DappleGreyDaydreamer
Well-Known Member
I have posted before about schooling issues with my horse, and after some helpful advice and a lot of hard work for me, he is enjoying his schooling and dropping down onto the bit much more nicely than ever before! His trot work is fantastic in the school now and his circles and turns are improving phenomenally, but I've found a couple other things have begun to go downhill.
He tosses his head a LOT when we're not jumping or hacking, I think mainly because he gets bored even just doing the 15 minutes of schooling twice a week we do, but my main problem is that he's starting to refuse to canter when he's not pointed at a fence. It's frustrating, because he has so much energy and enthusiasm in the trot, but the second I ask for a canter he'll throw his head up and refuse to transition. I'll try a bit more leg, get about 2 strides out of him before he'll fall back into a trot and tank off with his head in the clouds.
The funny thing is, during our routine warm-up he canters like a dream. Let me know if this is a problem, but my instructor recommended I do the same 10 minute warm-up every time I school or jump him, because my boy settles very well into a routine and is a lot less anxious when he has one. I've been doing that and he knows the warm-up and when it's done, and if we don't head at a jump after warming up then this whole canter problem starts up.
I'm really not sure what to do here. I've tried using some polework to encourage him, and he canters very happily when doing that, but once there's no poles left he's back to normal. I'm stuck in a rut at the moment with him, as he's such a lovely horse in every possible way, but this is causing an issue. Plus, to cap it all, my instructor is away for a fortnight over Christmas, so I'm asking for help here to avoid the problem getting any worse before I can get a lesson.
Thank you all so much!
He tosses his head a LOT when we're not jumping or hacking, I think mainly because he gets bored even just doing the 15 minutes of schooling twice a week we do, but my main problem is that he's starting to refuse to canter when he's not pointed at a fence. It's frustrating, because he has so much energy and enthusiasm in the trot, but the second I ask for a canter he'll throw his head up and refuse to transition. I'll try a bit more leg, get about 2 strides out of him before he'll fall back into a trot and tank off with his head in the clouds.
The funny thing is, during our routine warm-up he canters like a dream. Let me know if this is a problem, but my instructor recommended I do the same 10 minute warm-up every time I school or jump him, because my boy settles very well into a routine and is a lot less anxious when he has one. I've been doing that and he knows the warm-up and when it's done, and if we don't head at a jump after warming up then this whole canter problem starts up.
I'm really not sure what to do here. I've tried using some polework to encourage him, and he canters very happily when doing that, but once there's no poles left he's back to normal. I'm stuck in a rut at the moment with him, as he's such a lovely horse in every possible way, but this is causing an issue. Plus, to cap it all, my instructor is away for a fortnight over Christmas, so I'm asking for help here to avoid the problem getting any worse before I can get a lesson.
Thank you all so much!