Riding across wet/ muddy ground?

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10wardd

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My horse absolutely hates being ridden on any remotely wet or muddy ground - it makes hacking quite a challenge at this time of year! He will severely lean on the bit and walks in a very weird way! I don't understand why he hates it so much? The ground doesn't even have to be that wet for him to do it!

Has anyone else had this sort of problem before and know any ways of overcoming it?:(
 
Random guess, based on the weird walking - mud in the tail? My big horse walks with his hind legs right underneath him and his backside sort of tucked under (looks like he's had a little 'accident') if his tail is very wet and muddy, as he hates the feel of it against his legs.
 
Beausmate said:
Random guess, based on the weird walking - mud in the tail? My big horse walks with his hind legs right underneath him and his backside sort of tucked under (looks like he's had a little 'accident') if his tail is very wet and muddy, as he hates the feel of it against his legs.
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I will tie up his tail when I next ride and let you know :) Thanks!
 
My mare doesn't like being ridden on wet ground. We have a common on our normal hacking route that we have to cross and at this time of year, it's waterlogged and she hates it. I tend to stick to roadwork instead and wait for the harder ground which she much prefers. Contrast to my old mare who preferred the ground on the soft side.
 
My two really don't enjoy being turned out or ridden if its deep mud; mare particularly hates it as she has some arthritis issues and it obviously drags her feet and causes her pain, poor old girl.

They won't be out tomorrow, will have an easy day in my little "holding pen" with some nice tasty haylage, and a hack in the afternoon :)
 
Camilla's Aunty Em said:
Older horses can find the muddy ground "pulls" on their legs & can make old joints feel sore.
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I've found that as mine has got older (18 this time) she has got more wary of any slippy ground, almost as though she's afraid of falling. She is still going great guns the rest of the time and had a clear set of x rays last year. I let her pick her way along, dear old bat, and get off if it's a steeper muddy hill.
 
Our first horse was a gelding who point blank refused to get his feet wet. He preferred to teeter along the narrowest path at the edge of a sheer drop. The rider just had to sit still and hope to get to the other end!

We always thought that he was worried about getting sucked down into the mud, as must have happened to many a horse and rider around here over the centuries.
 
My gelding doesn't care for wet, very muddy ground either, and when I bring him in he always stops just short of the gloopy poached gateway, looking at the gate... until recently I considered this to be stubborn planting, saying "don't want to work, ta!", but have now realised he stands for a short while, "sizing up" the distance/gloopiness of the mud, and is then fine to just go for it! So I just have to let him have a moment to consider (psych himself up?!) and then no problem...after all I'm a bit like that about getting up on a cold morning! Ridden, he would rather take us both through the hedge than through deep mud, :( so some routes are best avoided for now!
 
My mare hates wet, muddy ground as well. She will pick her way round it if at all possible. Bringing in from the field she has sometimes jumped over the gloopy mud in a gateway rather than walk through it.
 
Haha...but our lovely clay gloop extends a good 20ft+ into the field, so I'd rather he didn't try jumping it with me on the end of the rope! And just when it was improving...more rain, aaghh!
 
Mine always rush through mud when out hacking, occasionally jumping over if it is a narrow stretch. The worst problem when hacking is trying to undo, get through and re-fasten gates when the mud is so deep and the ponies are trying to rush to get out of it. Awful :(
 
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