Nervous horse, advice please!

[junglejane]

Hi guys, need some advice about how to proceed with my nervous horse. He hates being on his own however we have been working on that over the last few months and he will now just about come onto yard away from the other horses and have some hay or a groom or whatever, his greed always gets the better of him I've just moved to a new yard a couple of weeks ago and have carried through with getting him up on yard on his own etc. The second day I took him out of field he was not at all happy about it and was rearing up and spinning round on my partner and I, quite scary but eventually we managed to get him out of the paddock and up onto the yard. He hasnt done it since (which is great) but shows potential for being a rearer if being asked to do something he doesnt want to, which freaks me out slightly!! I really want to start getting him out and about on his own, I know hes going to hate it and I'm happy to take as long as is needed to not rush him. I will only be walking him out in hand as I'm not the most confident rider now I'm getting older and I think if he tried to rear I'd panic, make things worse and end up getting off!!! But the thing is he is fat and really needs to be in work. I have the option to ride out a couple of times a week with one of the other ladies at the yard which I'd really like to do. But I'm not sure whether this would set him back with trying to build his confidence on his own and whether he would come to expect to go out in company and not want to go out on his own at all and be even more resistant! Has anyone had a similar experience and what did you do? Advice and help would be greatly appreciated

 

[be positive]

Getting him out and about in company will benefit you in many ways, he will lose some weight, get to know the routes, you will get to know him better and you can gradually build up on him being alone in the meantime. While hacking start to lead some of the time until he is really confident then you could try separating on the way home if that is feasible, most horses that are worried about being on their own are lacking confidence in the rider so the more time you spend on him the more he will trust you, this works both ways, you will start to trust him also.

 

[junglejane]

Getting him out and about in company will benefit you in many ways, he will lose some weight, get to know the routes, you will get to know him better and you can gradually build up on him being alone in the meantime. While hacking start to lead some of the time until he is really confident then you could try separating on the way home if that is feasible, most horses that are worried about being on their own are lacking confidence in the rider so the more time you spend on him the more he will trust you, this works both ways, you will start to trust him also.

Thanks for the advice! I've seperated from the other horses whilst out riding before (usually with another rider so that we can go and have a canter as some of the ladies I used to ride out with at old yard only did roadwork!) and hes mainly been ok but a couple of times he really played up about leaving the 'herd' even though he was still in company with another horse! So not sure how confident I would be in seperating at any point, think he may be better just to be out alone. I really do want to ride out and get him fit so think we'll just head out with the other lady and tackle the going out alone bit in the meantime as you suggested. I guess if all else fails I can always stop hacking out and establish going out on his own first if he really plays me up! Wish I was still a confident teenager as I think with the right pushing and not giving in to a temper tantrum he'd do it no problem. In fact when I first had him we did hack out alone a few times as I had no-one to ride with but we had a couple of difficult rides the last couple of times and then I was poorly and in hospital so wasnt riding at all! I then moved to another yard and had people to ride with so haven't ever tackled it since then. I just want him to feel happy and confident within himself

 

[Secret44]

I had a horse who was just like this! She was also terrified of everything , I couldn't hack her, or bring her to shows. She was also only 5. What I found worked with her was round penning her, she learned to trust me from daily round pen sessions and started to learn that She was safe with me! Once she matured and started trusting me morse she became more brave! After I did my best to expose her to everything so nothing fazed her. She is now on the trillium circuit and will do anything! Good luck

 

[Tammytoo]

I would get to know a few routes whilst riding in company first. Don't try and separate on a ride, go the whole ride together. Once you and he are familiar with a few rides, then you can go it alone. He will be feeling a bit insecure at the moment because he is in strange surroundings, which is why he reared when you brought him in, he was panicking because he didn't know what was happening next. He hasn't done it since because he's worked out that being taken out of the field isn't the end of the world and he will be going back!

I think you need to work on getting him to trust you and see you as the leader which I don't think he does at the moment. Are there any local natural horsemanship instructors in your area? They could show you how to build your confidence up from the ground and get him trusting you. I believe Kelly Marks has written some really helpful books on the subject so it might be worth buying one.

A change of livery yard is a big thing for a horse, a bit like starting a new school where you don't know anybody and you have to pick up the rules as you go along.

Good luck!

 

[Alice100]

I had a horse who was just like this! She was also terrified of everything , I couldn't hack her, or bring her to shows. She was also only 5. What I found worked with her was round penning her, she learned to trust me from daily round pen sessions and started to learn that She was safe with me! Once she matured and started trusting me morse she became more brave! After I did my best to expose her to everything so nothing fazed her. She is now on the trillium circuit and will do anything! Good luck

Hi Secret44

What sort of exercises did you do in the pen in hand? Your story sounds promising

 

[JillA]

Try him on magnesium oxide. If he is deficient in magnesium (a lot of the ground in the UK is) it will present as spooking at stuff he really should be able to cope with, and a couple of weeks on MagOx will make a big improvement if that IS the problem. Not expensive and always worth a try - it transformed my horse in 10 days so that he was ridable and able to learn stuff.

 

[Secret44]

Hi Secret44

What sort of exercises did you do in the pen in hand? Your story sounds promising

My barn has a round pen which is like a circular pen where you can free lunge your horse! ( not sure if you've heard of it) I would work her in there getting her to change direction, and pace by stepping in front of her shoulder or towards her hip.

In the wild horses will chase another horse, make it work/ change direction to show that they are higher on the pecking order and in control. The horse will eventually join up(submit) and know who is in control.

By round penning you are doing the same thing! When a horse joins up they lick their lips, lower their heads and are aware of your actions! Some horses take longer to join up if they are high in the pecking order. The one mare took a long time to join up but once she did she would follow me around, move out of my space and trust me! Before a show I would do a good round pen session and she would trust what I was doing verse worrying about other horses!

 

[Secret44]

Hi Secret44

What sort of exercises did you do in the pen in hand? Your story sounds promising

Sorry didn't read that quite right! Haha in hand, I would do things like backing away, and pivoting away so she would respect my space. She would chew and show signs of submission just from that!

I also exposed her to a lot, like bags and tarps! This way she didn't have an excuse to be afraid.

 

[Kat]

One way of building up to hacking alone is going out with either a person on foot or on a bike. The horse takes a bit of confidence from the person but still gets used to going without other horses. When you can happily hack with a perdon walking or cycling it is pretty easy to have them drop away behind or take a short cut home so you can do part of the hack genuinely alone. Then it is less of a big step to go out totally alone.

My mare loves hacking with my husband on his bike and it means that cyclists never spook her.

 

[squidsin]

My horse is naturally a nervous stress bucket. She's calmed down a lot since I've had her - we've got her into a routine, which she responds well to as she's not a horse who deals well with change. Moving to a new yard blew her mind when I got her, bless her. I've also put her on a balancer which has calmed her down (possibly because it contains magnesium), and she has a 'best mate' and field mate, a connemara called Willow, and that's definitely made her much happier. She gets her confidence from me so I have to be the leader in our relationship and seem calm even if I am not - although she mirrors my behaviour so can tell instantly if I am not quite right, which, annoyingly, means if I have PMT then so does she, psychic pony that she is!

I still worry about hacking her out, mind you! And we're planning on doing a show soon and I don't know how she'll respond to that environment - or to loading, as I haven't yet tried that, although her previous owner said she loaded fine.

 

[fishy]

This sounds a little like my mare! She had 3 moves in as many months (dealers, old yard, new yard) and whenever I took her out on her own she would become anxious and spooky and would power walk home, and if something upset her on the lane home she would rear. Fortunately it only happened a couple of times. I decided to spend the winter hacking out behind my daughters pony as I wasn't particularly enjoying it. She was great and now will happily go first or last. She will also go out on her own and is much calmer. I took her to her first dressage test at weekend and expected her to be awful but she was an absolute gem. Walked off the trailer, stood nicely to be tacked up and warmed up beautifully. I was so pleased with her. I would try a calmer, just to help him settle. Ride out with someone whenever you can to get him used to the area. Do lots of ground work with him to build up your relationship, but mostly enjoy him xxx