strong horse jogging all the way home

[Hoof_Prints]

I hack out my sister's mare to keep her fit, but she is horrendous for jogging on the way home ! she is quite calm on the way out, can have a nice steady canter and a normal walk but as soon as you turn around or she knows you are looping back towards the yard, she starts jogging and going sideways You just can't get her to walk, if you ask her to go slower she just shortens up the jogging, circles just make her worse as she spins and sets off even faster, asking her to stand helps a little but she just pulls the reins and tries to make up for lost time by jogging faster, or shakes her head and does bunny hops. She is well behaved in the fact she is bombproof on the roads and she won't go faster than a jog on the road if you give your hands, in the field she would canter off though.
Is it hopeless trying to stop it? or are there methods to at least minimize it? My arms hurt and my poor mum who used to ride her more than me now takes out the slower old pony as it's a much nicer ride.

 

[wench]

Make her trot on?

 

[Pearlsasinger]

I would buy a bit with a curb, use 2 reins and every time she starts to jog, insist with the curb rein that she walk. However (and this depends on where you are) I would NEVER turn round and on a circular/lollipop ride would set off towards home and then turn off again and keep on doing that until she learned that she can't predict when you are actually on the way home. But we have the perfect setting to be able to do that and, even though our horses are well-mannered and wouldn't dream of jogging, we regularly turn away from the obvious route home.

 

[Orangehorse]

Some horses seem to know to the inch when they on the homeward journey, don't they.

I have only had to deal with one horse, and he was very easy and soon learnt, but if your mare has a deeply ingrained habit what I did might not work.

Every time my horse tried to jog I just made him halt and then walk on and he quickly understood after a couple of rides. You must be careful not to have a pulling match though, because that might make your horse rear and plunge forward. Ideally the horse would halt with no bit pressure at all, either a "whoa" or mixture of legs/seat, leaning back, whatever works. Luckily mine would halt immediately with "whoa" as an order.

If that doesn't work, hopefully someone with more experience can help.

 

[Hoof_Prints]

she is ok when in trot, but seems like i've given in to let her speed up on the way home, rather teach her to walk and have manners. I like to hack my horses in a snaffle but do put a stronger bit (gag or pelham) in if I know we will be doing a lot of fast work, would you say it would be ok to use the curb bit with two reins just to school in then bring back to a snaffle? it's quite tricky not to turn around where I am. If we do circular hacks they take all day, which is fine if I have the time, but I have a few horses to ride and look after so it's not practical. She will halt, just plunges forward when asked to move on and will dance around for a start, then sets herself really still as if she is a spring coiling up ! It might be a hopeless cause but it's worth a shot.

 

[npage123]

Could you maybe try this: walk away from the yard for only a short bit (maybe about a quarter of the distance that you would usually hack away from the yard for), then turn back round and walk back towards the yard (whilst thinking calm little walk, loose rein, we're just having a nice relaxed walk); then after a while, turn around and again walk away from the yard, this time walking past the point that you previously turned around, then turn back again and head back home - and keep repeating this process of walking back and forth, all in walk. Hopefully your horse will soon realise that if you're heading back to the yard, it doesn't necessarily mean you're actually going all the way back home. Hope I'm making sense. I should have gone to bed ages ago!

 

[AdorableAlice]

Annoying habit, my mare will do the same and throw in the odd levade for fun. I remember her doing it within the first 2 weeks of owning her and I got off !

You need to extend the hacks and put in some steep hills, walking up steep hills is harder work than trotting, if needs be climb the hill more than once. During all the hard work keep asking the horse to listen, do transitions within the paces, do shoulder fore/in etc anything to get her to listen and react. Flex, collect, stretch within the pace too. Work her mind and her body.

Never ever hack out and turn around it is a recipe for trouble. My mare, who is built like a tank and would be the last sort that you would think as 'hot', will still try the odd jogging/snatching and side stepping, she has just done it this morning as we got to the half way point on the circular hack we did, I just started with shoulder in, half halt and transitions in the walk and she soon relaxed and listened for what I might ask for next. Despite being a carthorse she is incredibly intelligent and I need to be one step ahead of her.

 

[Luci07]

My old mare would do this after having had someone I thought was a responsible rider bombing her home. Asking her to stop would result in her going up with me. Other rider was banned. First rides then consisted of going down the steepest hill I could find and then back up. Then I started short rides (and I mean short) whereby I would hack out for 5 mins turn around for home then when she started jogging turn her again to go out. It was a massive pain but she got the idea. However, if we had had a really good long ride she would revert to jogging on the way home and get really wound up. When she did that, I would sit up and pretty much drop the contact using my seat only to slow her down. Could have cheerfully strangled the idiot who thought it was fun to bomb her home. I honestly didn't think said rider would need this underlined but won't make that mistake again.

 

[oldie48]

My horse does this and it's a real pain. We do circular routes but he knows where he is and always picks up the pace half way round. I've had him a year now and have found that holding with my seat works best but i've had to work in the school to get him more collected and on the hindleg. This really has helped. I don't think a stronger bit or a curb would work with him as he's a very sensitive horse and easily gets upset. Trotting definitely doesn't work as he has a big trot and on the road it's quite uncomfortable. Circling just winds him up as does stopping and starting. He's a lovely horse in every other way and this is the only issue I have with him. We have now got to the stage where he will rush just at the very end of the ride when he can see home and I now tend to ignore it as I feel it's a bit of anxiety, sometimes he's fine all the way home and he gets lots of praise. Good luck with yours, I think you can improve it but lots of horses do it. Has yours got a lot of TB in her?

 

[Slightlyconfused]

Get someone to teach you a One Rein Stop. Its just about stopped our Tb from.doing what you described.

 

[cally23]

Today, I managed to take my mare on the longest hack without being in company.She has a habit of napping but I am learning the signs and distinct areas(usually at a crossroads or fork in the road/path) and can mostly push her on or growl at her to move on. I do think it is a shame that she will not relax and as soon as we hit the forestry, she is itching to turn back. Today I had to work extremely hard to stop her jogging through the forest. Once we were back on the country lanes, she wanted to trot, faster than a canter! I managed to keep her at a slower pace and we slowed to walk, when passing cars, Then she was happy to walk when we were back on familiar lane.

This is my first horse, I have been riding her for 6 months. Is the trotting home acceptable or should I work on her walk?

 

[Orangehorse]

So long as you dictate the pace, and not the horse, but it is not a good idea to let them go fast towards home, as they tend to pick up the pace - see an earlier thread. Trotting faster than a canter is not a good idea! You could try doing a slow trot and if she starts to go fast, go back to walk. Particularly in your case, where your horse is still quite new to you.

The wanting to rush back sounds like a bit of a confidence issue, so well done to you for getting her to do what you want.Just keep practicing and continuing with the good work. If you think the horse is getting a bit excited make it concentrate on you by doing some school figures, like little serpentines, shoulder-in, moving away from the leg from one side of the track to the other.

 

[cally23]

I will try this tomorrow, thank you.

 

[Pie's mum]

Pie used to be terrible for jogging - i had many discussions with him about it in the early days. On one particular route heading for home he was especially bad. I cracked it in the end by when he ignored my half halts, turning away from home. He was only allowed to go in that direction if he walked nicely. We walked up and down that bit of track many times, and were there for a good half hour at least. But it worked!

 

[Bluedaisys]

My mare likes to jog or power walk home. As soon as we get to the half way point it starts. It is improving with consistency from me. I try not to allow myself to go with her and get stressed. I found using her neck strap helps massively rather than fighting with her. Yesterday we also had to circle off every time she jogged for about 20 mins. Its so frustrating!

 

[webble]

What happens if you completely relax give her her head etc

 

[mandwhy]

I find really mixing it up and regularly going past home helps, so that they never really know when home time is! I have no problems with turning back for home as long as it is not in response to something scary - when I've done that (because I couldn't be bothered to deal with it that day and just wanted to run home crying) I have really needed the pelham I ride my mare in, she is so strong and It's not safe hacking her in a snaffle really - she listens to me so much more with a curb.

 

[WindyStacks]

Has anyone got anywhere with this type of horse when there is no circular route? My only circular would be around 12 miles, 9 of that on a wicked road. I do have the option of a "lollipop" route when we're fitter.