Napping - A UK problem?

Two of the nappiest horses or maybe the two that have lacked confidence in relation to hacking are both Spanish imports. One is now great, perseverance and positive riding got him going forward very quickly. The other 5 years down the line will point blank not go out alone. If you do by some miracle get him in front then he stresses and if somehow you get him by himself he jogs and screams and it ends up in a full on tantrum with athletic bucks and that's even on the way home. Both are imported PRE. The latter horse has had several riders try him including a Spanish instructor and the same thing happened.

There does seem to be a lack of positive riding from some riders here in UK but I think that it's a situation that could arise anywhere. I do get asked to school on quite a few 'nappy' horses but 7/10 times it does seem to turn out to be a rider problem. I have seen a large increase in novice owners buying youngsters so they can grow/learn together which doesn't help a lot of the time.
 
burtie said:
I guess it comes down to understanding how severe napping behaviour develops, it doesn't just happen and tends to come on from bad, ineffectual or incorrect training. Some cases can occur after a single bad incident but this is rarer. When does walking a bit faster home, become a jog. When does a horse walking slower away from home become a refusal to walk and so on. These things develop over time. I've not yet ridden a horse that doesn't have a little more purpose in each pace on the way home (not talking about disobedience in any way), so I am surprised that foreign horses don't do this at all.
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Why do you refer to stepping out a bit quicker on the way home as napping, it's nothing of the sort?

Napping is when the horse refuses to go where you want it to go immediately, nothing else.

I think you see it far more now when every Tom Dick & Harry purports to be good enough to break in a horse and allows bad habits (which is something you would never see from a proper nagsman.) when in fact they shouldn't even be given a rocking horse to handle. By far too many badly trained (if trained at all) breakers about coupled with the growing legions of beginner riders taking on horses of their own when they haven't a clue or are even willing to learn. It's no wonder horses learn bad habits - and get away with them.
 
If I understand "napping" is what I might call barn sour or herd bound in the US. They don't want to leave the yard, balk at moving forward when asked? Or try to make a dash for home whenever possible.

If that's the case there most certainly are "nappy" horses in the US! If you look at some of our top trainers (not necessarily for show) all of them will have discussed this problem at least once. I see it more with green riders and green horses, or in places where the trail riding is really dull. My first mare was really bad about it when I got her, but she'd been ridden by mostly green riders (or abusive jerks) and did it only because she got away with it. Once she realized that trail riding was fun, and that she couldn't get away with that behavior, she quit. None of our other horses do it, and are sometimes overly keen to go out instead :)

I'm riding a big warmblood in Europe right now who has only been ridden amateurly and she can be very barn sour, which drives me crazy. But she doesn't get away with it either.

I'd mark it to poor training, usually done by an amateur rider with a young horse who just doesn't know what they're doing.
 
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