Problem hacking youngster

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Booboos

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I have a five year old 15.2hh Hanoverian I've had for just over a year now. He was bred in Germany where he was schooled but I doubt he was hacked a lot, then came to a UK dealer for three months before I bought him. I have been schooling, hacking and lunging him - he gets worked about 6 days a week. Currently he lives out 24/7 and gets no hard feed at all. He has always been good to hack, 100% in traffic, a bit jumpy at the odd thing and maybe once or twice I've had to get off for really scary stuff but he quickly seemed to learn it was OK to go past (i.e. get off once, let him smell, then he would ride past).

The last couple of weeks he has started playing up on hacks. He tends to stop and get stuck refusing to go forwards. Unfortunately he has upset my otherwise trustworthy cob who is now also unsure about giving him a lead, but even when the cob goes on, the youngster remains stuck. I have tried booting him and giving a sharp smack with the whip, he either doesn't react or bucks (very small and unthreatening bucks). However, he likes going backwards and I accidentally found out that I could get him past the scary bit backwards, then let him turn around and continue without a fuss. When he walks backwards he is quite balanced and happy (not running or threatening to rear). Should I encourage him to go backwards or is this going to create more problems?

P.S. He is checked regularly by physio and saddler and gets his teeth done every six months.
 
The main problem with letting him turn and go backward past spooky things is he is the one deciding when he going backwards and when he goes forwards. This could cause problems further down the line when you start asking him for rein back and he thinks that 'his' movement and he will only do it when he wants to. Maybe you could try asking him to back up past the spooky thing instead of waiting for him to turn and did it himself?

It really depends on the character of the horse, if he's not overly intelligent (I don't mean that in a bad way!) this probably won't develop into a bad habit and he will grow out of the 'I'll just reverse past it' mind set soon enough. But if he's one of the clever ones it could quickly escalate into running backward, running backwards then spinning and worst case scenario rearing.
 
Thanks Silverspring. The whole affair is rather calm and I ask him to turn around and back up, but I entirely see what you mean and it is what I am worried about. The other alternative is to get off and walk him past but not sure this is good for him now as he is not giving me the feeling of being really scared and he just keeps stopping.

I have tried standing there and waiting, but nothing happened for ages, so it did not seem to work. Perhaps I need someone more experienced to be a bit more insistent with him, but the problem with that is that so far the 'softly, softly' approach has worked a lot better with this horse and he does tend to panic if pushed too hard.
 
If it all remains quite a calm affair then I wouldn't do anything different. I'm sure he will grow out of it soon enough, my young warmblood went through the same sort of thing but it was more of a 'crab dance' past scarey things, hunch back scurrying with his legs getting in quite a fangle. He did get over it by about 7 - 8 years old and learned just to shy slightly and snort (which will keep all monsters at bay
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Have you started reining back in the school yet? It might be worth making the rein back part of every day schooling and hacking so he knows it not just when confronted by a spooky item. There is a school of thought that you should teach a horse to rein back as soon as it's backed so they never feel that's something they can do to evade you but I'm not convinced teaching a three year old to go backwards is always the best idea!
 
I have a pony who does exactly this when having to pass a large scary vehicle or something. I have had him 14 years (he's now 21) and he started this a few years ago. He has always hated large traffic but i think it is more cos of the space issue - ie he thinks not enough space for him and the vehicle as he's worse on a narrow road but no problenm on a wide main road.

I found I could turn him round and reverse him past said object no trouble then he would turn round (sometimes swiftly but that's just him all over) and we could carry on quite happily!

I guess it depends how often he's doing it and what situations as you don't want to be having to do this everytime. With my pony I think the going backwards almost calms him down (no idea why) as he is generally quite neurotic. I just find id this is tha way he can cope with thing then so be it.

However, mine is an older animal but also v sensitive and it's easier to remain calm and back him past or otherwise he becomes upset and stressed out for the rest of the ride! I think they DO need to learn to face things sometimes and walk on past (forwards!) but as I said before it depends what situations he's doing this in. All horses have their quirks, maybe this is just gong to be his!
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I think this is a fairly common thing and I've read it somewhere in a Kelly Marks book. We tried it with one of our lads when he wouldn't go forwards past a scary poo skip hacking out. He backs up beautifully past something he's too scared to go past going forwards and then the next time will go past it fine. No idea how it works, but it does. Our boy gets fed up of going backwards after about 10 ft and then you can turn him around to go the right way past it !
 
I'd be inclined to sit and wait it out (even if it takes an hour) facing him forwards. Obviously not so easy if it's a car or something spooking him (in which case backwards is fine).
Set aside a day, and when he 'sticks' just sit and wait. When he gets uncomfortable standing still and wants to walk on, don't let him - make him halt for another minute or so. Then give him a walk command and proceed. And heap praise and pats upon him. As he's standing, though, don't let him back up or turn round - leg and smack.
Hope this helps.
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Thanks guys, lots to think about!

Yes, he has learnt rein back in the school, this was a few months ago. My trainer was on the ground and used her hand while I gave the aids and said 'back'. He was quite stiff at first and would only do one or two steps, but he is much looser now and will go nicely back when asked, he stops when asked and does not use it as an evasion in the school.
 
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