jogging horse - iberian type

siennamum

siennamum

Well-Known Member
Joined
18 February 2004
Messages
5,576
Location
Bristol
Visit site
We are schooling a young horse (5 - v green), who has by and large been an angel to do. The only issue we had was getting him to walk on the lunge, he just wanted to jog, it took ages to show him he could walk, and then insist he stayed in walk.

We are having the same issue under saddle He wants to prance and jog which I'm concerned about as he should go and do dressage, not games.

I am suspicious of the way he is shod, that he may need his teeth doing, that his owner gives him hard food, and am constantly paranoid about saddle fit, so am checking those on an ongoing basis

Does anyone have experience of fizzy horses, who are just born that way, this one, is a fidget on the yard, and overly enthusiastic about everything, always in the lead on hacks, and has never said no to anything. He is v iberian in type and is a 1/4 luso, so that may make a difference. Is this the norm for the breed....?

A couple of pictures just for eye candy

113012144812_KPT.jpg


rusty2.jpg
 
Had a 21 yo share lipizzaner who jogged out on a hack 100% of the time. Within 2 mins and me completely chilling out she was perfect after. Never did it with a novice interestingly, very quirky with anyone else!

Also an Andalucian who would do the same, ball of energy until they realised you were calm.

No other breed I've had has jogged like it. Any other horse had it as an additional gait when asked, not because they were a ball of energy.
 
I know lots of iberians to ride and just be around. They have a bad rep. None I have ridden have jogged however I know many tb's who do this :D Not all, which is why I am applying the same logic!

Generally, iberians are good doers and go hyper on grains unless needed for weight gain, mine goes hyper on haylage! Any sugar and she's a fruitloop.

Do take everything into consideration and start a process of elimination.
 
My son is very calm, and we are being very disciplined, horse isn't allowed to jog at all, and if he rushes he is bought back to a walk/halt. It is very annoying. Does seem to just be the horse, but i am continually paranoid about horse not being comfortable
 
tallyhohoho! said:
I know lots of iberians to ride and just be around. They have a bad rep. None I have ridden have jogged however I know many tb's who do this :D Not all, which is why I am applying the same logic!

Generally, iberians are good doers and go hyper on grains unless needed for weight gain, mine goes hyper on haylage! Any sugar and she's a fruitloop.

Do take everything into consideration and start a process of elimination.
Click to expand...

I am going to cover everything, but am frustrated that horse gets any mix. It may just be that. Owner swears he isn't feeding horse, but I suspect that he gives him 'little' feeds which have mix in them.
 
Lipizzaner would have exploded stopping and not getting out of system and andalucian had to be walked round school for a good few minutes with tonnes to think about, poles, tyres, serpentines etc til you felt him relax or would go up.
Both were much older though and had years of getting away with it, so good luck with yours :)
 
yes it is a juggling act, getting them to stop when they just want to GO, we are fairly careful not to frustrate him. he is pretty good about it & definitely needs his mind constantly occupied, better alone than in company as well.
 
What do you do when he jogs? Generally it's difficult to relax them into a walk from a jog so it might be better to send him on in trot and try to get him as long and low as possible. This may take ages to do and you may be circling around for what feels like forever, but if he doesn't relax it's difficult to do anything else with him.
 
He hasn't really done school work. He has only really hacked. I am being a bit confusing calling it jogging. He would jog if he could, we don't let him. He rushes though, and breaks from walk, we have periods of good walk, and generally his walk is ok, at the drop of a hat though he will start rushing and would jog or prance. I really want to establish his rythym at walk as he could have a poor walk, but he thinks it's too boring haha. I think the feeding issue is key and think I need to have hard words with owner.
 
I have a spanish and trained in spain he jogs all the time and even canters on the spot. Lots of halt to walk soon as he jogs made to halt again its been hard work two years on hardley jogs now unless he gets upset. I agree alot of spanish cant have any sugar in their diets iv taken as much out as possible with his feed. Im also lucky he has a mouth like melted butter so easy to stop but do prefer to use voice aids all the time and loads of praise really works for my boy
 
What a handsome horse!!! I have a welsh cob x and even she does the jogging thing! Literally all the way round on a hack, if I sit deep in the saddle she will come back to a walk eventually but then the next thing you know she's off again! She has to be very relaxed not to do it! It makes me wander what she is crossed with... She also has no winter coat which is the opposite of a normal cob type! Good luck with your boy!
 
My opinion, for what it's worth, is that you can't improve this from the walk.

In the walk you can either try to stop him using your reins and he will get more tense and possibly BTV, or you can try to lengthen the walk from the leg but in most cases a tense horse will then go into trot. Then it's better to accept the trot, keep the horse in front of the leg and try to encourage him to lengthen his frame long and low (which is of benefit to any horse but particularly good for PREs which as a breed tend to prefer more collected work). When he is stretching long and low, then go back to the walk and see what you get. If he tenses again, back up to trot again and see if that helps at all. Tension will usually result in rhythm problems, but you can't fix the rhythm without dealing with the tension.
 
siennamum said:
rusty2.jpg
Click to expand...

Just had another look at his feet...

The one thing I have noticed is that this horse has different shaped hooves, a steep pastern/hoof angle on the off fore, quite uneven feet all round of the ones I can see and the back foot is very upright and looks very long.

There is no such thing as typical iberian feet if that's what you may be thinking as you can get ones that go splat and some that are hard as marble.

However, if the horse is sound then there maybe no need to even investigate this.

After changing the feed to a low calorie one (as the crest is worrying) I would do what Booboos says. I would have to agree with her. The tb mare I rode was impossible in walk, not jog but would stick her ears up my nose and refuse to relax. We would have to do a lot of trot work before I could even attempt a contact in walk. Her best gait is canter! Work that one out...
 
Last edited:
Agree with booboos post. Had a ex racehorse was so tense I walk and troth he would never take a contact or lengthen or relax his back he was so 'squished' we did mostly work in trot and after a few months he was a diffdifferent horse gave the most lovely ride And he was 13 so had alot of bad habits
 
Iberian horses (and this chap is only 1/4?) tend to be very sharp, sensitive and busy, but I have never had one (and I've had some crazies....) that was disobedient in that way. The walking on the lunge thing isn't that important, but under saddle it would be a no-no for me. Lots of transitions walk/trot/walk, and not taking no for an answer would be my strategy. And definately sort the feed out - he looks quite chubby in the pics.
 
Tally hoho, I absolutely agree about the feet. He was shod badly IMO, was speaking to the owner about this just tonight I am quite concerned about it

He was chubby in the pic, is a bit of a porker, but that was after 9 weeks in the field, he is losing weight, looking much better now.

Interested input, thanks people.
 
Cortez said:
Iberian horses (and this chap is only 1/4?) tend to be very sharp, sensitive and busy, but I have never had one (and I've had some crazies....) that was disobedient in that way. The walking on the lunge thing isn't that important, but under saddle it would be a no-no for me. Lots of transitions walk/trot/walk, and not taking no for an answer would be my strategy. And definately sort the feed out - he looks quite chubby in the pics.
Click to expand...

He is very sensitive, sharp - but not in a naughty way, just in a way that an result in a 180 degree about face in a microsecond. He is also 1/4 arab so bound to be buzzy I suppose.
 
I will.

I think in the school we will be working more booboos style, he can learn to settle & swing along ( I am very anti schooling in walk with young horses anyway)
On hacks he is on a zero tolerance policy. It does seem to work, he is so keen to get going but he has to learn that it has to be on our terms.

I am going to be there for farrier visit, was pointing out to the owner the problems with shoeing tonight so he is on side. Food wise, I think I may have to throw all the hard food away so he can't inadevrtently have hard food!!

Son of course being 17, thinks it's splendid having a big (16.3) flashy long maned horse and would probably keep a bit of the prancing for showing off to the girls!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top