Nightmare pony - spring grass?

S

stanley101

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Hi

My pony has turned into a nightmare to catch over the last couple of days. He swings round and runs off bucking when I try to get any where near him. He's also been a bit hit and miss when riding, one day he'll try to get you off the next he's fine.


This is our first summer with him and in his old home he was only out for 3 hours a day but here he's living out 24/7. So I'm assuming its too much spring grass. How long does this behaviour last and is there anything I can do to help calm him down. I'm scared to even go into his field now.

Thanks

S
 
Hi there, looking forward to seeing what replies you get as my mare has turned into a demon the last 2 weeks....

I have her on Oestress as thought it may be a hormonal thing, I miss my lovely horse!


Gem
 
So glad its not just me, he is actually my daughters pony and she doesn't have a lot of confidence as it is so I'm hoping this is a short lived thing.
 
If the pony is caught only to work, you need to spend some time associating caught = nice thing rather than caught = work.

I had some excellent advice from here when we had trouble (about this time of year too) with a cheeky little grey Welsh my daughter used to ride. I spent an hour or more the first day catching her just by walking her round and keeping her moving till she gave up, popped her headcollar on, tied her up gave her a couple of treats and a quick groom then let her go = one baffled pony who stood there wondering what was next! Next day was about 20 minutes, then 5, then the next time she walked up to be caught.

We never had a problem after that, but from time to time I reinforced the caught = sometimes just a treat if I happened to be passing her field I'd climb over the gate catch her tie her up give a treat and let her go, just so she didn't forget. We did this just last week even though my daughter hasn't ridden her this year, and she was only 5 mins to be caught but I know others have spent a good half an hour+ trying to catch her recently.

If he's a bit intermittent with the riding it's probably he's trying to test out your daughter, so long as she's firm and consistent and works him through it - I know it's easier to say kick him on when he's trying to buck than to actually have to do it, but he will soon come to realise it's easier to behave and get praise, than be naughty and have to work harder. When my daughter started riding her, she frequently came off and it ended in tears, but we got an instructor to help, and we got over the bolting off and swerve to ditch rider or the head down and rider over the shoulders issues. We always ended on a good note even if it meant a shortened ride, and I have to say she ended up being such a willing little pony, but it did take a few months and many lessons. My daughter had great fun on her and won lots of rosettes with her last year, and she is the Pony Mag superstar pony of the month in the current issue.
 
Thanks for the advice Dubsie, I do catch occasionaly just to groom but proberly not as often as I should.

He just seems more agressive at the moment, before if he didn't want to be caught he would just walk off, I've never had him spinning and bucking in the field before.

He was in a paddock with very little grass and was on 4 flaps of hay a day until 2/3 weeks ago. I then noticed he was loosing weight so took him out of that paddock, but had to leave field mate in there as field mate too fat. He is now in a paddock with lots of grass but has turned into a horrible little sod that even I'm too scared to go near. I was thinking the grass might be too much for him and was wondering about putting him back into the other paddock and back on the hay.

Or will it all calm down when he gets used to the grass?

S
 
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