Reschooling / Starting again ?

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horse_rider

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Hi Everyone,
Mum has let me use her account to ask you advice as she isn't horsey it will be easier for me to explain!
The last 3 months(ish) we've been struggling with our mare, she's been really evasive! She'll find any way possible to avoid working - she'll have her head above the bit then she'll pin her head to her chest and just p*ss off with me. If you put your leg on she'll either shoot of OR just ignore you, if you ask her to eg yield she'll go the opposite direction. It's got to the point where I just don't enjoy riding her anymore because we end up fighting the whole time. At the moment im trying to hack and lunge as much as possible because i dont want to have to ride because of how 'deflated' it makes me feel.
So I want to just start again completely with her, treat her like she's a baby. My previous horse was 3 so i have experiance with teaching the basics but i was hoping for some help on where to start? Should I start with a long rein, doing lots of transitions etc and get her listening in walk, trot & cantering before asking for any sort of contact or do I ask her to work long and low from the start or do I do each pace induvidually (master walking, then trotting, then cantering)?
I hope that made sense!!
Thanks everyone
 
If this is a new problem with your horse and you've had her for some time, my first suggestion would be that she's in pain somewhere.

So I'd start by having someone check her teeth for sharp points, her saddle checked to make sure it's not pinching her or slipping somewhere.

Maybe get your vet or even farrier to trot her up and check for any slight lameness that you might not have noticed, both on hard and soft surfaces, in straight lines, on a circle and also under saddle.

And then if all seems fine in those areas, I'd then maybe have a few lessons from a trusted trainer (if you have one) - not to say that you're 'not up to the job' of retraining, but if I've got any problems with my horse I go along for a lesson with a lady who knows me and my horse well, and she's really good at spotting things that might be troubling us that I haven't perhaps noticed, and neither have all of the above.

If you can rule pain out of the equation (not always that easy to do granted!) then it's a little easier to know where to start.

Best of luck
 
My suggestion would be to get a sympathetic instructor out to help. It definitely worked for me when I didn't know what approach to take and she helped me sort out my own issues and things I had been doing wrong without noticing. :)

Sometimes it takes fresh eyes to help sort the situation out, well done for being patient with your mare. I know how tough it can be and how inept it begins to make you feel.

Chin up, you can do it!! :D
 
If she's suddenly started playing you up,get the vet out as something is wrong, horses only start this behavior when there is something wrong and they are trying to avoid pain.
 
First and foremost i would get eveythng checked out to make sure that there is no pain causing the problems as they do seem quite erractic and evasive which would indicate this- teeth, back, saddle.

The if none of these are deemed the cause then at least you have ruled these out.

Then i woudl get an experienced instructor out to get a second opinion of what is going on and a perspective from the ground.

Following that i would go back to basic ground work- lungeing and long reining, using a lot of voice commands and going back to basics unless the instructor suggests another course of action.

:)
 
We have had everything checked in the last month (teeth, back, saddle & feet) and none are causing her any problems, she's always been awkward and I admit most of the problem is probably down to me as i'm quite a sympathetic rider so I let her get away with quite a lot!
I have a very experienced instructor teach me 1/2 a week and she has agreed that starting again may be our best bet but she is emigrating to new zealand so I will need to find a new instructor but I was hoping to start working with her in the mean time! :)
ETA we've had her 6 months
 
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