Once a stopper always a stopper??

Oldenburg

Oldenburg

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Have any of you had a horse who is a dirty stopper or just a genral stopper and corrected them or are they still the same??

As i took out my new horse of 3 weeks to an unaff SJ (he has jumped to NC bsja) tonight and he was a pain in the ass ( in the words of jesstickle he was a knobber) anyway got him around in the end!! After driving all the way home beating myself up blaming myself !! Got back and asked his old owner some question and its turns out he was not completely honest with me when he sold him to me!! He used to stop with him quoted by said man " every SJ horse stops" :rolleyes:


So i really dont know what do to is there hope that he will stop stopping or is he goin to carry on like this for the rest of his SJ days ??
 
mines a youngster. she's been saddled only 8 months. she's stopped about twice. i've told her off for it both times.
i doubt she'll be a "stopper" (regularly) but i believe that she can always stop a few more times in her life. be it ground condition, confidence, naughtiness, i think it's what makes them different from tennis rackets and soccer balls. they are animals. sometimes they just dont want to do it.

if it's a habit though, then i'd say prepare yourself.
because once it's an ingrained habit, you'll have to retrain it out.
 
it's taken six years to get my grade a sj-er around a course in a competition. he got eliminated so many times that my dad 'got rid' of him and bought a new horse - I've had him 10 months and just kept taking him to shows. he finally realised on Saturday that there's no reason to be scared of any of the fences.
saying that, a dirty stopper can be dangerous - could it be that you need more time to get used to your new horse? I can now tell when mines going to refuse.
good luck
 
Depends why he's stopping.

If it's fear, you can gain trust. If it's pain, you can help there, possibly. If it's because he's gutless then he will probably always throw them in. Finding the root cause will be your hard job. Keep the fences small, and the praise big. Lots of unaff competitions are actually harder to jump than a bsja course, with harder distances and difficult turns. It's early days for you, so try and build up a relationship and see why he's stopping. Don't ride each fence as if he will, let him make his own mind up then you can see what the signs are.
Keep the work low and consistant, grids and lessons to improve your confidence in each other. Lots of praise when he's taking you over the fences, if he puts a stop in growl and make sure he knows he's offended you. Beating him up for a stop will only cause him to worry about you and the stick IMO.
Horses will often stop with one rider, then sail over the top bar with another. A good horse won't drag a rider over a fence, he should be willing to try his best if it is what the rider wants. So if the rider freezes on approach and the horse isn't sure of the commands, he may well stop. Again, it's that trust thing!
give it a bit more time and see if he'll play the game a bit more for you. But remember that every good rider doesn't suit every very good horse. So just because he's not going well for you it doesn't mean it's all your fault and you're no good! Great levellers these beasties...best of luck!
 
As Duggan has mentioned; depends why they're stopping. Could be fear, pain, bad riding/rider error, a distraction, or just plain naughtiness.... all sorts of things and can be occasional or persistent. The more it happens, though, the more likely it is to become a habit so if he's been doing it a lot, it may be harder to resolve than if it has just started. Don't be too disheartened though; most horses stop occasionally in their careers and a lot of the issues can be resolved.
 
I think you improve any horse that stops. My 2nd pony I got from a girl who was too scared to ride him. He would run out or stop at everything, even a pole on the ground and was really good at disposing people! A year of two later he was jumping about a 90cm which isn't bad as he was only about 13hh. He went on to jump bigger with his next owner.
So no, you can deffo imrpove various factors... e.g pain, fear, your riding though if you get off a bad stride and your horse isn't feeling particulary generous then he may throw in the odd stop. Nearly every horse will have thrown in the odd stop in its life.
 
Ditto Duggan.

It can be sorted, I had one that stopped out of fear and we eventually built his confidence up and he started jumping BS. Just keep it little and inviting. :)
 
Thanks everyone

I took him to the same school last night as when i first got him!! And the first time he went there he was flying around no problems!! I am a qutie rider not heavy handed at all!! Yesterday he was stopping 3/4 strides out not wanting a bar of it!! I spent alot off money to have him for myself to jumped bigger track with not to be suck at unaff!! I have had 3 horse from the same place 1st horse was really Dangerous and he had to go back. 2nd horse i got her the friday and the sat she tried to kick the £5*& out of me in the stable so i had to send her back!!

And now him. I really dont think i can take much more!! :'(

Thanks ladys
 
Just one question? Why do you keep going back to same place to buy your horses, 1st horse you didn't know,2nd horse you should have started being weiry 3rd) horse You must have known what you were buying.
 
I bought Ron 7 years ago and he wouldn't jump a twig. I now have problems stopping him from jumping things.

I started by getting him to canter and trot in balance and started with tiny jumps. Once he realised that sing his butt was easier he started to enjoy it.
 
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