jogging

C

charlottenicol

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When we are out in company my horse gets VERY excited and joggs most of the time, especially after a fast canter,he want's to do more, I have been told to give him more rein and use my legs but we end up going faster, I also see-saw the reins but this doesn't work I love a forward going horse, but it can be very antisocial. Last night I ended up trotting him up a huge hill and kicking him on when he flagged, he was a bit better after this. Any suggestions
 
Some horses just do jog.

Please don't see saw your hands it's an awful thing to do to their mouth.

How is he if you just drop the rein??
 
As AmyMay says.
Who ever sugested to you to see saw on a mouth needs a big chunk of metal put in their mouth and someone to see saw on it!!!! That way they will understand it hurts!
Are you getting a little tense when he does this or after a canter? Try and control your breathing, relax your pelvis, chat to who your with and make out your just ambling along. That way your horse might just pick up your relaxed and do the same himself.
 
It is difficult, we hav an old ex rachorse that does this once he's had a canter and my sister's 2nd pony was a bugger for doing it. The best thing i can think of to do is just try relax and let the contact on the mouth go loose. If he runs then halt him and do it again and again. Also half halt can work and keeping calm and saying "waalk" may help stop. If he's etablished this already though it can take a time for the message to get through but you have to make sure you are calm in yourself as tensing will make him worse. Have you tried lungeing and getting him good at responding to vocal commands to walk? If they learn this well then they should be able (in my mind) to listen the same on a ride. There's no reason why a horse cannot learn vocal commands the same as a dog in my opinion.

I find the more you fiddle with the mouth though the worse they will get and the more agitated. Ooh, and also always praise vocally when the horse does what you want!
 
My horse is exactly the same!!
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Put a western saddle on him - jog is then very acceptable - taught me a long time to get Cairo to do it - hard work for a heavy to do a proper jog rather than trot.

My old TB jogged a lot - I just accepted it and relaxed as much as I could, which made it more comfortable. I also used to do half halts rather than hanging on which helped her slow down.
 
Agree with LadyT, I had an ex racehorse who was exactly the same. The only thing that worked for him was to try to get him to relax (give a long rein, relax yourself). Half halts helped, voice helped, but I am afraid he was always prone to it in moments of stress and excitement. I wouldnt jiggle/see saw with the reins.
 
It's a difficult problem to cure.
I'd try halting him completely when he jogs, then pushing him forward into a long rein, giving a good length of rein with my hands, and keeping my seat deep, and my leg closed on. The idea is to get him to walk, with a lengthened walk stride, so really follow with your hands and seat, periodically take one hand forward and stroke his neck with it....praising him.
As soon as he does a jog bounce step, halt and repeat. Eventually he should work out that he'll get where he's going faster in a long walk, than jog/halt all the way.
Other exercises which may help are leg yielding from side to side of the road/track (obviously don't leg yield yourselves in front of a lorry
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) and/or shoulder-in. A good tip to connect rider to horse's movement more effectively is for you to call out each foot as it touches the ground 'Left hind! left fore! ' etc - this will help to focus on the walk rhythm.
Hope this helps.
S
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