jogging horse - losing the will to live :|

P

Pr1nce

Well-Known Member
Joined
29 March 2013
Messages
104
Location
Northamptonshire
Visit site
Hi All,

I have had my horse for going on 6 years now and he still bloody jogs most of the time! he can be good for the first half of the ride and then start or start off bad and then settle, or more frequently spend the whole ride jogging when he should be walking :(

Does anyone have any tips on how to overcome this? i try pressure and release, just ignoring it completely and telling him off but nothing convinces him to walk again. (telling him off just makes it 10x worse) He just sticks his head in the air and runs through his shoulder when i ask him to walk, and if i take him into trot from the horrid jog he just rushes off with his head in the air and i can't get him to soften at all. I actually had to get off and walk home on sunday as he was jostling me so much my back was really starting to hurt!

HELP!!
 
My old boy was like that.
The thing that helped most was leg-yielding to and fro across the road (most of our hacking is on quiet lanes).
Giving him something specific to do seemed to take his mind off the mad dash for home
 
Mine is apt to jog if I don't keep him busy whilst out hacking. If I keep his mind busy, he's much better.
So things like leg yielding, turning when he doesn't expect it, halting when he doesn't expect it and asking for rein back, etc, etc. Anything so that I'm ahead of the game and he's always anticipating what I want, not just jig jogging the entire ride.
 
I can't help at all but I really know how you feel - my previous share horse did exactly that and it is so frustrating. The owner was a bit odd and just said to give her the reins and that if I relaxed she wouldn't do it. I'd be as relaxed as physically possible whilst being bobbed about and it made no difference. If I gave the reins, more often than not she'd just break into trot. I didn't really get on with either of them so I didn't hang around too long.
 
Don't even get me started on halting! lol i have to circle it at junctions as he will not stand for love nor money. I do kind of excuse this though with his shivers as i read they can find halting difficult, if i want to stop i invariably end up facing back the way we came :S
 
I ride one that can be like this. It can be frustrating if you let yourself get irritated by the horse. I find that if I get into some kind of zen-like state in my mind I can control it without any irritation.
The key thing is that you have to ride in walk with your body, even if he is jig-jogging. This means you have to firstly really pay close attention to how a horse moves you in the saddle when you are walking - walking with your eyes shut is good for this because it can help you to *feel* rather than look at it. You should be able to feel the influence of the front feet and hind feet and how that moves the saddle.
When you can feel the way your body is moved by the horse , then try to move in the same way when he is jogging. This isn't the same as just being relaxed in the saddle, though that does help. You are giving a subtle instruction to your horse in a more effective way than tugging on the reins. You can control the pace with your seat in an almost imperceptible way. It makes it much less appealing to them to jog, and you aren't having to fiddle with the reins making him feel frustrated.

It can be difficult for some people to get this feeling and it can take a lot of patience and practice, but when you do it makes riding these kinds of horses a doddle.

The other preparation for this is riding downward transitions without using your reins. For example, can you ride a trot to walk transition without needing to use the contact? When you can, you know your and your horse are tuned in through your seat and that same feeling will help you. It's not a quick fix but it absolutely will help if you can achieve it.
 
Try using the neck strap to stop or slow down. My 14.2hh pony jogged everywhere and this did work sometimes! Use the pull and release principle but using the neck strap instead of the reins.
 
Pr1nce said:
Don't even get me started on halting! lol i have to circle it at junctions as he will not stand for love nor money. I do kind of excuse this though with his shivers as i read they can find halting difficult, if i want to stop i invariably end up facing back the way we came :S
Click to expand...

You can improve this with practice. It's dull, and repetitive, but practice halting all over the place even when you don't need to. Wait until your horse relaxes for a moment and stops wriggling about, and then move off again. This really is something you can address through training. But it's really key that you don't get frustrated by him :)
 
milliepops said:
You can improve this with practice. It's dull, and repetitive, but practice halting all over the place even when you don't need to. Wait until your horse relaxes for a moment and stops wriggling about, and then move off again. This really is something you can address through training. But it's really key that you don't get frustrated by him :)
Click to expand...
This was one thing which worked for us. As milliepops and others have said you must be completely calm otherwise your not-calm body won't help his not-calm state. You need to become so focussed that you look for the merest indication of a halt and then walk on. This way your and his frustration cannot build. Also in a calm state you may find that small calm quiet circles work - don't go for that whirling a horse around on a small circle - you are looking for a calm circle and then walk on and repeat as necessary - probably quite often in the early stages! You may need a couple of circles at a time. With a horse who isn't too wound up (and neither are you) ask for the halt and once you have it however brief ask for a move backwards. This may be a step back but you may need to be thrilled with a shift in weight backwards in the early stages and then move on. I'd be taking the horse out for even as little as 5 minutes if the horse did as requested even if it was a ' try' rather than eg a full blown halt or rein back. I'd build from there keeping it very low key, no pressure on you or your horse and looking for the smallest glimmer of a 'try'. It will be easier for you to be calm and focussed for short periods and then when you are both happier you go for the longer rides. Your horse won't be perfect every time! but neither will you (or me!)
 
The one thing the worked with my lad was getting him moving forwards, it took some doing but he got it eventually. Basically every time he started to jog I would push him forward into trot, carry on trotting for a time making him really work into an outline (it would usually have to be a rather brisk, active trot) and then ask for walk with a definite and clear aid. I would keep repeating this and he got the message after a while. It was pretty hard work though!

Jogging REALLY irritates me!
 
My mare jogged so much when I first got her that even in full length suede chaps I used to get bruises and blisters from the stirrup leathers. She was a chestnut part Welsh D so I suppose it wasn't all that surprising. She was also speed-obsessed. I found that thinking about other things really helped, so looking at the river to see if I could spot a kingfisher, contemplating my supper, that sort of thing. Riding with my reins in one hand was good too, although as soon as I split them again she would tense up and be ready for her much anticipated gallop. Standing right up in the stirrups helped as well, probably because I was concentrating so much on keeping my balance and nothing on her behaviour. Eventually she twigged that if she was good she got to have a gallop, and if she was bad it was lots of trotting small circles. I think you need to use your voice aids with a horse like this too. She used to drive me mad at times, but I thought of her like a nail-biter - they don't know they are doing it half the time. I trained her to be very obedient to my voice and eventually could pull up from full gallop (and she could leave a TB who was 10 years younger and 1.5 hh bigger than her, standing) just by repeating "and walk". She was cheeky though and one time, having let her have a blast, asked her to come back to walk and she continued in canter but at walking speed! I couldn't be cross with her though, it was very logical to her and she was always having the last word. OP, given that your horse has been doing this for 6 years though, could it be because he is uncomfortable in some way rather than just being daft?
 
Thanks all - i will take all this on board!

fatpiggy - i did think that but he can have one horrendous day of jogging and then the next we will have a lovely calm walk round the block. Teeth/Back/Tack have all been checked and he is considerably better in the summer when i can ride most days. I'm not sure if it is that he is too fit at the minute for the excercise he is getting? alternatively, if we go for an extra long ride he starts to play up when he is tired?

argh!!! anyone with a nice ploddy type fancy swapping for a while? anyone? lol :)
 
This is my 1950s School of Horsemanship Tip of the Day.

Rider A wants to walk - Horse A thinks "can't be 'rsed to go forward I'll just jog" rider A picks up new rhythm suggested by the horse, rider is irritated, horse is comfy - excellent result on the jogging front.

Rider B wants to walk - Horse B (as above) goes to jog. But Rider B isn't having it and stays in the walk rhythm.
It is a bizarre thing to do but it works.
Horse is jogging - rider is walking - how annoying is this for a horse?
Very.
Horse soon drops to walk for a few paces - rider immediately evaporates and sits like a ghost.
Horse is thinking "OK that's different what do I do now?.... I know... jog again"
Rider stays in the walk rhythm and horse thinks "wtf and drops to walk again"
Rider turns into a ghost again.
Repeat.
Repeat.
Repeat until point is made.
It doesn't take long for a horse to work out that s/he doesn't like the walk rhythm in the jog.
I don't mind the odd excited jog but habitual jig jog rattles my kidneys and it is just not happening.
 
If you stay in walk the horse will walk unless it's having a complete melt down .
If you relax the contact the horse will walk .
I use neck straps all the time in these types of situations .
One of ours is a jogger drives my OH dotty never jogs with me .
That drives my OH even more dotty .
 
Pr1nce said:
Thanks all - i will take all this on board!

fatpiggy - i did think that but he can have one horrendous day of jogging and then the next we will have a lovely calm walk round the block. Teeth/Back/Tack have all been checked and he is considerably better in the summer when i can ride most days. I'm not sure if it is that he is too fit at the minute for the excercise he is getting? alternatively, if we go for an extra long ride he starts to play up when he is tired?

argh!!! anyone with a nice ploddy type fancy swapping for a while? anyone? lol :)
Click to expand...


Ha ha, I once got off and sat on a park bench for 10 minutes, just to be on something that didn't move! Mine was 100% awful if I rode out in company so I always had to go on my own (suited me though as I could do just what I wanted) - it didn't help that she was a dominant mare and herd leader so even some poor innocent on a bicycle wasn't allowed to go in front of us! I used to wonder if a plod would be more fun, but to be honest I would have been soooo bored and really I wouldn't have swapped her for anything, however exasperating she was. As for relaxing the contact - yeah, right! Cue head between ankles and flat out gallop. The only thing I have to say for the silly old thing though was she always behaved ok on the road (stopping at traffic lights and junctions could be a bit dodgy though) and would walk. As soon as she so much as saw grass though... She also had an amazing memory and would anticipate a good whizz because she had done one at a particular place 4 years ago last Tuesday or whatever. The crazy thing was though, once she'd had a really good blast, she'd stroll home on the buckle!!
 
Hi Mr B can also jog, toss head around and generally be a bit of a pain on the way home. I haven't cured it completely but it has improved to the point that I don't consider it a problem anymore. My solution has come through schooling and improving my own riding. It has taken a while but has improved him as a horse and has certainly improved me!Riding him more from the seat, particularly to slow him down but using my leg to get him to take longer steps has stopped the jogging, getting him to soften in the poll and flex has enabled me to unlock his neck when he's fixed and means he's softer in his back, so it's harder for him to get me off my seat. I hope this makes sense. He'll still toss his head but I ask for flexion and as soon as he gives, I'll give to him and he'll relax. Trotting, turning circles, turning him round, trying to slow him with the rein, none of these things worked, he'd just get more wound up and he'd get tighter in his neck and back and I'd bounce around. I have no problem in admitting that my riding position was part of the problem but with previous horses it hadn't been such an issue. Good luck, I hope you find a way of improving things, it is horrible being bounced around especially when the horse has big paces.
 
Milliepops explained it perfectly. This is exactly what I was taught to do years ago when I owned an anglo arab mare who wouldnt walk a step. Takes practise and you really have to concentrate until you get it, its like patting your head and rubbing your tummy, but once you get the knack it really does work.
 
Ughh mine does it, when he was younger and really fit it was much worse he would jog the entire way round 3 hour hacks! Nothing worked and I tried everything, it's hideous, boobs hurt bum hurts get a stitch ....

He's 24 now so has chilled out a bit but will still have joggy moments occasionally after a good blast or on the way back, but these days I don't mind and am just happy he's still enjoying himself 😄

Unfortunately I have no advice as I never managed to actually sort it despite trying so many different things but can definitely sympathise!!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top