rowy
Well-Known Member
I have a Hanoverian mare, 8 years old this year.
She's always been relatively lazy at home- she's responsive to my aids but wants to put in minimal effort, especially when the exercise involves more effort. She's bred for dressage so finds certain movements easy i.e. piaffe, walk to canter, traver and collection. But if she finds a particular movement more difficult i.e. shoulder in and leg yield she will put no effort in whatsoever and ignore my leg.
Last year she was often ultra sharp at certain venues to the point i could hardly put my leg on and she would explode in medium canter although our marks were always ok (competing at elementary level). In September at the area finals she was absolutely awful so i decided to look into a calmer and started her on coolcore from equifeast. She gets this alongside half a scoop of rolled oats, happy hood molasses free hifi (we found out sugar makes her spooky, even just an apple) and ad lib hay.
So far this year we have been to two competition and the regional championship and she has been soooo lazy and dead to my leg! This has meant our marks have been worst than last year even though she's not making as many big mistakes. I had to literally carry us around the regionals ele test as no schooling whips were allowed. I did give her a syringe calmer on each of these outings (Vetrocalm) and where she would usually be spooky she wasn't at all, even in the scary indoor at Addington. However, i think her being ultra lazy might be more detrimental to our results than when she was hot and sharp!
She's not like a normal lazy horse (i used to own a welsh x that hated dressage and was the definition of lazy).
1. If i carry a schooling whip, I don't even have to use it she goes forward off my leg straight away.
2. Moves she finds easy she'll react straight away i.e. walk to canter or halt to canter. However she finds shoulder in and leg yield more difficult and will completely ignore my leg, especially in a test.
3. She is noticeably more lazy when in a test and less reactive. She's usually OK in the warm up even without a whip.
I did think it was just a schooling thing but i took her out for a hack today and she was so slow. She wasn't so lazy that i had to use my legs but usually she's marching on hacks, when trotting towards home she'll want to do medium trot but today she was just doing riding school trot. Even took her in a big open field for a canter where she will usually go really forward and really pull to go faster but today she just did a slow steady canter up the hill with loose reins.
Any ideas? I'm going to get her bloods tested and i'm going to try her on an electrolyte supplement to see if this helps as well as upping her oats slightly as she has lost weight recently where they have exhausted all grass in her field now. Her coat is looking a bit more dull than usual. She's not in season currently and never seems to really change when in season anyway.
I am trying her back on a slice of haylage to see if it makes any difference. Sugar usually sends her spooky rather than more forward but i'm wondering if i can use this spooky energy more positively in her work.
She's always been relatively lazy at home- she's responsive to my aids but wants to put in minimal effort, especially when the exercise involves more effort. She's bred for dressage so finds certain movements easy i.e. piaffe, walk to canter, traver and collection. But if she finds a particular movement more difficult i.e. shoulder in and leg yield she will put no effort in whatsoever and ignore my leg.
Last year she was often ultra sharp at certain venues to the point i could hardly put my leg on and she would explode in medium canter although our marks were always ok (competing at elementary level). In September at the area finals she was absolutely awful so i decided to look into a calmer and started her on coolcore from equifeast. She gets this alongside half a scoop of rolled oats, happy hood molasses free hifi (we found out sugar makes her spooky, even just an apple) and ad lib hay.
So far this year we have been to two competition and the regional championship and she has been soooo lazy and dead to my leg! This has meant our marks have been worst than last year even though she's not making as many big mistakes. I had to literally carry us around the regionals ele test as no schooling whips were allowed. I did give her a syringe calmer on each of these outings (Vetrocalm) and where she would usually be spooky she wasn't at all, even in the scary indoor at Addington. However, i think her being ultra lazy might be more detrimental to our results than when she was hot and sharp!
She's not like a normal lazy horse (i used to own a welsh x that hated dressage and was the definition of lazy).
1. If i carry a schooling whip, I don't even have to use it she goes forward off my leg straight away.
2. Moves she finds easy she'll react straight away i.e. walk to canter or halt to canter. However she finds shoulder in and leg yield more difficult and will completely ignore my leg, especially in a test.
3. She is noticeably more lazy when in a test and less reactive. She's usually OK in the warm up even without a whip.
I did think it was just a schooling thing but i took her out for a hack today and she was so slow. She wasn't so lazy that i had to use my legs but usually she's marching on hacks, when trotting towards home she'll want to do medium trot but today she was just doing riding school trot. Even took her in a big open field for a canter where she will usually go really forward and really pull to go faster but today she just did a slow steady canter up the hill with loose reins.
Any ideas? I'm going to get her bloods tested and i'm going to try her on an electrolyte supplement to see if this helps as well as upping her oats slightly as she has lost weight recently where they have exhausted all grass in her field now. Her coat is looking a bit more dull than usual. She's not in season currently and never seems to really change when in season anyway.
I am trying her back on a slice of haylage to see if it makes any difference. Sugar usually sends her spooky rather than more forward but i'm wondering if i can use this spooky energy more positively in her work.