Saw another side to my boy today

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malibu211211

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Had a lesson booked for today. My instructor hopped on board to start with as I have been struggling with canter. Probably should say that although Monty is 7 he is a bit behind
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When asking for canter Monty throws his quarters to the outside and runs through his inside shoulder
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making it very difficult for me to sit and ask for canter
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Anyway he warms up well and my instructor manages to get him straight, asks him for canter and he completely throws his toys out the pram
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He was going backwards, pawing the floor and rearing up
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. He has had a stroppy tantrum before with her but not like that, normally he does it when she asks something different of him
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This carried on for a good 10 mins before he calmed down and sorted himself out
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He then carried on and did some lovely work
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He has reared before with me last year when I first had him and we fell backwards but that was down to him being very weak behind and quite a steep hill
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He has seen the physio and she is due out again. Teeth, I am going to book although they are not due until November and saddle is fine.
Any ideas? Temper tantrum? Pain?
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sounds like pain. Take a very hard look at yoru saddle, his teeth, everything. Could be him being weak, but that temper tantrum sounds like he is in pain, sorry
 
My previous horse did that at RC camp. I knew he got stressed when asked to canter right - he had had a new saddle fitted by a very thorough saddler, some physio on his back (although nothing much was found), his teeth done and plenty of fittening work; I came to the conclusion that he had a hang up about it. I asked that the instructor was gentle with him - mainly because I am a wimp and didnt want a public fight - but she insisted he cantered right, and after a very tearful session of dropping shoulders, whipping round, rearing too high for comfort, tantrums etc, he did do it. Im certain it was temper. I think it used to hurt him, with his old saddle, and he used to anticipate pain. His previous owner didnt ask him to canter right, his muscles developed accordingly; I avoided asking for canter and therefore exacerbated the problem and so even when the possible causes were eliminated, he still did it. I gave up and only cantered right after setting him up at a little fence, in the hope that it would change his mind because once he was cantering on that leg he was fine - no discomfort, changing of leg or tail swishing/bucking etc. Couldn't tell you if that worked long term, cos I sold him about a month ago
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It could be a temper tantrum because he wasn't being allowed to escape and had to work. My mare gets like that sometimes then when she's tantrumed herself out she works brilliantly
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My dressage horse has done this a few times, He is now 11 and have spent a fortune checking him over, I bought a new made to measure saddle as the last one had given him a sore back according to the physio, tooth surgery as his teeth were causing problems, a new bit, a year off due to a tendon injury and a thousand pound vet bill and recently have started treating him for gastric ulcers. Does your horse get grumpy at all/dislike his girth being done up?
Does your horse get pleanty of turnout? I find that mine needs time to have a god blow out, gallop and buck etc otherwise he gets tense and likely to get worked up. I find it is usually when we are doing something new or something he finds hard work.
I have noticed that since my horse has come back into work after his tendon injury he has been much better, he would usually throw his teddy out doing some lateral work but this has now stopped - He wasn't lame so it was very hard to spot the tendon injury.
Basically, I havent decided if my horse has temper tantrums or if these things were really causing the problems, he is the sweetest temp horse and is not angry and bad tempered which made me check all of the above. I still have occational days where he plays up slightly but I know how to appease him and can carry on working without a fight.
Please PM me as it sounds like we are having exactly the same problems! My horse is a very well bred Westfalen and the majority of the time works like a superstar , but this little problem is so frustrating!
 
He does have his stroppy moments and because she asks more of him than I do his reactions are more extreme but has never been this bad!
My instructor had a thorough look over him tonight (trust her opinion totally) and said there was nothing obvious but am gonna contact physio tomorrow and organise teeth to be done.
Am gonna have a different saddler out to look at him too.

iamafluffybunny- Monty is very laid back about everything really. Does'nt bother at all when his girth is done up and has 24/7 turnout at the mo but comes in at night in winter
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Have stepped up the schooling a bit recently so do you think it could be that?
 
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It could be a temper tantrum because he wasn't being allowed to escape and had to work. My mare gets like that sometimes then when she's tantrumed herself out she works brilliantly
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I second this. If you get on my mare and don't ask her any tough questions then she's lovely and quiet - start pushing her into things she finds hard and she throws a strop. Work through it (at your peril -lol) and Voila - lovely supple horsey
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Your instructor may well have used a much stronger/different aid than you & he felt he had nowhere to go. Or perhaps he thought he'd test her out - he has less of a relationship with her than he does with you.

I'm not saying that you should rule out pain but IMO this is a response to being asked something he didin't want to do - so long as you can work through it then I wouldn't worry too much.
 
I wouldn't rule out pain so as a precaution I would get his back, teeth and saddle checked but it could just be a temper tantrum.

If he has been "getting away" with his canter antics with you for the last few weeks then when Louise got on he probably was not impressed at all to be asked to do it properly. Bane has had proper tantrums before - major one once when I started teaching him simple changes, he threw himself around the school for a couple of minutes with legs everywhere but he settled down again and did it fine afterwards
 
I'd get him checked for saddle etc but TBH Ty used to through his toys out of the pram when he was reschooled - although luckily I wasn't there to witness it. Apparently once, when my old instructor was teaching him that he couldn't bolt through the gate of the school, he sat down!!
 
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