Pony with no attention span!

Karran

Karran

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I've been schooling a green 5yr old NF, I don't have a proper school to do it in, so have been bumbling around a field next to where he's turned out.

He rushes towards the gate but I think we've had a break through there as I've been putting lots of circles in and teaching him half halt so we break that habit!

But the main problem is that he is more focused on his friends in the field that he can see and is always looking for them. I've been trying to do circles and wonky-serpentine shapes and lots of transitions along there to get him to think of something else but to no avail.

I try to school and work as far as them as possible but am very aware that, that's avoiding the issue.

I want/need to get an instructor in at some point obviously but am currently unemployed so until the job centre sort themselves out and give me some money or I get a job I can't afford that.

So any ideas wise HHOers? I can provide cola flavoured Colin Caterpillars!
 
My sympathies - I'm sure my boy has ADHD :D

Keep the sessions short and do lots of different changes of direction, transitions and change within the pace. Be insistent that 'you're here now' and to focus on you.

Hopefully the more you do, the better he'll get. Good luck
 
School out hacking. Then when you have a varied range of exercises you can do well you can do them in a field as well. Green horses are limited to basic exercises which especially for an intelligent native soon get boring. But if you get them to a level out hacking they can do basic lateral work, transistions within a pace, small balanced circles when you take them back into a field or school you have a wide range of things to keep their attention. As it is, what you are doing is less interesting than his mates, so you have to get him to a level that you can be more interesting at.
 
He is a new forest, enough said! Mine was exactly the same, now aged 9 he isn't so bad but if something is happening around him that's a lot more interesting he will totally switch off from me or avoid anything I ask him. They're stubborn and have no attention span at all - I love my new forest :D
 
Give him more to think about!

Lateral work is your friend. Transition wise I'd do a lot, a lot a lot, get them really sharp, you'll soon get him listening.

I'd just continue to work him until he is totally switched on to you and doing as you ask, you don't have to hammer him, just keep asking questions even in walk.
 
Having been through all this myself it's really hard to do what other people are saying about lots of transitions etc as it certainly didn't work with mine, the more transitions I did the more lazy and uninterested he became. Does yours lunge? If so lungeing is great you kinda have to 'scare' them a bit, jump and 'rarrrrr' at him and if he bucks or leaps use that to encourage to go forward. Also jumping helped by boy just set up a few crosses etc and see what he does :D new forests are def not like any other horse, they take years and years to get anything out of them but when you do you have them wrapped round your little finger forever! (talking from my own experiences, hoping everyone else's new forests aren't like this!)
 
Oh wow! Thanks!

At the moment lateral work isn't established at all although it is on my 'things to start working on' list.
Hacking too, I've been thinking about just having a break from schooling and just pottering for a bit practising as we go. My main problem with that is not knowing the area so its trying to be about when someone else is and asking to tag along!
His owner is trying to teach him inhand agility so perhaps I can combine it to do ridden!

I'm a nervous jumper so think just a few low things we can trot over might help? Or if I set up a few grid things with just one alternate end raised?

Lots of ideas! But yes, he's smart and at the moment I think bored with it all so I need to look up some ways of jazzing it up or giving him a break!
 
You don't have to potter out hacking, I take advantage of the fact they are more forwards. I just find leg yielding round parked cars, bending round corners, shoulder in or playing about with the strides on a straight stretch comes easier than in their field/school.
 
Perhaps pottering was a bad choice of words. :)

But yeah I do see what you mean. Maybe I'll just have to man up and go out adventuring on our ownsome and see where we end up!
 
Get an ordnance survey map :) I was stuck doing the same route over and over as i had no-one to show me where to go, until i got one. They have bridleways and by-ways marked on so you can plan routes in advance, and i take photocopied sections with me in case I forget where im going. xx
 
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