Problems getting on......

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Blimpy

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......and off now..... I have a a rising 6 year old mare. I bought her as an unbroken 4 year old. She had been in the field her whole life and not handled at all. Anyway sent her away to be broken which proved to take a long time as she was very nervous. Never did anything bold or plunged with the roller or anything like that. She had only been ridden about 4 or 5 times when she went lame. She then had to go out for 3 months. Came back in, sent her back for some more work. Still jumpy but fine. I rode her a few times, took her home and rode her for about two weeks. Got thrown off once but nothing you wouldn't expect from a young horse and I got back on again. She was still very jumpy but once you did everything slowly she was o.k. Then she went lame again, another 4 months off... This time when she came in she decided she didn't like people getting on her anymore. She even bucked someone off in the stable. She has always been taken slowly when brought in with lots of long reining, lungeing etc and I always lie across her before getting on. Anyway sent her away to someone to do a bit of work with this problem. He was eventually able to get on and off her o.k. but still very jumpy and humpy when you get on her. Took her home, all going well for about 3 weeks when out of the blue she bucked me off before I even had my foot in the stirrup. She's still like this, and I've gotten quite nervous about getting on and off her which doesn't help. Recently for no apparent reason she galloped off when I was getting off her and left me sitting on the ground and since then she is also very nervous about you getting off! I know she sounds like a headcase but she is perfect to ride once you are on her even if she is a bit sharp. She hacks out the road, jumps, does everything I have asked. But as of yet I haven't been able to take her anywhere or do much with her because of my problems getting on and off her. Sorry this is so long....... but does anyone have any ideas about how to help this problem or has anyone experienced something similar?? If if goes on much longer I'll have to give up... ...She is not sore anywhere (as far as anyone can tell) and saddle, tack etc fits her fine.
 
Get your vet to do a bute test to establish whether the behaviour improves on bute, if it does then it is pain if not then re-education.
 
I would definiately get her thoroughly looked at by a good vet incase this is due to pain, until you do that I wouldn't ride her as if there is anything wrong you might cause more damage either physically or mentally.
 
I can't help but wonder if she is associating being ridden with causing her pain eg her recurrent lameness. Did you ever get to the cause of her lameness? Could there still be an underlying problem there?
 
Agree with above - get her checked out by a vet asap then if it isn't something physical start working on the phychological.
Out iof interest - was it the same person she went to each time? Could she have experienced something there?
 
She went to a different person for breaking and the follow up after the initial lameness. Since then she has been to someone else to start her off again, after I couldn't get on her. I really don't think anything bad happened to her in either place. They were both very well trusted and patient people

She has always been nervous and I think when I fell off her it made her so much worse..... She has been thoroughly checked by vets, chiropractors, dentists and all is fine. Her lameness problem was diagnosed and treated and was something similar to growing pains and she is 100% sound now... if it was bothering her the vet reckons it would show up when actually asking her to work more so than just when getting on/off...

I'm so confused as to where to go with her. The worst part is that I really like her and she is lovely to actually ride! If only I could get on her without a huge ordeal every time
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it isn't something really simple like the seemingly sudden (to her) appearance of something large towering over her? how about just as an experiment putting blinkers on her and see if she reacts the same (trying v hard not to put yourself in danger of course!). If she shows improvement you know what you are dealing with at any rate and can set about de-sensitising her...

reading this back it sounds like a completely madcap idea! But if you're sure it isn't physical then something must be upsetting her.
 
Agree- i have had sucess by lots of practise with a stand on grooming kit box that i would use for grooming, rug changing etc so he got used to me being up there- whilst grooming his back i would progressively lean on him so he got used to pressure without me getting on and so if he started messing about i was safe! The other thing is have you tried tacking up then lunging before you try and get on as if she is excited about going out it might "get it out of her system" Lastly my friend cured her horse by using a humane girth as her boy had girthing issues that caused mounting probs
 
Thanks for the advice. I have been trying to get her used to me standing at a height the last while. I always lunge her before i ride her and i just stud on a low block in the middle as she was trotting around. She went mad, would think she had never seen anything so scary before in her life! Anyway she settled with that eventually and have progressed to standing beside her on a block "pretending" to get on! She seems to enjoy that as she gets lots of pats and she loves attention! But it just seems no matter how much work I do like this and how many times I get on and off her that she never improves at all.
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Hi i don't know if this will help but minus the lameness i had a similar problem with my horse when i backed him. Basically we got to the point where he would calmly walk and trot in the school but looking back i had been a bit soft on him and had been very quiet riding him. When i was riding on day i made the silly mistake of forgetting i was riding a baby. I'd got a bit far forward in the saddle and so shoved myself back. he instantly bucked and i fell off catching my leg across his bum and landing hard on his neck, then toppling off the side. He then became extremly touchy after that about getting on and off (particularly off - and i guess this was because of my sudden dismount had spooked him!). As you landed during dismounting he'd spook away from you.

After that i realised that i hadn't done enough to de-sensitise him and went right back to basics and this time i made sure that i did lots of scary things. basically anything that would make him think that i do sudden, silly things and that they won't hurt him. I made sure he was completly comfortable with anything nosiy, quick moving etc moving over and around his back. Then progressed back to the leaning over etc. Then progressed to getting on quietly, sitting up slowly ect. Eventually over time have built it up to getting straight on, jumping off etc.

My instructor rode him for a while for me as i'd lost a bit of confidence and had hurt myself from the fall. Every time she got off she would quickly jump off rather than quietly sliding off (alternating between jumping off both sides). You can have someone holding a lunge rein so if they spook you've got someone in control and we always let him spook, each time this happened his reaction became less as he started to realise that it wasn't a scary thing and no-one was going to kick him in the bum!

When getting on he didn't like standing still so we just used patience, everytime he moved we re-positioned him without getting down off the block. When getting on i held him on the lunge line while my instructor held a firm contact on the reins so if she was half way up and he ran forward she could instantly control him or get off depending on how far up she was. She started off getting on slowly so she didn't spook him halfway up. He never bucked but he did get tense and try to move forward so she took a firm contact. Asked him to stand and then when he relaxed she relaxed the contact a little and gave him a pat. Then when he was calm she moved off into walk and worked on relaxing the neck (when he's tense he does a giraffe impression). It wasn't a quick fix but i now have a horse that will calmly stand and let you get on and the same with dismounting.

As everyone else said it's def worth ruling out pain but if it is just that she has learnt that people getting on and off isn't pleasant for any reason then it will take time to get her realxed about it again.
 
Thanks for that. Sounds very similar to my mare in that she also got a fright when I fell off and wasn't right since. And she is very sensitive anyway. Its great to hear that you sorted your guy out. Gives me hope that she will accept me getting on and off eventually, even if it takes a long time! I think I also made the mistake of being a bit too easy on her and trying not to do anything scary for too long after she was broken and riding. I think when you do that and something scary happens (which it inevitably will) they really do get a big fright. Better to introduce scary things along the way slowly so they realise that they're not really scary after all.

I just wonder with her if she is over sensitive to everything. Hopefully with time she'll settle!
 
Yeah i totally agree, my sis bought an unbacked, unhandled 3 yr old cob last year. you couldn't even pat him without him jumping out of his skin at first. She did absolutely loads of groundwork doing anything she could think of to aclimatise him to any eventuality and he's now more bombroof than my 16 yr old mare! My boy was also three when i got him and had been handled as far as being able to lead him around and give him a pat.

We flapped bags, flags, we got them used to the lunge whip and a normal whip flicked around and over them, we jumped up and down flinging our arms about and shouting while free schooling, in the stable and on the lunge, we chucked on rugs, flapped numhans anything we could think of. all builiding up slowly and lettting them spook and then when they actively calmed down or moved towards us we would reward with a treat or a stroke. With riding we got him used to legs swinging about, moving about in the saddle, the reins flicked across his neck etc etc. It's def been worth it like for instance today my horse managed to knock over one of those fold up tables - it crashed to the floor and he didn't bat an eyelid. when i first got him he would have run a mile or bucked/kicked out, quite glad really as i was washing his back legs at the time and prob would have got kicked!
 
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