sweethearts
Active Member
Hello,
I'm new here so I just wanted to introduce myself and my horse, and also ask a for a little bit of advice.
I've had my own old horse Tommy for about 12 years now and back in the day we did a little bit of everything at local level and generally just had fun. As Tom is now fully retired, last August I went looking for a new horse that was approx 15.2hh, 6-10 years old that I could again do a bit of everything on.
I somehow ended up falling in love and buying Charlie a 3 (now 4) year old, 15.3+hh IDx Appoloosa. He is broken and had done a bit of hacking both alone and in company. Over winter we have just done been hacking out around the woods, just getting to know each other really. I absolutely love him to bits, he is such a cheeky loveable boy.
Now the weather has got a bit better we have started doing a bit more. We have been hacking 3-4 times a week and have started having lessons once every two weeks. He has been soo good in our lessons and is really coming on however out hacking we seem to be going backwards a bit.
He has gone from being an angel in all situations to having a few boughts of playing silly buggers. A few weeks ago he had a bit of a buck and leap when we went in to canter and I toppled off, I put this down to me just not expecting it and him being a bit full of spring grass. But then since then he has started to be silly if we have to pass anything or anyone on even slightly narrow paths. A few examples are: He got mid way past some people walking their dog and then leapt off forwards, chucking a buck in for good measure, when a bus started to come past us he started jumping forwards and was clearly not happy so I had to walk him in to a much bigger gap and then yesterday some cyclists came past us just as the last one came past us their bike made a slight noise and he just went mad bucking and leaping until I ended up falling off. Each time I have always been with another horse and it's always over something he has seen before so I wouldn't have thought it is because he is properly scared, more just using it as an excuse to muck about. Plus the fact that when we pass these things later in the hack on the way home he doesn't look twice!!
I realise he is still a baby and so we are going to encounter these little problems but I just want to make sure I nip things in the bud straight away and deal with things in the best way possible. I am planing on doing some more in-hand work with him, including setting up a little course so we can practise walking through narrow spaces and also walking him in-hand up to the wood so we can encounter these problems with me on foot so that he doesn't pick up any nervousness from me. What does everyone think, does this sound like the right plan of action?
Sorry for the gigantic post, any advice much appreciated.
Charlie (Yep I've got the same name as my horsey!)
I'm new here so I just wanted to introduce myself and my horse, and also ask a for a little bit of advice.
I've had my own old horse Tommy for about 12 years now and back in the day we did a little bit of everything at local level and generally just had fun. As Tom is now fully retired, last August I went looking for a new horse that was approx 15.2hh, 6-10 years old that I could again do a bit of everything on.
I somehow ended up falling in love and buying Charlie a 3 (now 4) year old, 15.3+hh IDx Appoloosa. He is broken and had done a bit of hacking both alone and in company. Over winter we have just done been hacking out around the woods, just getting to know each other really. I absolutely love him to bits, he is such a cheeky loveable boy.
Now the weather has got a bit better we have started doing a bit more. We have been hacking 3-4 times a week and have started having lessons once every two weeks. He has been soo good in our lessons and is really coming on however out hacking we seem to be going backwards a bit.
He has gone from being an angel in all situations to having a few boughts of playing silly buggers. A few weeks ago he had a bit of a buck and leap when we went in to canter and I toppled off, I put this down to me just not expecting it and him being a bit full of spring grass. But then since then he has started to be silly if we have to pass anything or anyone on even slightly narrow paths. A few examples are: He got mid way past some people walking their dog and then leapt off forwards, chucking a buck in for good measure, when a bus started to come past us he started jumping forwards and was clearly not happy so I had to walk him in to a much bigger gap and then yesterday some cyclists came past us just as the last one came past us their bike made a slight noise and he just went mad bucking and leaping until I ended up falling off. Each time I have always been with another horse and it's always over something he has seen before so I wouldn't have thought it is because he is properly scared, more just using it as an excuse to muck about. Plus the fact that when we pass these things later in the hack on the way home he doesn't look twice!!
I realise he is still a baby and so we are going to encounter these little problems but I just want to make sure I nip things in the bud straight away and deal with things in the best way possible. I am planing on doing some more in-hand work with him, including setting up a little course so we can practise walking through narrow spaces and also walking him in-hand up to the wood so we can encounter these problems with me on foot so that he doesn't pick up any nervousness from me. What does everyone think, does this sound like the right plan of action?
Sorry for the gigantic post, any advice much appreciated.
Charlie (Yep I've got the same name as my horsey!)
. I'm sure it's just a baby thing and once the penny drops she'll be fine, also the spring grass is definitly having an effect on her and it's probably the same for your boy so try not to worry!!
