schooling help needed.

lisabethm

lisabethm

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I'm struggling with my mare in the school and hoping someone may be able to give me a few pointers to try and help.
She's a 9yo cob, was originally broken to harness and very green schooling. Hacking we are doing great, walk and trot nice and relaxed on a loose rein, canter across an open field on a loose contact and come straight back when asked. In the school however its a completely different story.

As soon as I'm on board she's pulling and wanting to jog, I bring her straight to halt but she takes a while and still pulls, as soon as I drop my hands she's straight off at a jog again. After about 5 minutes of constant walk-halt I'll get a brief period of standing but she's trying to go long before im ready to ask. Generally another 5-10 minutes will find her standing until asked to walk, we then get maybe halfway round and she's off jogging again. I won't ask for trot until she's walking relaxed.

Once trotting she pulls constantly trying to trot faster, motorbikes in circles, half halting has no effect whatsever, she just puts her head up and powers forward. After about 20 minutes of this I can then start to talk to her down the reins and ask her to soften, which she does, but as soon as I put my inside leg on to ask for her to engage her hindquarters her heads back up and she's steaming forward again. After about 45 minutes of this ive got nothing left in my arms and shoulders.

She's in a Waterford baucher currently, after trialling numerous bits with advise from neue schule, as its the only mouthpiece/cheek combination I can encourage her to relax in. She doesn't open her mouth to evade the bit so doesn't need a flash. She's in the Waterford as with any other mouthpiece she'll drop her nose, grab the bit and then there's no stopping her from powering round the school at all.

Physio has done a thorough assessment on her, teeth done recently and saddle checked also.

Any help to save my aching arms and shoulders would be much appreciated!

Thanks x
 
I can't be of much help but are you having lessons with a good instructor? An eye on the ground is usually invaluable.
 
Our intructor is on maternity leave, she couldn't ride her when I first bought her as she was pregnant.

I knew what I was taking on when I bought her in the summer as in very green schooling, I've managed to bring on youngsters in the school previously so was happy with taking on this one. We've come a long way with most of the work while waiting for our Instructor to return to work, for eg she'll actually bend now rather than working in straight lines but this constant powering forward has got me stumped, the last thing I want to do is put her in a stronger bit, especially when she's happier in the baucher, but trying to work her when we're both knackered and panting is defeating the object.
 
Obviously haven't seen you both riding but since you say she is completely fine on hacks and only does this in the school I'd be tempted to say maybe because you have this idea of her misbehaving in the school you are anticipating it and she is then picking up on this and getting herself wound up.

What is she like when someone else rides her? Always a good idea to stick someone else on board and see if the same thing happens. If it doesn't then you will know that chances are she is picking up on your own mindset. Horses are fascinatingly sensitive to our mind and body language.
 
She's exactly the same when anyone else gets on her in the school, which is why I'm at such a loss. She did this when we tried her, at the time she was gagged up to the eyeballs, including a curb chain but has a lovely willing temperament on the ground and when we took her out, is very gentle natured, so we went back for our 2nd viewing and stripped everything off her, tried her in a few different bits we had laying about and got her to relax, then contacted neue schule once she was home to find the best bit for her mouth conformation, tried varying different ones and then started mostly with basic transitions out hacking before starting to school her.
 
Hi, there was a mare at our yard earlier this year, sounding very similar, my friend spent a good 6 months trying to calm her down, just doing walk/trot in the school, got nowhere at all unfortunately, would end every session with a aching arms and a horse soaked in sweat. I think the mare had issues, I think she was fundamentally nervous of having a rider on her back and trying to run away from it.
if you are sure your mare isn't in pain, I would just use a stronger bit to get her to respect you.
 
She's not nervous of a rider and not in pain ridden, as she's a completely different horse out hacking. Physiotherapist gave her a thorough assesment and was happy with everything, my Vet also gave her a thorough check, health wise she's fit and well. She just doesn't seem to like the school. I don't mind mostly hacking, but schooling does benefit both horse and rider, there's not a lot more I can do with our hacking apart from leg yeilding along the lane
 
Can you lunge her to establish the basics in the school, not to let her charge round getting rid of her energy as that will compound the problem, as she has driven long reining may also be useful, less pressure than ridden but enable you to get the ground rules and some schooling into her, even some in hand work may be useful, flexing her, backing etc.
What is she like if you hack then pop in the school for 10 mins on a long rein when you get back, often mixing things up helps break bad habits.
 
maybe try to keep her really busy in the school, pole work, lots of changes of direction, lots of transitions, so she is always waiting for the next instruction, but I don't think it's the end of the world to need a stronger bit, experiment with a curb chain maybe? double reins?
what is she like on the lunge in the school? if she is calm on the lunge maybe get her used to voice commands to slow down and see if you can transfer that to the ridden work.
 
She lunges fine, long reining she'll walk along happily. Haven't tried a short hack then going into the school so will give that a go. I've started trying nh ground work with her to see if that helps, but so far we've only done a few simple pressure-release ie backing up, turning her hindquarters away and moving her forehand away (if that makes sense?)
 
My old horse was a terrible jogger and a big hunting cob completely on the forehand. However, he could go beautifully (although he was always incredibly heavy in your hands) with a good rider and after 2 years of schooling. We had a lot of lessons and to combat the jogging we did absolutely NO canter work for about 3 months (in the school, and rarely on hacks). I would just stay in walk and not bother with trot for a couple of weeks, or just do a loose relaxed trot at the end, not even worrying about schooling aspect. The main reason I am replying, however, is that my instructor taught me a really useful exercise to tackle that jogging/moving off with anticipation. Instead of having picking up a contact as you get ready to move off she would have me have a contact, ask for halt, halt, drop the contact and ask the horse to move on. Pick up the contact again after a few steps and then ask for halt again. Drop the contact, move off and repeat. This really helped stop my horse anticipating when we were going to move off and start jogging. This make take some practice if yours moves off in jog when you have dropped your rein but it did help me. Does she jog on a hack? I'd also say loads of leg yielding to get her used to your leg being on, I really wouldn't worry about where her head is, just concentrate going at the speed you want for the minute. This is what I did with mine and we did manage to improve his way of going a lot! Hope this helps x
 
Thanks, I'll give that a try as well. She doesn't jog on hacks at all, walks on a loose rein until I collect her and ask her to trot, then trots on a loose rein until I ask her to come down to walk, generally by just slowing my rise and then within 2 sitting strides shes walking on a loose rein again, I imagine this is from being a driving mare and so in an environment she's familiar and comfortable. x
 
I would also suggest lots of leg yielding out hacking to get her used to the idea of your leg not just meaning going faster, then trying it in the school. A slightly more outside the box suggestion, but what about just wandering round the school totaly relaxed, loose rein, no pressure (if you think it would be safe to do so) ?Do that for ten minutes then go for a hack, just to help her learn to relax in the school, then slowly start to introduce more schooling work.
 
It sounds like she is very unbalanced and pulling onto her forehand. I'd be doing lots of bending work just doing walk/halt and see if that has any results :)
 
It depends on why she's doing this, but if you think it's an evasion (and as long as the school is big enough and you feel she's balanced enough) I'd probably try a different tactic. Instead of insisting she stays in walk, as soon as she starts trying to go faster than you want put your leg on and send her forwards - ideally cantering in a light seat. Just let her go round until she feels like she wants to slow down then send her forwards again and don't let her stop until you've asked her to. She'll soon realise that it's much easier to just listen to you from the start!

Of course if it is a case of her being upset or confused and you feel she's not comfortable in the school or doesn't understand the aids properly then this probably wouldn't be a good idea! In that instance I'd go right back to basics - ideally with a good instructor to help you - and make sure she knows exactly what you want from each aid, even if that means initially just working with her on the ground.

Another option, if you think for example that she has bad memories associated with the school, would be to take the pressure off and give her time to get used to the idea. So do most of your schooling while out hacking and start popping into the school sometimes for a few minutes before you hop off. If this helps her stay relaxed and keeps her listening to you, just gradually decrease the length of the hack and increase the time in the school.

As always with horses, if you know why they're behaving a certain way the solution often becomes more obvious. Unfortunately trying to work out what's going in in their heads' can be the most difficult bit!
 
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