Opinionated mare out hacking

[Derradda]

Hi everyone. This is my first post on any type of forum, so please be kind. I'm a mature, experienced rider who has had her own horses for many years but this is the first time I have had such a young horse. I've had my mare for almost 2 years and she will be 7 in July. She's an Irish cob and has lovely manners on the ground and ridden, but she can be extremely opinionated about going first or last out hacking with my friend and her coloured cob mare.

She likes to be in the front - and pretty much leads the ride unless something worries her and then she's very happy for my friend's mare to take the lead. This has been very useful in getting her used to scary objects such as log piles (why she finds logs scary I will never know!) as given a lead once or twice she will not hesitate to go past first next time. I like the fact that she's confident and it's easier to be in front most of the time as she's got a faster walk and trot.

However she is very reluctant to walk or trot behind. I am now insisting that she walks parallel to the other mare, or slightly behind on the last part of our ride home, and although she does try to speed up sneakily if I relax for a second, she is getting to understand this is the new normal. But when we try to trot behind she fights to get in front - or does a ridiculously speedy burst of canter at times to barge past. She pulls up almost immediately, but it's hard to stop when you don't expect her to do it. It doesn't help that my friend's mare is slower in trot, and I think my girl gets quite frustrated.

Last week my friend rode her partner's Arab, and my mare was completely different with her. On the home stretch (which is usually where she's most opinionated about being in front) she was happy to mooch along behind on a long rein. This is so unusual but was very welcome. (We did try a trot earlier but it was all too exciting as the Arab wouldn't contemplate anything slower than a canter!)

I'm interested to know whether it's just a competitive mindset with my mare (but why with one mare and not the other?) - and whether anyone else has experienced this and what they did to resolve the issue. I've had two other mares who were always happy to go in front, behind, or side by side when asked and as she's still young I want to make sure this doesn't escalate. Could it be her teenage tantrum stage? Or is she just sassy?

 

[SEL]

I have a 13h native pony mare who is 100% in charge no matter who we ride with! Turned up at a friend's farm for the first time, with friend on a 16h warmblood and mine decided she needed to be in front. The warmblood mare deferred happily to her.

She can go behind and has taken up the rear on roads when we've needed someone solid behind, but she seems to pick up that is the Responsible Role. Its a bit like being school prefect i think.

Pony pecking order is fascinating!

ETA she'll be 14 this year.

 

[BallyJ]

Similar with my mare, my friend has a younger Spanish gelding and when we’re out with him she enjoys playing around behind, jogging, spooking at pigeons, the usual. But we go with my other friends spooky gelding and she strides out steadfast! Very weird and makes us giggle if we all go together because she’s not sure how to react!

 

[Trouper]

I suspect it is more to do with herd hierarchy and where they feel safest and I am not clever enough to be able to work that one out!! My 15.2 TB mare was inconsistently bossy with her little herd of 3 and I never quite worked out where she sat - all I know is she would trot like a demented Shetland if she were at the back of the action on a hack.
And I never "cured" it.!!

 

[Cloball]

My mare is a bit like this, I think being boxed in makes her feel anxious and she likes to be in control of the exits and doesn't really like being constantly asked to slow down for the horse in front (she's 13.2 but will happily out walk a 16.2) .

Its been 3 years and 90% of the time she will go behind happily with horses she knows well and take gentle half halts to direct speed. I can tell when she's not feeling relaxed in herself as she will insist on speed walking at the front.

Im not sure I've done anything special to improve it either other than repetition which im sure you're already doing. I just try and pick the times when she's in a good mindframe to vary our position.

 

[smolmaus]

Yeah mine wants the 7yo baby to lead the way but the 19yo mare who's solid as a rock has to go behind her. She hacks best with the tiny welsh pony she hates, the only horse she has ever kicked on purpose.

Tbh so long as there aren't two of them disagreeing about the right order it's not a problem. There are some horses I just don't hack with tho, as it's just not a good personality match.

Im not sure I've done anything special to improve it either other than repetition which im sure you're already doing. I just try and pick the times when she's in a good mindframe to vary our position.

Same. A gentle suggestion on good days. Getting into an argument about it isn't worth it!

 

[Skib]

I have always ridden mares and all of them have been regarded as opinionated. Some riders put it down to whether or not the mare is in season but it is easier to understand in terms of herd behaviour. Herds of ferral horses will consist of mares, led by a lead mare who knows the territory and the waterholes.
It can be really hard to hold back a "lead" mare whom one asks to go second and I usually did it by delaying the transitiion up to canter or by opening up a long gap between me and the escort ahead of me. When I started to ride her, I obliged my current share to trot and then to canter exactly alongside the other escorting horse on a wide track but I never liked it.

I was a long term solo hacker (and hope to resume) so was regarded as competent, but my great rule out riding is not to pick an unnecessary argument with the horse. I quickly learned that the mare prefered to wander along on a long rein and to look around her as we went. She really liked hacking out to see what was going on beyond the stable yard and she would notice and hesitate before passing potential dangers (like a nursery school picnic or men trimming bushes) before I had seen them.

 

[scats]

I had a mare who had to be in front of she’d jump on the back of the horse ahead of her. Honestly, she did get a bit better about it when she got to her mid-twenties but I just made sure she stayed in front.
Fortunately for me she didn’t have a spook in her and never napped. I’d do anything to have cloned her! Fabulous mare.

 

[KikiDee]

Mine likes to be in front, I don't let him be rude about it and if we have to wait behind he is made to - but it's generally easier to let him stride out in front and doesn't bother me versus arguing with him for the whole ride stuck behind a slow horse which isn't fun for either or us. TBH I generally hack alone or with horses that can keep up as we're used to going at quite a brisk pace and we both get frustrated with slow coaches ambling along at 2mph, I just politely decline hacking with people I know will dawdle

 

[Derradda]

Thanks everyone. I think it's definitely herd dynamics, as we rode with the Arab again today who was slightly calmer, and we had a lovely trot behind her a couple of times. The only time my mare got a bit silly was when we got left behind a bit trotting home (I thought my friend's Arab was stopping, so dropped my mare to a walk and then found out my friend was carrying on trotting) and she did a couple of speedy bursts to catch up. But nothing too bad, and considering the Arab was still quite fresh today, I think my girl was a saint as she was calm throughout the whole ride.

 

[Landcruiser]

After reading the initial post I was going to ask why it mattered and why you felt a need to fix it, particularly. However, others have answered and illustrated that horses have preferences, and why have an un-necessary battle? They are all different and all have their preferences and herd dynamics, which can change when ridden from what it is in the field.