If a horse hates schooling

PurplePickle

PurplePickle

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What would you do? not school anymore or ideas on how to get him liking it again?

all physical things have been checked, saddle, back, teeth etc

he stands wont budge or walks along like kevin the teenager no matter how much you ask whether you niggle or pony club kick and leave, once tacked up head down, nope Im not going, *stamps feet*

Im old previous owners have used spurs because of this, I carry a schooling whip but dont like using them, he protests if you use it. He often misses trot and will walk/halt canter

Any ideas appreciated?
 
Try playing games make it fun, trot round some cones, pop a small jump anything thats exciting and than in between try asking for some collective paces, it difficult with the dark nights, in the summer hack out every other day. Have fun
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Make schooling fun, put poles in a circle, old tyres to bend round, oil drums at the corners, vary pace and what you are doing. Use poles or bales t create 'pathways' and get the horse moving accurately between them. Get a friend to come over and have walking and trotting races, sack races etc. If you are having fun so will your horse
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When you hack ride as you would in the school, so that the horse is used to using himself out on a hack.
 
does he move off your leg out hacking? try schooling him when out hacking a bit more...then he will give a better response off your leg when you take him into the arena!
 
Very often when a horse gets arena-sour, it's difficult to rejuvenate any excitement from them again. It's doable but only if you put in the effort to make the arena a fun place for them to be. Personally, no I would never take a horse schooling in the arena if it hated it. I have one little mare here who was ridden in arenas so much that she absolutely detests even walking into one now. In the 4 years I've owned her, I've taken her in there about 3 times and each time only to do fun things like play tag, or games. All of her schooling/training is done elsewhere out on the trails and she is happy with this. She's a smart girl and by schooling her out on the trails she responds very well. She is unhappy going into arenas so I don't and would never make her; I do wish people wouldn't push horses so much that they cannot stand doing these things though; varied work is the way to go, not droning round in stupid circles every time they go out.
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I dont have an arena just a big feild and small paddock. Should have made that more clear in my first post


had him 9 months he hates being ridden in the field as well, I thought this might be more fun for him, no schooling just a nice wander about.

It certainly wasnt me over doing it, hes litterally been ridden in the field/paddock once/twice a month

will have a scout about for tyres etc lol
 
As others have suggested, school out hacking, play games, do you have a friend you could ride with? You could practise riding side by side, stirrup to stirrup, doing figures of eights, serpentines, circles in walk, trot and simple things in canter, while staying exactly side by side. It might help motivate him a little and its harder than it sounds
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Have someone on the ground with praise and titbits, make it as fun as possible and don't overdo it - just one bit of effort on his part should be enough to start off with.

Generally, though, if I had a horse this unhappy about it I would only be schooling on a hack, taking him to other places to compete, hack, play, and hunting/bloodhounding/team chasing. Schooling won't really do any good at all if he's not moving forward.
 
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school him out hacking....

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Ditto this! I used to do this when I felt Ellie was getting stale doing endless amounts of schooling...it's amazing how much leg yielding you can do going up a track, and how you can perfect your turns on the forehand when practising gate-opening
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Have you met Trike !?!?!?

The horse can play 10/10th's lame when it suits him in the arena...but take him out on a hack or do something he enjoys and he's a different horse
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I rarely take him in the school tbh....but if i do i make sure it's just to jump him or do something he likes in there. It's a pointless and painful exercise trying to school him 'traditionally'
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Completely agree with everyone, school out hacking.

My middle age mare came to me very cheap as she became sickened of the school and her owner wanted to do dressage.(actually she came on loan first and then I bought her).

If you take her in the school she looks like she has sucked on a lemon, her head comes up and she won't move off the leg. She will bunny hop and go into canter instead of trot and keeps backing off your leg every stride. Needless to say I have only taken her in the school twice in 8 years!

But she is very well schooled and its all done out hacking. She works in a lovely light frame, you can think stop and she does, she does shoulder in, walk to canter, canter to walk etc etc so all is possible! The only drawback is I can never do a dressage test (on the other hand its also a great excuse not to!)
 
Make schooling more interesting by doing pole work, games, riding with friends or some groundwork and have a schooling plan so that you do a variety of things rather than wander around.
Do your schooling whilst hacking out, I do most of my schooling whilst hacking.
It does sound like he is taking the mick out of you, try backing your aids up with your whip, having lessons or seeing if he does the same with a confident, experienced rider.
 
One of ours was over produced for the show ring and as a result switches off schooling in an arena. You almost have to con him into doing it when he's not noticing, and then he produces some really nice work.

The following might help:
- Keep sessions short. If that means to start with that you just do a few circles and bending exercises in the corner of a field you come across out hacking, so be it. You can achieve a lot out hacking.
- Try boxing to different arenas. Spud is always more forward if he doesn't know where he is.
- Invest in an understanding instructor. Ours will meet us at random fields and will tell us to go away and canter him to re-install forwards if he gets sticky. Random poles, jumps, thinking exercises will make lessons more interesting for him too.
- Make sure that you aren't nagging him, as that's the first thing that will switch him off. Reward the try, as they say. Once you get a response, even a small one, back off and make much. Spud has really taught me to ride in that respect - my legs have a habit of constantly nagging and you just can't do that with him. You have to sit still unless you are actually asking him for something, and then once he responds you stop asking. The timing of the aids is everything.
- Build on their confidence and don't over face them. Introduce more complex exercises gradually, and allow them to realise that they are physically capable.
- Transitions, transitions, transitions. Constantly working in trot on the same circle is no good - you need to use the whole school in lots of different patterns, with loads of transitions, and keep them mentally busy. But incorporate some mental 'down time' into your work too so that they're not overfaced and they have a chance to digest what you're asking.

There is hope. When we first got Spud I tried to school him and he spent the whole time with the handbrake on, and that's when I could get him to move at all. He's so much better now. We took him to a 'posh' lesson at the end of 2008 and he was pretty much forward the whole time and certainly didn't disgrace himself:

Spudschooling.jpg


(Apologies for the pinkness - Kezza has a bit on an obsession
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