Nappy horse - advice please

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anniedoherty

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Hope someone experienced can give me some advice as I am getting very frustrated with Oliver's nappiness in the school. Once I actually get him going he will do some decent work but at the start of every schooling session he is taking the mickey and I am not sure what to do. As I always say in my posts, I am a novice horse owner so please be kind!

I've had him just over 3 months and he was fine at first but, as he settled in, he seems to have got worse. I've had his back, teeth and tack checked and nothing remarkable found.

Recently he has started to plant his feet when asked to trot and then the battle really starts. He naps towards the door and I can't get him to move. I tried spurs and they worked for a while but then he started to ignore them. I tried a short whip and that worked briefly and then he ignored that too. Now I am carrying a schooling whip but he seems to ignore that unless I really use it hard (which goes against how I would prefer to ride).

Am I just being silly? Should I give him a few big smacks and hope he gets on with it? I have tried doing this and all I seem to get are mini rears and lots of small bucks. Please help and don't be too scathing as I freely own up to not being a particularly good rider, despite my best efforts.
 
Does he do it anywhere else?
Does he get a lot of variety in his work i.e. hacking out.
How many schooling sessions do you have a week?
How often do you have lessons and does he do it during a lesson?
 
Could someone get behind him with a lunge whip for a few sessions? Sometimes shock factor works and they think twice about doing it for a while. Probs wont be a permanent cure though if thats how his mind works!
 
I am afraid I haven't dared hack out yet. I don't think he's ever been hacked out and I am scared to do more than just walk down the lane with him. I will do more when the weather improves but, at the moment I am just too worried about it. So, he doesn't really get much variety at all. I school him about 5 days a week by myself and have one lesson a week. He does it in lessons too.

He is six and a KWPN.
 
I have asked someone to point lunge whip at him and that works but the next time I ride he is back to being nappy. I just wonder sometimes if I should give up because I am not a strong enough rider but I love him so much that I really want to suceed with him.
 
I would think that he is sick to death of being in the school. Particularly at that age he needs a lot more variety than that. Not sure how you get round this - why are you worried about hacking out. Is there somewhere you could box to with a friend on a reliable horse to take him out somewhere?
 
I thought that might be a big part of my problem. I am scared of hacking out because I have been bolted with a couple of times (not with Oliver, obviously) and I have never hacked out very far since then due to fear. I know I am pathetic but I used to get someone else to hack my pony out for me once a week and she was fine with me schooling her for the rest of the time. Do you think one hacking session a week would suffice and is there anything else I should be doing (or asking someone better than me to do?)?
 
sounds like you need some help generally and a bit of confidence boosting. Are you on a livery yard, full or part or diy and what help is available to you, do you have transport and people you could ride with
 
Have you tried doing some groundwork with him and getting him to respect you again, maybe he just thinks he is now the boss. You need to show him you are his boss and leader! Many behaviour problems can be tackled from the ground successfully.
 
I defintely need my confidence boosting. I am on a livery yard and one of the other liveries with a steady horse says that she will take me out but I am still worried about it and putting it off until the weather is a bit better.

My YO is very supportive but she can't be there to hold my hand all the time. I already ask her millions of questions. I wonder if I should advertise for a sharer to help me by doing some of the things which I should really be doing myself?
 
I have never done groundwork with him. I'm not really sure what it involves? Can you elaborate for me? Thank you
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In my opinion, honestly. im wondering if hes the right horse for you. If you are low on confidence, you want a confidence booster.....not a horse thats gonna shatter your confidence further.
 
I did give him a good smack today and he still bucked and reared on the spot for a while but eventually I must have annoyed him enough to make him work again. I just wish I was a bit more experienced and could get over this problem quickly. It seems to be taking me ages to make real progress. I have a good couple of sessions with him and then it starts to go wrong again.
 
I Agree with FMM He just feed up.... Its his way of saying I've had enough.... Even with out hacking could you not box out, lunge, loose school, long rein, work on inhand troting up, walking etc, pole works, start bringing 'scary' thing into the school to get his brain thinking, umbrellas, plastic, ballons, boxes.... This will bomb proof him for hacking, and give you an idea how he'll react to these sort of things too. You also need to make the school as positive as possible, and napping to get out the school as unpleasant as possible, so he thinks stay in here good, trying to get out bad. Working him through it. I think going back to ground work to get him to respected you more and feel like he would do anything to be with you rather then the other way around!!
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Oh and golden rule don't leave the school till hes going well, not napping and positive even if its just walking, troting him in hand!
 
We had a pony in which had similar problems. You need to thing ahead and solve the problem before it starts i.e Try and sense when he is going to nap and give him a reminder smack he is to keep going forwards. If he bucks, smack him again for bucking, keep on doing so til he stops bucking, then pat him. If he tries to rear, keep his head turned one way into his side, he will find it very difficult to rear.
 
Yes, I wondered if a nice safe cob would be better for me. I didn't specifically ask for a KWPN. I just asked my instructor to choose something suitable for me and he is what I ended up with. I do really like him though. He's not malicious - I think he is just testing my limits ............ unfortunately, he's found them.

I would like to improve my riding rather than just selling him though because he is great when he will work properly for me.
 
Ground work involves really simple "respecting space" exercises, from leading, backing up, making the horse stop/start, then leading them over tarpaulin (sp), poles etc, which builds confidence and they then look at you as a leader, which can when you get back on, make it easier. A good book "Perfect Manners" by Kelly Marks may help! If you are not a fan of taking him out hacking yet, it may also provide a little variety, opposed to 100% schooling.

Its certainly helped with my youngster, he was a bit nappy, and still can be, but i take him back to the ground work exercises when he goes like this and it makes him think again!

Good luck and don't give up just yet...ask for help from instructors/professionals if you love him and want it to work, you can make it, but with help.
 
Thank you everyone - so many responses I'm finding it hard to reply to you all! Lots of good advice to ponder on. I do want to persevere with him as I don't even know what sort of horse I'd replace him with. Is there a horse out there which will let me improve my riding without destroying my confidence? I had a pony previously which did everything I wanted but I felt that I needed to get a horse which was put together better so that I could do slightly more advanced stuff but I've ended up turning him into a donkey!
 
Don't sell at the first hurdle. You know this horse and together you will make it. He is already making you a better rider. Anybody can sit on a safe, plod.... riding is about being effective not what angel your feet are.
 
A shaarer may not be a bad ideabut it would have to be a very confident rider and experience horseman/woman and I would not charge her anything but in return explain to her that you need her support and advice. The other thing to do, if your YO is very experienced is to go to her and explain your dilema and see if she can devote anymore time to you or perhaps ride him for you. A friend of mine had the same problem with her horse, she over-horsed herself and got into difficulty after a few months. Horses are generally schooled professionally to sell on and if that is n ot continued then they tend to revert or take up bad habits. She moved to a yard (more expensive) where she was constantly supervised when riding and guided through the whole thing, but it was no quick fix and very expensive, but I have to say well worth it for her she has come on leaps and bounds and is now considering DIY.
 
Thank you Forget_Me_Not. I do want to get a good partnership going with him. I see glimpses of it from time to time and it feels great. I just don't think I could bring myself to sell him and let anyone else have him. I would be jealous!
 
Jella, I think that is probably what I need to be truthful - someone experienced to ride him regularly until I get more experienced myself. I didn't mean to overhorse myself and my instructor is adamant that I haven't and that I can ride him perfectly well if I can just nip this in the bud. I am not so sure. Sometimes when he is going well I think that I can crack the problem by myself and then, at other times I just wish that I could pay someone to school him for me several times a week. I have tenatively asked someone whose riding I really admire but I think he is too busy to help at present.

I don't want to upset anyone (like my YO) by trying to get more help with Oliver but I also don't want to get in the situation where I can't ride him and enjoy it since that is the whole point of having him!
 
A lot of what i would suggest has already been said so i wont repeat it.

As for the hacking, if you dont feel happy riding him, how about just leading him in hand down the lane for a few mins and then come back and gradually progress to longer distances. You said your friend would ride out with you, you could always walk along side her too.

It sounds like your doing the right thing with him.. think its more a case of perseverence as it wont happen overnight

maybe even have a lesson on a different horse.. it may help you to feel what oliver is doing underneath you as you'll be able to compare.

as others have said, introuduce poles, cones, ect and try and vary his schooling as much as possible as it does sound like his is slighly bored

an option maybe even to try giving him a few weeks off to chill out and relax and come back to work nice and fresh?

hope you can sort his nappiness... mine used to do it all the time when i first got him, and the best thing i found was not to give up nagging until they went forwards again
 
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