Kallibear
Well-Known Member
Sorrty, this is long and rambly - we (her young owner and I) have had a couple of days of frustration and long discusions about her. Made all the worse since I chose and bought her for her owner, 4yrs ago
Seperation anxiety has always been a problem with Kalli in 'stressful' enviroments (i.e shows) but we're finally fed up of it. On top of that she has an atitude problem that means onces she's decided she's not doing it, there is NOTHING you can do to make her willingly try it. Nor can be she forced.
At home she is totally chilled, gentle, sensible, safe and laidback, even if her friends leave her to go away. She is 110% in all ways with clipping bathing etc and her ground manners are lovely - even at 17hh of HW hunter she can be handled by small children.
However once pushed out of her comfort zone and asked to do something she doesn't really want to do, she because stroppy and unbeliveably stubborn. What 'comfort zone' entails depends on what you're doing and changes daily.
However it's not the 'scary things' themselves that are the problem, it's her attitude and behaviour towards them that's impossible to work with.
When she see's something she doesn't like (or doesn't want to do, which can be very hard to differentiate) she refuses to go forwards and has a minor paddy if forced. If continued to be 'forced' she just shuts down, stand there with her eyes almost closed and its almost like she isn't there and NOTHING can get through to her. She cannot be reasoned with, conjoled to do it or bribed to do it. Once she's decides she can't/won't do it, that's it. Even if she does go forwards, she is unwilling and VERY unco-operative for the next 15mins until she forgets about whatever it was. And it doesn't get any better, ever - you just have the same argument over and over again, about different things.
It would be fine it was at reasonable, actual 'scary things' but we have a proffesional dressage rider (who schools her regularly) be unable to get her to go down one end of the school one day depsite the fact she LIVES at the yard and is in the school most days.
She spend 45mins trying to get her to just walk to the bottom and eventually had to compromise at getting her past the middle line.
At shows she can be a nightmare. She is very well schooled and MORE than capable of doing what's asked but in four years we've never progressed past doing clear rounds or novice showing classes because of her behaviour. Very occasionally she will behave as she does home and be willing but most of the time she just won't co-operate because she's so busy being a mixture of stressed and stubborn. It's the same behaviour she occasionally displays at home, just amplified. And it's not like she's not had the exposure - we've tried the 'going just occasionally' to the 'going somewhere twice a week'. It doesn't get any better.
She is more usually 'ok' when on her own (you can usually at least complete the class) but if she goes with other horses (any other horse) it's basically pointless trying, although we do anyways, in the eternal hope it'll get better. If asked to move more than a couple of feet away from her new-found-best-friend she screams, kicks, rears, spins and trys to bugger back off to the horse. If you can get her into the jumping course and actually anywhere near the jumps, she jumps amazingly as she LOVES to jump (her love of jumping breifly cancels out her hate of leaving her friends
) but the bits inbetween the jumps are horrible. If you do a ridden class she won't bend (at all), dumps all her weight on the forehand (making her hard to control) and either won't even trot without being forced, or gallops around screaming
She can be controlled (just) but even then she JUST WON'T LISTEN .
Which is the general gist of her problem - she just won't listen to her rider when she's slightly stressed. Made all the more frustrating by the fact that if she would just listen and do as she's asked a) it would turn out to be absolutly fine and b) she is fairly talented and could do well. She's not your usual 'stresshead' anxious nut case to have this problem either - when she's being good she is amazing. She's done RDA work for godsakes!
Whilst I'm all for looking at things from the horses point of view, I don't think what we're asking her to do is unreasonale - go and jump a 2'6 course (she really does love jumping and will literally take herself round a 3ft course at home, loose) or a walk trot dressage test.
Sorry, it's a very long rant but it's got to the stage where we might just sell her to somewhere she can be a happy hacker (which she is excellent at) and get something with an easier temperament.
Anyone else have an impossibly stubborn, opinionated (and frankly not very bright) horse cos then it'll make me feel better!? Anything you tried work?
Seperation anxiety has always been a problem with Kalli in 'stressful' enviroments (i.e shows) but we're finally fed up of it. On top of that she has an atitude problem that means onces she's decided she's not doing it, there is NOTHING you can do to make her willingly try it. Nor can be she forced.
At home she is totally chilled, gentle, sensible, safe and laidback, even if her friends leave her to go away. She is 110% in all ways with clipping bathing etc and her ground manners are lovely - even at 17hh of HW hunter she can be handled by small children.
However once pushed out of her comfort zone and asked to do something she doesn't really want to do, she because stroppy and unbeliveably stubborn. What 'comfort zone' entails depends on what you're doing and changes daily.
However it's not the 'scary things' themselves that are the problem, it's her attitude and behaviour towards them that's impossible to work with.
When she see's something she doesn't like (or doesn't want to do, which can be very hard to differentiate) she refuses to go forwards and has a minor paddy if forced. If continued to be 'forced' she just shuts down, stand there with her eyes almost closed and its almost like she isn't there and NOTHING can get through to her. She cannot be reasoned with, conjoled to do it or bribed to do it. Once she's decides she can't/won't do it, that's it. Even if she does go forwards, she is unwilling and VERY unco-operative for the next 15mins until she forgets about whatever it was. And it doesn't get any better, ever - you just have the same argument over and over again, about different things.
It would be fine it was at reasonable, actual 'scary things' but we have a proffesional dressage rider (who schools her regularly) be unable to get her to go down one end of the school one day depsite the fact she LIVES at the yard and is in the school most days.
She spend 45mins trying to get her to just walk to the bottom and eventually had to compromise at getting her past the middle line.At shows she can be a nightmare. She is very well schooled and MORE than capable of doing what's asked but in four years we've never progressed past doing clear rounds or novice showing classes because of her behaviour. Very occasionally she will behave as she does home and be willing but most of the time she just won't co-operate because she's so busy being a mixture of stressed and stubborn. It's the same behaviour she occasionally displays at home, just amplified. And it's not like she's not had the exposure - we've tried the 'going just occasionally' to the 'going somewhere twice a week'. It doesn't get any better.
She is more usually 'ok' when on her own (you can usually at least complete the class) but if she goes with other horses (any other horse) it's basically pointless trying, although we do anyways, in the eternal hope it'll get better. If asked to move more than a couple of feet away from her new-found-best-friend she screams, kicks, rears, spins and trys to bugger back off to the horse. If you can get her into the jumping course and actually anywhere near the jumps, she jumps amazingly as she LOVES to jump (her love of jumping breifly cancels out her hate of leaving her friends
) but the bits inbetween the jumps are horrible. If you do a ridden class she won't bend (at all), dumps all her weight on the forehand (making her hard to control) and either won't even trot without being forced, or gallops around screamingShe can be controlled (just) but even then she JUST WON'T LISTEN
.Which is the general gist of her problem - she just won't listen to her rider when she's slightly stressed. Made all the more frustrating by the fact that if she would just listen and do as she's asked a) it would turn out to be absolutly fine and b) she is fairly talented and could do well. She's not your usual 'stresshead' anxious nut case to have this problem either - when she's being good she is amazing. She's done RDA work for godsakes!
Whilst I'm all for looking at things from the horses point of view, I don't think what we're asking her to do is unreasonale - go and jump a 2'6 course (she really does love jumping and will literally take herself round a 3ft course at home, loose) or a walk trot dressage test.
Sorry, it's a very long rant but it's got to the stage where we might just sell her to somewhere she can be a happy hacker (which she is excellent at) and get something with an easier temperament.
Anyone else have an impossibly stubborn, opinionated (and frankly not very bright) horse cos then it'll make me feel better!? Anything you tried work?
