Schooling tips and exercises for a sensitive horse with a busy brain

Erin_rutherfordd

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Wondered what exercises people have found to help buzzy horses calm down a bit when schooling on the flat and jumping. My mare likes to bunny hop into a fence and I was wondering what people would suggest to help get a more relaxed approach to a fence. Poles help but she will still bunny hop into those. She also gets very buzzy in canter when just working on flatwork particularly on the right rein and changes leads and then gets herself into a bit of a state because she becomes disunited. Have been doing lots of changes of rein , circles and serpentines etc... to try to keep her brain busy but any other tips or exercises would be much appreciated.
 
Is she very young? Where is she in her training?


A horse that bunny hops and regularly becomes disunited would raise a few questions for me about potential pain somewhere, that's exacerbated by jumping. Particularly if this happens when she's just asked to canter normally without any fences, as that suggests it isn't just excitement/anxiety caused by the sight of the jumps. I appreciate it may well not be pain-related; I mention it only because with one of mine, changes in his canter was an early sign of hock DJD. He wasn't particularly old, either.

Assuming physical issues are ruled out, though, she sounds unbalanced. I've got a 'busy' mare too, and we didn't canter in the school for a couple of months or so at one point. Although she didn't go disunited, she rushed, so we built up her strength and balance in trot and then brought in short canters. They were exciting the first couple of times but quickly became just another pace to work in. She still needs a good 35 minutes to warm up though, before I get her best, so the first part of the ride is basic exercises - transitions within and between paces, a little shoulder-in or leg-yield, spiralling circles etc. with the aim of softening and suppling. Then we can run through tests or learn something new.

Have a look at the virtual clinic threads, there's some great ideas on there.

Think about your position, too - any chance you could be accidentally asking for changes in canter? By being disunited, is she throwing you off balance? If she thinks you might be asking her for something she can't do properly/doesn't understand, it might be why she becomes a bit muddled and then gets herself into a state?

Personally, I'd leave jumping until the canter is sorted. Poles are a good way to build up strength though - raised trotting poles are super at teaching them to be careful and to flex. I'd still rule out physical issues first, though - I am first to admit I'm not the world's wisest horsewoman or most experienced trainer, but regularly going disunited particularly on one rein more than the other is something I've only really come across in horses which later turned out to be unsound, even if they appeared sound in every other way (I'm making an assumption here that it is a regular occurrence).
 
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