napping youngster :( time spent

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kate2323

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what is the longest time" spent sitting it out "on a napping horse..today was Four hours...luckily I had all day ...after planting, spinning , rearing , bucking, broncing, pawing the ground , trawling through undergrowth and heading back to the yard and back up the bridleway over 8 times I finally got him to walk the original ride. of 45 mins ..started out at 10.45am....got off him at 2.45pm...didn"t get off at all during the 'episode"
what is your longest time and how did you resolve it!!?
 
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I feel your pain I've had similar! The only thing I found that helped was to take someone confident on foot and if he napped they would lead until he would step forward and then let go! Eventually they only had to walk up to him and he would go forward and then I got to the point I could go alone! But this did take a LONG time... Patience is key!
 
I don't believe that getting off is interpreted by the horse as them 'winning' so i would have got off and made the horse walk on and then remounted when safe to do so. My mare used to be very nappy and I rode on some very busy roads at that time, so her pratting about was just too dangerous. I never found that dismounting did any harm - the opposite in fact as she would normally happily walk past the 'sticking point' the next time we did the route - as she was never allowed to turn and come back the way we came.
 
I get off and lead if it's safe to do so.

All of my youngsters have gone through this - I will hack them in company first, then with OH walking alongside and then finally alone. When we get the planting, spinning and general stropping I'll ask them firmly to go forward and then get off and lead. As long as they are moving in the direction that I want them to go I don't care that I am on foot. The quicker I jump off and lead the better they are.
 
First time I hacked my mare out on her own, we got down the drive and about 1/4 or a mile from the yard when she planted and nothing would make her move at all so after a good 15 mins of trying to get her going I got off and lead her half way round the ride I planned on and then got back on and rode her home :) Next time I went out ( I had a lesson in between this and instructor gave me some wonderful advice) we got to the bottom of the drive and she planted but this time i was prepared so all of a sudden Im asking her to circle, now figure of 8 now a circle, making it bigger and further away from the drive each time. was quite funny, YO shouted down did I need any help, no thanks! lol! We did 20 mins of circles and figure 8's and then I asked her walk on in a straight line away from the yard and off we went quite happily. I have not had her plant since then, except when we see Cows, she hates cows .
 
I wouldn't sit and do nothing. I would sit and quietly pester, releasing the pressure when the horse made any forward move. While it's important to keep the stress levels down, I think the horse must go when you say go. I would only stop and wait if it were a horse who threw a headfit under pressure.
Napping isn't normal with a young horse, it never used to be anyway, though back in the day when a horse napped going off the yard as a baby it would get a smack on the bottom and wouldn't really ever do it again.
 
I used to just get off mine, after trying all the other techniques that lots of people had told me to try. I never found the sitting her out thing to be of any benefit whatsoever. If she found something super scarey it was scarey all day, until someone showed her that it wasn't and I found it quicker for it to be me to show her it wasn't deadly after all than it was to wait for some random walker to turn up (or not . .)
It didn't take that many rides for me to show her that maybe life wasn't so deadly after all and her confidence then quickly increased and I hardly ever had to get off after a while. It took kindness, not "showing her who was the boss" to win my mare over. Yes she should have responded to the forward aids and got on with it, but you still have to establish their confidence in you first and for us, we achieved that by a couple of dismounts and then we were away.
 
Well done for persevering :)

Different techniques work for different horses - however I have found the quickest way to deal with this sort of thing is to jump off, walk a few strides and repeat. Doesn't matter how many times you need to do this, they soon realise that it is easier just to keep going, and you don't need to get into an argument with them doing this.

Hope your youngster starts giving you an easier life :)
 
i don't think my horse fond anything scary in particular - it was probably just a mixture of nerves as was his first time out alone and total stubborness...
 
I always walk babies out in hand first, they really love the time and attention it gives them, it gives them great confidence and always remember that they consider you as their trainer leader, its your job to give them confidence and judge when they are ready to go it alone, I never ride out the first time with another horse, if the job is done right, they are taking the lead from you, and should something arise they are not sure of they will look to you for reassurance and trust your judgement, it builds the relationship, its much easier to teach them the right thing in the first place than undo a load of acquired anticks and bad habits which have been allowed to happen.
 
i forgot to add he had been on the same ride over 25 times before in hand, being led and ridden with a companion..he always took the lead and loved going out...
 
siennamum said:
I wouldn't sit and do nothing. I would sit and quietly pester, releasing the pressure when the horse made any forward move. While it's important to keep the stress levels down, I think the horse must go when you say go. I would only stop and wait if it were a horse who threw a headfit under pressure.
Napping isn't normal with a young horse, it never used to be anyway, though back in the day when a horse napped going off the yard as a baby it would get a smack on the bottom and wouldn't really ever do it again.
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Totally agree. I've had a lot of nappers which have come good. Some people are better at riding them than others. In my experience anything they do you need to unwind. If they get to go the way they want and you don't make them go the way you want then they never improve. Not easy to explain. I've never spent 4 hours on a napper either and hope I never do!
 
difference was mine is a very sharp dutch dressage baby and if I had wacked him would have prob been badly bucked off....by patience and not getting angry we got there in the end but in between there was alot of bad behaviour and stubborness - he must have done it before and got away with it...
 
Like Tristar, I make sure they are happy being long reined around where I will later ride them and I've not had anything nap at all because they have learnt and got their confidence from me long before I've ever backed them. It does youngsters the world of good to be led about outside of a school so they can learn to be brave and forward going; it's such a shame that this part of their education seems to be missing more and more nowadays.
 
I think I spent a couple of hours sitting on a horse that refused to walk forwards a few times. I'd previously forced him forwards in a variety of places and was attempting a new approach. However, I'll never be doing that again... Even though it EVENTUALLY works, a study came out a few months ago that compared getting horses to go by a scary object forcefully to waiting it out - and though the forceful version causes more acute stress, they are less stressed the next time they encounter the same thing - whereas horses left to wait it out continued to exhibit stress and elevated heart rates on future occasions. I would begin by nagging with the leg, then try turning and encouraging forward etc. If it doesn't work, get off and drag them if you have to - don't wait it out. It's better for them.

I also recommend long walks in-hand with youngsters. It makes a huge difference to both their confidence and their trust in you.
 
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