Making excuses...

UPDATE:
Rode him again on Saturday. Lunged him in his tack in walk and trot for 5 minutes on each rein. Totally fine, very chilled. Got on, again very chilled. Nice and chilled in walk and walk-halt/halt/walk transitions. Asked for trot - panic! Head shoots up, starts "scampering", just really upset. Tried putting a little more leg on to see if he would go forward through it but that just upset him even more. Back into walk, totally fine, quickly relaxed again. Tried a couple more times for trot and he was exactly the same each time so just finished on some nice relaxed walk and left it there.
Something is definitely up with him physically as 2 weeks ago he was a dream and making lovely light transitions into a lovely relaxed trot.
So am going to speak to the vet about further investigations.
 
Your horse looks lovely.

I would suggest that if you are nervous of riding your horse then this is not the horse for you. You would be better off with an established safe laid back well schooled horse which you can enjoy riding and which will not change if it is not ridden regularly.

Your horse needs more regular work. I would suggest 30 minutes schooling followed by at least 60 minutes hacking per day to get your horse established. If you don't have the time commitment then my advice would be to sell on to an experienced new home that can deal with your horses issues.

If you really thing there is a physical problem with your horse then get your vet to refer your horse to an equine hospital for a full check up.
 
I see your point but the bizarre thing is that when I first started getting on him again this year I was a nervous wreck so I would have expected him to have taken the mick then. If he'd done to me what he did on Sunday two months ago I'd have gone to jelly and got off but it didn't actually phase me on Sunday - I was more just disappointed because I thought we'd worked past that and he'd turned a corner.
But I will be starting up lessons again with my instructor in the next few weeks so if he is taking the mick she will spot it and we'll sort it :)

I'd say the opposite with my D's.

If you go in thinking you can't do it or don't want to do it. You can't.

If you go in nervous, they'll do anything for you.

If you up the game, they up the game.

Instructor will be far more help being able to see if there is a trigger :)
Even a video in the school may help? Watch when he goes, how he and you react.
 
I am not too sure what I think about this issue.
Firstly I thought pain related, then lack of work related, but now I think he may just be taking the p*** to be totally honest. My horse gets lively in winter, she always has done! But work is the key. and generally the livelier she is, the better work I can get out of her!
If he is fine in walk, and assumably whilst hooning around the field, then I am not too sure on the pain related idea, unless of course it is a saddle/tack issue.
It also sounds as though as soon as he plays up the session is very shortly over, sorry if this is not the case but that's just what it is coming across as from the posts.

I would get him checked over, back, tack, teeth, vet etc and if there is no problems then I think the next port of call would be a RI or somebody experienced who can get on him and work him properly in front of you and show you that he will work if he is pushed through the paddy!

Good luck :)
 
Have you had his saddle checked recently?
No

Are you sure ,really sure that the saddle is ok.
No, I'm not but I will be looking into it.

Your horse looks lovely.

I would suggest that if you are nervous of riding your horse then this is not the horse for you. You would be better off with an established safe laid back well schooled horse which you can enjoy riding and which will not change if it is not ridden regularly.

Your horse needs more regular work. I would suggest 30 minutes schooling followed by at least 60 minutes hacking per day to get your horse established. If you don't have the time commitment then my advice would be to sell on to an experienced new home that can deal with your horses issues.

If you really thing there is a physical problem with your horse then get your vet to refer your horse to an equine hospital for a full check up.

I'm not nervous of him. I was for a while (which would have been a good time for him to start taking the pee) but not now. I've been riding other horses (and have regular lessons on my other horse and a friends horse) and I'd say I'm more confident now than I have ever been.
I still don't agree that it's a regular work thing in the sense that he needs the mental stimulation but I do suspect that since he hasn't been in regular work that he's grown weaker and this is where a pain issue might have developed. This was what the vet said last year when we were having problems. I just thought that even if he was simply weak through his back that a very light schooling session once a week would be fine until I could start working him through the week again.

I'd say the opposite with my D's.

If you go in thinking you can't do it or don't want to do it. You can't.

If you go in nervous, they'll do anything for you.

If you up the game, they up the game.

Instructor will be far more help being able to see if there is a trigger :)
Even a video in the school may help? Watch when he goes, how he and you react.

He's not a full D. I don't know if that's better or worse :rolleyes: He goes as soon as I ask for trot and on saturday when I put my leg on again to try and ride him through it it was like he'd had an electric shock. It's panic. He's a spooky horse and it's not a spook.


I am not too sure what I think about this issue.
Firstly I thought pain related, then lack of work related, but now I think he may just be taking the p*** to be totally honest. My horse gets lively in winter, she always has done! But work is the key. and generally the livelier she is, the better work I can get out of her!
If he is fine in walk, and assumably whilst hooning around the field, then I am not too sure on the pain related idea, unless of course it is a saddle/tack issue.
It also sounds as though as soon as he plays up the session is very shortly over, sorry if this is not the case but that's just what it is coming across as from the posts.

I would get him checked over, back, tack, teeth, vet etc and if there is no problems then I think the next port of call would be a RI or somebody experienced who can get on him and work him properly in front of you and show you that he will work if he is pushed through the paddy!

Good luck :)

In all honesty, I don't know that you're not all right when you say he's taking the pee. But he was sooo good before this started and it started so suddenly - I wasn't asking much of him even in trot so it's not like he had reason to try and avoid work. In the past, when he *was* experiencing pain he was a nightmare to even tack up and get on but he sticks his nose in the bridle and marches down to the school and stands still now!!!!

Anyway, teeth were checked very recently. I'm going to get the vet to take a look and go from there. I'm happy to be proved wrong but my gut feeling is that it's pain and so I don't want to try and "ride him through it" if that's the case as we'd be back where we started in early 2011.
 
Anyway, teeth were checked very recently. I'm going to get the vet to take a look and go from there. I'm happy to be proved wrong but my gut feeling is that it's pain and so I don't want to try and "ride him through it" if that's the case as we'd be back where we started in early 2011.

If you genuinley think that it is pain then the vet is your best port of call. you know him better than any of us and even if the vet says there is nothing wrong at least you know and can progress from there :)
 
Did I read that correctly in that your horse is only worked for 20 minutes a week? I would honestly say that if that is the case, your problem is that you have a very very fresh horse starting again every weekend. My horse and even my old mare are both "nice" people but both would totally blow a gasket if that was all the work they got. Definitely worth checking the old matrix of teeth, back and saddle but I would really review his feed v work regime and little work would make most horses really spooky.
 
Just to update:
Had the chiropracter out to him this weekend. He has pain on one side of his back towards his withers - explains the reaction I was getting under saddle. We think it's something he's done to himself in the field -the saddle fit could be better but wouldn't have caused the pain. She treated it with a magnetic pad thingy and pulled him about a bit and that did seem to help so she's coming back in two weeks to see how it's doing.
Am obviously concerned that he's injured himself but also slightly relieved that there's a rational explanation for his behaviour under saddle.
Thanks for all of your interest.
 
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