showjumper naps on the flat

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Charliesmith

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Hey, My auntie has recently sold her showjumpers to concentrate on young stock, and has given me her 'unsellable horse' lucky me! having said that he is super quiet to look after and has a jump to die for, never ever stopped in his life.
But, at home he will not do anything other than walk without a fence in front of him, if you nag him he ignores you, and if you give him a good old pony club kick or use the whip he just bucks then freezes, he will hack out with another horse like any other but on his own its hard work.
He wont do any of this at a show.
He was like this with my Auntie since she baught him, and it was never a problem for her as he could hack out to keep fit in big groups of horses, and would only ever need to be in an arena to school over fences, she always intended to work him through the issues but as a competition rider, as long as his results werent suffering, she could never realy justify spending the time with him.
But now he is on a smaller yard, without good hacking due to a busy road and we make much more use of the school, i dont want to jump him every day to keep him fit because he is the most tallented horse i have ever owned and i would hate to see him injured.
I have tried using poles spaced around the arena which he treats as jumps which works just the same.

Its a sad old situation because i am off to uni in october and i will be depending on other people to be riding him a few times during the week, they will just want to school on the flat and if this is not possible i dont know how he will be kept fit and i will probably have to give him away.

Sorry its a bit of an essay any help will be hugely appreciated
P.s hes had full xrays tack check teeth back, allergy tested, gastric ulcer tested, you name it hes had it done, its worth it for a horse that jumps 1m40 from trot!
 
Without sounding rude i think possibly the basics were skipped and it might be worth going back a few steps to lunging and long reining, will he be led by a person on the ground? He sounds wonderfuly talented it would be such a shame if you couldnt keep him while at uni.
 
Yes thats what i have been trying to do, he is fine to lead and very exciteable to lunge, problem is i only have 2 months to produce something rideable on the flat :(. I think i may move him to a yard with plenty of hacking if all fails so he can just be hacked out with other horses when im not around.
He was baught from ireland as a 7 year old, had just hunted so i suspect he was a back and hunt jobby which is probably the source of his problems, at a show you would never know he is like this at home would even do a fairly good dressage test, hes just darn stubborn!
thankssss xxx
 
Charliesmith said:
hes just darn stubborn!
Click to expand...

Let's call it misunderstood perhaps.....;)

If he hunted in Ireland until he was 7, and given the way you describe him, I would say he had a pretty hard time of it. I've known a couple of horses that hunted in Ireland as youngsters before coming over and both had a lot of issues. It might be the 'making' of some horses, but for a lot it is not. His 'excitement' on the lunge sounds like fright to me - he may well have been razzed round on the lunge in the past and never actually been taught to work on it correctly.

Agree with the others - back to basics. I think the idea to move him somewhere with lots of hacking and company with which to do it in, is a good one.
 
Why not lunge him with someone on? What does he do then? You could then gradually remove lunge line, then remove person in centre of arena etc. Have you tried that?
 
Agree with the others re the basics. Here's another idea just in case it works: if I understood right you said he will work in the arena with poles on the ground? If yes, work him him poles and gradually reduce the number of poles so that there is only one. Then work him with one pole in the arena but trick him so that he is working at another end of the arena and not really interacting with the pole. Eventually start making the pole smaller, i.e. chop a bit of the pole off at a time until you only need a small piece of wood in the arena for him to work. That way you might be able to use his preference for poles to your advantage and wean him off them in time.
 
Thanks, yeah i will try the pole trick, have been doing that a bit already, although using slightly smaller poles is a new one i will try that! I agree the hunting is the base of his problems, if he sees hounds or hears the horn he starts to shake poor thing, i doubt he is scared on the lunge though tbh, every time i turn him out he gallops around for a good 20 minutes exactly the same as he does on the lunge, i think he just thinks hes free then is like wtf theres a rope, this isnt normal, lol. I dont like doing it i get a bit scared i would rather be on a naughty horse than on the ground! xx
 
If he is good to hack with another horse could you try riding in the school with another horse? Perhaps in a similar way to with the poles, start with following so that he realises he can do more than walk in the school and gradually 'wean' him off the other horse. Maybe go for a hack first and then just go into the school for 5 minutes at the end and progress from there. It might just help him to get the idea along with the groundwork, basics, and polework.
 
sorry but this horse knows his job!
i doubt you wil get anywhere with lunging and longreins!
horses for courses.
id try and jump him a couple of times a week, if your lucky enough to hack once in company consider it a bonus. keep him ticking over and class your shows as fittening work
if you can, box up for better hacking and i bet you get people wanting to come with!
school sour SJ are ten a penny. they enjoy doing what they do best! circles are boring, and trust me, i speak from experience, work with them and they are fab horses, keep making them do what they dont enjoy and you will find they switch off more.
sorry prob not what you want to hear but im being realistic!
enjoy jumpinh him, he obviously does! goodluck when you are out and about! x
 
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