Napping/devaluing

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vicm2509

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I am considering selling my horse if I cannot get his napping sorted within 6 months. The proffesional cannot come to him for 2 months due to a broken leg, so I shall give him 4 months to work with him and me and if no progress is made I will have to consider selling him.

My question is how much will napping devalue my horse? He naps when I ask him to leave the yard on his own, the napping is very bad and will take someone with a lot of experience and patience to get him through it although his is usally ok when you get him out but sometimes naps when out. He rears (only small), bucks, spins etc and will not go forwards, only solution atm is to take him off backwards. He does not do it in company.

Also started napping when entering SJ arena, can usually get him through it though but not always, as it is impossible to get him trough it if there are other horses/people around as he goes backwards. He only does it if he has been stood around for a while, even more so if he has been stood with other horses. If you get him out the box and take him straight in he is fine.

Apart from that is is 100% in all ways, fantastic dressage horse, no other vices at all and lovely laid back horse.

How much is his napping likely to devalue him?
 
Depends on what you intend to sell him as.
If it is as a hack/RC home then I am afraid it will devalue him significantly possibly to the point where he is not saleable or saleable only at a very low price.
If he is a particularly talented competition horse and he doesn't nap while competing then it won't affect his value as much to the right buyer.
 
It depends, my old pony was very bad, you could not take her to a show with ahorse she knew. They wanted her for hunting and she doesnt have a problem atall when with the main group, so we sold her at a reasonable price

Haz
 
I obviously wouldnt sell him as a hack/rc horse.

He will go far in dressage. I started competing him at begining of winter season and he gets marks between 70 - 82% at prelim and got 68% in our first novice. Comments on out sheet always say he has fantastic paces and lots of potential so with the right person he could go far in dressage. He has a fantastic jump aswell, its just the getting him in the arena at comps that is the problem
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I dont want to sell him, I am just considering my options if I cannot get him sorted.
 
I completely sympathise with the position you are in as I have just been through the same with a horse! Mine too was talented on the flat but would nap out hacking/jumping. He would hack, but only if you were willing to take him on (!) which is fine for me, but not for people trying him! I was lucky in that he didn't nap whilst competing at dressage (so far - but I certainly couldn't guarantee that for the future!!). I would imagine it would devalue your horse (it devalued mine) but I came to the conclusion that I wasn't enjoying him and he was breaking my heart. Good luck, I hope you can sort him
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Just out of interest what avenues have you tried in getting him to behave?

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Absolutly everything. Being patient and sitting there for hours in the hope he will give in, spinning him, walking backwards, getting mad and smacking him, long reining. You name it we have tried.

He is fine with someone walking at the side of him so I did this for months last summer to build up his confidence as it is a confidence issue. Then I managed to get him out on short hacks on his own but had to talk to him the whole way but he was still tense.

Didnt do much hacking over winter and this summer we are now back to square one. Ive tried calmers with no joy either. He has only just started doing it at shows and only in the SJ ring. There is no one on my yard with experience of this so I am now stopping the SJ/hacking until I can get a proffesional on his back.

I have to say I never ever let him get away with this and ALWAYS ride him through it. But it seems he is now playing on it and doing it to avoid SJ.

He fell over with me on top of him last week when he skidded mid nap while I was demonstrating to my instructor what he does, this was the breaking point for me as I felt I could no longer deal with the problem alone.
 
I can sympathise with you as I had a nappy TB. I'll probably get shot down in flames for this buuuut - have you considered natural horsemanship methods?
I know a lot of ppl on her scoff at it but from experience I can say it works, its personal choice though.
Furthermore, I would add that I think horses have to earn their keep and have a job to do, but much the same as us - they don't always like doing what they are expected to do. Have you considered that this horse simply does not like doing certain things, like SJ, and therefore it might be more suited to another discipline?
 
hi vik, maybe claire1976 is right, maybe he just doesnt like the show jumping as he is always an angel for the dressage and was a star for the showing classes on sunday ? we are going to church farm on the 7th of july, why dont you come with us and just do the showing and see how he goes ?
 
I always rode mine through it as well, he never ever got his own way, no matter how long it took. It sounds like you have been through every avenue with him (in fact I could have written your post!). I don't blame you for wanting to draw a line under it after he fell over on top of you - what does your instructor say? All mine told me just to get rid!!!
 
My instructor agrees that I should try the guy who I am planning to get to help me and if he cant sort him (which she thinks he will be able to) then if I definatly dont think he is suitable for what I want to do I should consider selling.

She has SJ at her yard on Sunday so ive booked a lesson for sat afternoon as all the jumps will be out. We are going to see what happens if I go in jump them, then come out and try and go in again. There will be no other horses around.

The thing is once he gets going in the SJ he loves it, he goes round with his ears pricked and is an angel as long as he cannot see any other horses. We tried WH on sunday he jumped first 2 jumps then as soon as we got to the 3rd one, which was by the gate and the other horses he started napping and I had to take him out. As Dane07 will tell you he was just being plain naughty as I took him out and he flew the practice fence as he did with the first 2 fences! But in the showing classes earlier on he was perfectly behaved.
 
oh its so frustrating isn't it, when you know they are perfectly capable! Somedays mine would be fine and others would just say "no way" but when he had it in his head he was going he was brill! Well hope it goes ok sat afternoon, keep me posted! He'll probably be perfect to show you up! Napping, what napping?!!
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It will devalue him I'm afraid. I have a stunning horse for sale(he has found a new owner now- fingers crossed). He is great to hack on his own and in company, he hunts, jumps and has won dressage, show jumping, showing and xc up to open level. He moves beautifully and is perfect to clip catch box etc. BUT he can have a bit of a nap when he is in a stroppy mood and because of this I have had to sell him for £1500 and he is only just turned 8yrs old.
I would rather let him go for that and know that the new owner understands him and realises his issue than overprice him and risk not selling him or him going to the wrong home.
This is him:

charlieridinghorse-1.jpg


charlie3ftopensarahtable.jpg


Like you , I have got to a point where I don't want to go through this anymore- I simply don't have time.
 
Charlie76 - that looks like my ex-horse, except he had 2 white socks at the the back! Lovely to look and well placed unaff dress and SJ, like yours. His sire is spose to have a lovely temp so I blame the mare
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