazy, then stop then, and gradually over each session he will be active for longer. Scrap his feed, trying something like lo-cal balancer and maybe throw in some oats (I love tiger oats) as the lo-cal will give him a big mineral and vitamin boost which will help too. Hope that helps and I dont sound too mean!
 
Well you could try spurs, I've found them pretty good to a pony dead to the leg & that ignores a smack. Just don't overuse them otherwise he will stop taking any notice of them aswell.
 
Plus, forgot to say, lazy equals intelligent. he has it all figured out. You could try rewarding him with a polo when you get the results you want, he may work for that payment, after all, we expect to get paid for work don't we. You've got a clever monkey.
 
I agree completely - he is mega clever. He gets the measure of his rider instantly - put a little child on him whose legs don't even reach the bottom of the saddle flaps and he responds to their tiniest kick or pull on the reins.
He is an absolute master of evasions and does amuse himself coming up with new ones!
He really only does 'fun' stuff most of the time - jumping logs, cantering round fields, etc.
The one thing he loves is long hacks, but our hacking is rubbish and he can be a monster to hack alone :(
 
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