Stopping when ridden

emmanash

emmanash

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Hi all,
Does anyone else have a horse who stops dead when being ridden and won't budge?
Tawny has done this a few times when out hacking and it's sooo frustrating! We'll be going along quite happily and then she'll stop dead and that's it. She even has the cheek to rest her back leg in defiance as i'm sat there sqeezing her on trying to stay calm! She also did this during our lesson last week after about 15mins. I'm sure she's part mule.
Her back/teeth etc are checked regularily and she doesn't do anything else that would make me think there's a physical problem, I just think she decides she's done enough work for one day!
 
Yep, my horse does! and he always looks mighty pleased with himself that he's done a bit of work
grin.gif
 
Hi, my old horse used to do it when i first got her, she too would rest a leg, so i know how frustrated you must feel! I am afraid there is no quick fix! well there wasn't in my case, i just worked through it, i tried lots of things, but the only thing that worked in the end was just time and patience, believe me it will happen.
Good luck
Kate x
 
You say that you 'squeeze her on, trying to stay calm' - is this always the approach you use? It's just that if that's not working (and it sounds like it's not), I would be pony club kicking, giving a smart whack with the whip behind the leg to see if that moves her forwards. Possibly growling/yelling too, if she's the type not to be upset by such antics. If that approach fails, try turning her round and reversing her the way you want to go. Or make her spin around on the spot until she's had enough, then ask her to go forwards, if she still won't go, go back to the spinning, and so on. In essence, making it more pleasant for her to move forward than to stay still!

Sorry if you've tried all the above, but from your post it sounded like you're being endlessly patient, but I'm betting she can out-stubborn you so you probably need to go on the attack!
 
Hi Mrs H, I have tried most of your suggestions and have found that if I keep on gently tapping her with my legs whilst also tapping her with the crop it does get her moving in the end! I do sit it out until she gives in! The other day I made her do lots of transitions after her "episode", so made her stand when I wanted her to etc. She wasn't impressed at having to stop when I wanted which made me chuckle little monkey.
Thanks for you advice and i'll keep it all in mind next time.
 
Yes I know what you're experiencing coz my cob did this a lot. He was very very green when I had him and had never seen the inside of a school; and had never up to that stage been ridden solo.

He's now at working livery at a BHS training yard so has been schooled to the umpteenth level! BUT we still had a struggle when I initially tried to get him out on his own. It was a lot better, but he could still just "lock" and stop dead, and then he'd just reverse engines and start running back into whatever was behind him, be it deep ditches, car bonnets, you name it he'd ram his backside into it!

I was helped by an old schoolfriend who I just happened to run into and she's helped a lot of people with difficult horses coz she thinks off-the-wall and sometimes with a horse who's a puzzle you gotta do that.

Anyway, she worked on my confidence initially; I'd had an accident when I was riding-out on my old horse (not our fault, a car ran up the back of us - thank God we were OK but it dented my confidence a lot); she said that the running back (and he'd also rear up as well if you hit him or tried to make him go forward after he'd "planted") was all about him saying "I'm not confident with you and this is how I'm showing it" and she encouraged me firstly to work on the ground with him before doing any ridden work, to get him responsive and listening to me as his "mare" on the ground, then apply the same things when on top. If you have an enclosed area then long-reining is particularly good coz it makes the horse go forward independently.

She then gave me some tactics for if I was out hacking and he "planted", such as making him go around in a VERY tight circle so its uncomfortable and the horse will then seek to do anything (even move forward) to get away from it. You have to take your hand right down - lower than you knee - and keep the horse turning very tight so he's going in a very small tight little circle. The other thing you can do is to say right then you blighter if you wanna reverse engines then that's what we'll do and make him go back until YOU decide to stop it! - if you can do so its better not to let him get his head around to go home.

The other thing I've done is to just sit quietly for say a minute and let the situation chill; THEN give it all the welly you've got, Pony Club kick style, and at the same time give a blood curdling cry like a Red Indian!!! Its unorthodox but by golly this has worked for me on a good few occasions and if it works I don't give a stuff who thinks its silly!! You're not trying to win dressage marks are you (at this stage!) - you're just trying to get the damn thing to go forward. The best way to kick is to do opposite legs, i.e. Right, Left, Right, Left and so on coz some horses just get dead to the leg.

Good luck!
 
Just a little story to cheer you up and make you smile: When my rescue mare was backed, the trainer had another big warmblood in for "re-training". The owners reported that he wouldn't move off the yard. They said they had tried everything and their last ditch solution was to get a houseplant sprayer and when he wouldn't go forward they gave his bum a little squirt with the sprayer. Needless to say, it didn't work. The trainer (highly regarded) told me she had sorted it in approximately 30 seconds. She tacked him up, got on, asked him politely to move forward and he just stood there, planted. So she gave him one almighty crack over his backside with the whip and he shot forward in horrified surprise and has never done it again. The moral of this story is, once you're satisfied it IS from sheer ignoring of the rider rather than a pain related issue, meet the level of resistance the horse gives with an equal level of response!
 
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