pony and rider lost confidence?

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hopppydi

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A few weeks ago i posted about the kids pony (very strong 14.1 haflinger) spooking at a alpaca and dragging me and daughter through a large hawthorne bush..my original question was if a horse is scared to death which he really was would you tackle the problem or let it go (not with everything obviously, just stuff like alpacas that can be easily avoided).
Well since then he has been an absolute nightmare, his confidence as totally gone. We have had him a year and have made massive progress with him, his manners are vastly improved and his ridden work was coming on leaps and bounds and his respect for me and my children was good. When we first got him he was bargy, rude, dropped his weight on you when you did his feet and it took 3 people to tack him up. Up until the alpaca incident my small 12 year old could tack him up on her own in the field and not even need to tie him up and i trusted him around the kids.
Just to add we did not shout at him or panic when he went mental at the alpacas and though very nervous on the way back he was safe for my son to ride him home. This pony has gone from almost bombproof after alot of work from me and the family to spooking at his own fart today...please i need some words of help and encouragement
 
You have got to where you were with him before the alpaca incident so can do it again.Go back to basics with him as you did when you first got him,but do not be too cautious he needs you to take the lead, show him that you are still confident[even if you dont feel it] make sure you are firm but fair,try to get into a routine and gradually build up again.
I am sure you can do this but if you can find a good instructor to help that could be useful to give you some support to continue with your good work.
 
I would go back to groundwork with this pony. There are a lot of exercises that you could work through, basically spook busting your pony.
If funds allow, book a session with an Intelligent Horsemanship Recommended Associate. They are excellent with groundwork and will teach you techniques that will help.
http://www.intelligenthorsemanship.co.uk/specialist-horse-training.html

Otherwise, see if you can get copies of Perfect Manners and Perfect Partners and work through the exercises in them.

He will take his confidence from you. If you are not feeling confident at the moment, then I really do think that you need to stop the riding and rebuild the trusting relationship. You will both really benefit from some stress free groundwork.

Hope this helps.
 
I agree, nice to get someones elses opinion. We have worked so hard with him and made such progress and believe me it hasnt been easy but i felt we were really getting somewhere and now he seems worse than ever..its so disheartening and its awful to see the bond with the kids particularly my daughter in danger of being ruined. At the moment my son is still able to ride him as he is alot more confident and seems to have glue on his bum! I do alot of groundwork with him and think we will spend the next few months working on respect and confidence
 
Hi vetwrap thanks for that. I am totally confident with him and have no problem squaring up to him when needed, infact it was through a mutual friend who knows what i am like that we ended up with the pony in the first place and as i say he has made remarkable progress. I am a fan of groundwork and we do alot of it but will def look into the books you mentioned. I suppose my biggest worry is that this pony is always going to be a big project, we have put in so much work it would be nice to go for a little hack and come back happy
 
I have an ongoing challenge with my youngster which I believe stems from him being very poorly backed initially. He seems to panic and bronc. He has had me planted in the wall a couple of times and my confidence in riding him has been shaken to the extent that, even after professional schooling, I have a jockey friend who is currently riding him. This is giving me the breathing space to sort out my issues and also see that he is reacting less and less often and we are finding ways of diverting his attention, putting the thoughts about panic and broncing out of his mind.

For myself, I have found doing groundwork with him really wonderful. I can and do freeschool him and my jockey friend and I have worked him in a created "little school of horrors", with streamers of plastic and all manner of scary things. We did in hand work to start with, then he was ridden past, through and over everything. We even untacked him and covered him, wither to tail, with plastic sheeting, which was rustling and flapping in the wind. He never moved.

Things like this have really helped both of us. I know now that he trusts me. I know that I have to take that leap of faith that he is not the same uneducated and scared horse that he was when he busked me off. I know that we will get there.

For me, I guess that I have had to take a step back to move forward again. Having a sticky bummed rider is also a great help and I am eternally grateful for the little team that I have all helping me with this. Their support, constructive critisism and comment has made this so much easier to work through. I don't feel the pressure now. I'll ride him when it is the right day.

I hope that you can work through this.
 
I second the suggestion about working with an intelligent horsemanship RA and also hope you can work through this.

My own personal view is that neither Haflingers nor Fjords are particularly suitable as childrens' ponies, precisely due to the strength issues that stems from the size and physique of both breeds, but I do appreciate that many people choose them for childrens ponies and other than the strength issue seem to have no other problems.

Good luck and I do hope it works out for you :)

ETA it sounds like you have done a great job with him so far so I am sure you will get over this!
 
Just ordered a few books from well known book retailer! Interesting what suziq says about haflingers being strong and though he is physically strong and muscular he isnt strong when ridden, never pulls and is pretty much push button. He was bought with the view that my son who is 13 and very tall would not outgrow him to quickly as he is more than capable of carrying a adult. I think the problem is he learnt from his previous owners that he could walk through people and they would move for him, something which learnt him a very bad lesson as far as im concerned and one that has taken alot of work to stop. he is very strong when he is scared and it really is impossible to stop him from the ground, hence the alpaca incident. I was watching team fredericks and lucinda showed how she had taught her daughter to do an emergency stop on her pony if it got to strong as it had bolted with her. I have taught my kids the same technique (not pretty but effective) and it works very well so that has given my son alot of confidence.
I love all the despooking techniques and will def give it a go. This pony was bought with the promise that he had a home for life so we will keep going.
 
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