Nappy mares!

jessjc

jessjc

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I have a lovely mare (16hh warmblood), who I have had for two months now as a project to bring on over the winter. She is six, and really had only been broken in and not done much else before I bought her.

I am really pleased with her progress, am starting to get her to be more forward in her attitude and she is jumping with ease and schooling nicely (although it takes a while to get her to relax and focus). She is a really talented mare, who I am growing more fond of by the session.

There is one thing though. When I first got her, she would sometimes just stop and go backwards a bit when I was leading her in from the field. It was only mild, irritating, but now she seems to have stopped that completely. Now I am starting to hack her out more, she does the same stopping and going backwards, but only in the short stretch between the yard and the village (up a small hill with a tree-lined verge on one side and a bank on the other). Once she is past the village, she rides like a dream, is forward, not spooky and seems to really enjoy it. She can even be ridden whilst I lead my other horse, but the short stretch away from the village always causes a problem. Sadly, I don't really have anyone to ride out with or help me. I think with other horses she wouldn't try this stunt, as I have ridden her out on the gallops with the young racehorses (she is kept on a racing yard) and she doesn't put a foot wrong. She doesn't seem at all scared, in fact she is pretty bold in general, and she doesn't persist for very long, but it is infuriating bad behaviour, and so I was wondering if anyone else had any bright ideas on how to get her over this? She isn't mareish/badly behaved in any other way, but I just wish she would get better on this front, as I don't want it to hinder her in the future. Any ideas??!

Thanks in advance :-)
 
Have you tried putting her into trot before her sticky spot and really pushing her on if she goes to stop? My mare has a sticky spot sometimes so I ride out with a schooling whip and find that if I trot her and keep her going she forgets about trying to nap.

The other option is when she backs up, take control by making her back up for longer then she wants. Once you felt you have done enough reversing ask for forward and reward even the slightest step. If she won't go forward reverse her some more. My mare used to be extremely nappy but this technique solved it very quickly as she realised forward was th easiest option.
 
I echo the reverse method - My mare did the same, this certainly made her better.

I personally wouldnt want to go out with other horses until youve mastered it alone -I think other horses can sometimes be a bad thing as it doesn't make the horse in question independant and thats what you want.

Good luck and keep at it! It will come....
 
Thank you - will give it a go! Have tried turning her in circles as soon as she reverses, which helps a bit but doesn't seem to stop her from reversing. Will try your reverse method - fingers crossed as it's a silly problem which ought not to be a problem at all!
 
I'm sorry but I fail to see how reversing a horse which you are trying to teach not to be backward thinking will help? There was a thread on here the other day where posters were saying that this sort of method had really exacerbated the problem. I would get some advice from a good instructor who knows you & your horse.
 
I would give her a damm good kick/boot forwards!! Def not the answer to be turning circles/going backwards... She must just learn to go forwards if you hold her up/ go backwards/turn circles you'll make her far more nappy.. So start booting her forwards and trot, even gallop!! On before you get to her sticky spots or when you can feel her start to think about it.. Just stay one step ahead of her!
 
I had one like this but the reversing only happened if I tried to make her go forwards when she slammed the breaks on.

Solved it very easily by simply doing nothing. She stopped so I sat there and waited. She wasn't allowed to go backwards, or sideways but she was allowed to stand still or go forwards. After a few minutes I'd flex a little, get her attention back on me, then very nicely (non confrontationally) ask her to walk on. If she did she got lots of praise and after we'd got past whatever she was spooking at/napping from (you could feel her relax) I'd slip her a polo or treat. If she didn't walk on then I'd just sit and wait and repeat after a few more minutes. Eventually she'd get bored and forget what the issue was and I never had this method fail - you just needed a lot of patience! After a month she'd pretty much stopped and only very occasionally does she do it now and to be fair to her it is a genuine spook - 2 mins stood still thinking about things and she'll happily go on again.

Might not work for everyone but worth a try.
 
I had the same with my mare being led in from the field. It then escalated quickly and before long she realised that stopping anywhere (loading, going to mounting block, hacking) meant she could get away with it :-( I did some groundwork with a pressure and release halter and my problem was solved within days. She seemed to use stopping as an evasion technique and once I solved it on the ground, she was much less prone to do it whilst ridden. I just bought a cheap rope halter from eBay (not the 'be nice' one with the metal headpiece!) I had seen Richard Maxwell teach my last horse to load with a halter on so I had some idea of how it worked beforehand but it's not difficult :-)
 
Thanks All - Maia, in particular, I think this approach really suits her, it's just a bit frustrating. She does choose to go forward herself after a little time. Turning circles does seem to be helpful as it forces her to go forward. I'm hoping she'll grow out of it, just like she pretty much has with doing it in hand. Telling her firmly to go forward or "giving her a boot" makes utterly no difference. The only thing I worried about re backwards method was that I didn't want to turn her backwards maneuver into a rear. It's great to chat about the options though - as I said before, it's not a major issue, it's just a bit frustrating and detracts from the rest of her, which is increasingly lovely!

Today we took her to jump a few scary fillers and look at some xc jumps for the first time. She was so willing it was unbelievable, even though her eyes were out on stalks to start with. She jumped a ditch, up and down steps, and over all manor of tiny scary xc country jumps, green but willing. Looking forward to her progress, and thank you so much for your suggestions. I think it's worth trying all manor of approaches, it is fairly easy to see which make her worse. Ultimately, she has to make the decision to go forwards herself (some mares just don't like to be told what to do!)...
 
Just to add - my mare was an absolute cowbag to hack out by herself when she was younger. The waiting it out method worked with her, she hardly ever does it now, once every couple of months or so! Just reiterate forwards, forwards very nicely so they don't take offense :)
 
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