Opinions please...

[KatB]

A person I know has just brought a young (5yr old) green 16.2hh TBxHann for their 15yr old son. Prob is, theyre slightly clueless as far as young horses are concerned, and brought the horse for the son to bring on.

Horse arrives, two days later, son gets on horse, horse bucks him off. Horse is very forward thinking and seems to "run away" as soon as anything scary happens, hence son being bucked off. Theyve now proceeded to lunge it every night, in a tight pessoa, for upto 45mins a time

Now, if this would you, would you.....

1, Ride the horse under supervision, only doind walk and trot work, doing lots of transitions to get boys confidence back up, and get horse trusting boy, listening so then can progress to faster work with horse and boy happy in each others company, even though could take some time.

2, Put behaviour down to horse being naughty, lunge it endlessly, until stops misbehaving, then ride it and make it do as asked because it should know better?

Horse seems very genuine, and is quiet as a mouse to handle etc. Boy has temper. Sorry for long one, but what would you do??

 

[PoppyPony]

this really bugs me, have seen it happen so much. i would definately do 1 - although 2 days seems like a very short time to let a spooky young horse settle in a new yard?
poor animal, endless lunging will do lots of damage.

 

[Parkranger]

a young horse needs a confident rider - hence the reason I didn't go for a youngster when I came back into riding!

lunging for 45 minutes at a time is only going to make the horse bored I would have thought.......I opt for getting someone to help the boy - an instructor or somebody with more experience

 

[Rambo]

Teach the son to ride

There's no excuse for getting bucked off imo...

As to lungeing before riding...why not !? Perhaps not for 45 mins, and perhaps not in a Pessoa, but no problem with taking the 'edge' off before getting on

 

[KatB]

There are knowledgable people willing to help, hence 1 and 2, different people opinions...........

 

[KatB]

I agree with lunging before riding, but its the "breaking the horses bad behaviour" attitude i'm not sure about.....

 

[AmyMay]

Definately No. 1 Kat.

Sounds like a tricky situation............................

 

[the watcher]

difficult..some horses behave more badly when you try to push them, others will become compliant so in my view the key is to get to know the horse first, using handling and groundwork and then progress to quiet riding, it is all about building confidence. That doesn't mean that the handler should be a wuss, far from it, the horse should never feel it is in charge...

I would tend to use option 1, it might benefit the boy to have to exercise some patience too.

However, one thing I have learned over the years is that it is fine to have an opinion, and if somebody asks for help I will give it, otherwise I try very hard to not get involved at all

 

[Toby_Zaphod]

Young inexperienced rider & a young horse, teaching each other & bringing each other on sounds really ideal. The problem is certainly isn't. This could be a recipe for disaster.
Lunging in a tight Pessoa for 45 minutes again certainly isn't the way to go.
I doubt if this is the horse being naughty, he's young, unbalanced & is probably uncertain of what the rider is wanting of him
He needs to get a quality instructor who will take them both back to basics, do nothing more that walk & trot. Leg yielding to improve the balance of the horse. Certainly no cantering until the other paces are established. Lots of upward & downward transitions. This could take some time but if done right both horse & rider will benefit & the horse will end up going well. Anything else is a quick fix & quick fixes don't last. Gradually the horse will build up muscle in the correct placed & move correctly. We did the same with our TB x Han & now he does a nice dressage test & with sound groundwork his jumping is beautiful. They must take their time with him.

 

[sillygillyhorse]

Kat you forgot option 3 - shoot the boy!!!

 

[KatB]

Lol.... trying to be diplomatic here.....

 

[icestationzebra]

PMSL!
G - you can't do that - he is the next WFP

 

[Tempi]

id lunge the horse for about 10mins each way before putting boy on then make him have supervisd lessons until he was capable of doing it himself..........

 

[icestationzebra]

This sounds like a bad combination to me......

After knowing a horse that had to be put down some years ago because the owner was too scared to get on him so lunged him every day.... seriously wrecked his back and hocks

 

[KatB]

Lol!! I beg to differ, WFP is much better looking.....

 

[sillygillyhorse]

the best scenario would be loads of lessons with good trainer who will educate both boy and horse. supervise riding at home would be good but I can seen that ending in massive arguements.

Unfortunately this is such a common scenario, personally I would never buy a young horse for a rider just straight off ponies. It is a big change to make and IMO a schoolmaster or a more established horse would be a more sensible option.

Hope they appreciate that horses need educating and ask for some help.

 

[icestationzebra]

Agree! Also haven't seen WFP burst into tears when his horse wasn't going well

 

[KatB]

I would JM7 but ive been asked for their help, then other people add their opinions, just interested in what people thought was the best way to go about things, as our opinions differ.

 

[vicijp]

No amount of lungeing will make a spirited horse tired. Winds me up when people think, 'oh ill lunge it into the ground and then get on'. For 5 mins to knock the freshness out of it maybe, but however much you do you will never break(breaking its sprit) a horse that way.
Only thing is go back to basics and teach it some manners, preferably by someone who can ride.

 

[Sparklet]

Quite agree - great way to make it fitter though