Stubborn Connemara plants feet and won't move on hacks alone?

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My new gelding (I've had him since the end of March), does not like hacking out alone. I've never experienced this before as all of my other horses have been well behaved (minus spooking etc. which is normal), but he literally just plants his feet and won't move once we are off the yard? I've tried talking to him nicely, patting him encouragingly, giving a kick, pony club kicking, flapping my reins (which sends him forward a few strides and then he stops again)... I'm at a loss as to what I can do?

I've been doing little hacks on his own to build up confidence. He can be a bit anxious sometimes, but he is also smart and stubborn; he is fine once he has turned back home ... and he hacks in company brilliantly.

Sometimes he plants his feet when he doesn't want to come out of his stable, or going back down the lane towards the field when I'm turning him out.

His back/teeth/feet/saddle etc. are all up to date/fine, so I'm really not sure how to correct this?

x
 
Sounds like he's being stubborn rather than anxious. I find if they are anxious their feet will be moving, if stubborn they will be planted...

If it were me I'd take out a schooling whip and crack him one on the @rse as soon as you feel him slowing down. Sometimes you need to shock them and hopefully you'll only need to do it a few times.
 
Totally doesnt surprise me that this is a Connie lol!! Long rein with someone leading him at head to begin with then build up from there. That’s if a crack on the arse with a schooling whip doesn’t work!
 
You've only had him from March you say. Has he moved yards then? It's early days and he probably is anxious about hacking out alone in a new area. What about if you walk him out on foot or at least have another person on foot with you when riding just to build his confidence up.
 
Good advice above to try and solve the issue. I had a few weeks of this with my old Connie at one point until he realised I wouldn't back down - you can and will crack this with a bit of time and patience.

Try long reining/leading him out alone to build his confidence so you can be sure it's not anxiety..

If the whip doesn't work or you don't want to do that (personally, I don't like riding with a whip unless I have to), then avoid letting him just stand. As soon as he stops, spin him. Keep him turning and make him work so he doesn't get to take the lazy option - practise this somewhere that's safe to do so and if needs be bring a friend on foot to follow behind and keep an eye out for traffic of any sort. Circle a few times on the spot then ask to go forward. If he doesn't, go straight back to spinning/turning from side to side/reversing in circles etc. Don't let him stop for a moment until he does as asked, and when he does go forward praise him and let him relax into a walk in the right direction. Once he realises that going forward as asked is the easier option he should be much more willing.

You can be totally calm yourself when doing this - just stick to kind persistence and refuse to let him stand. It takes time, so set yourself up for success and don't do it when you're in a rush, but he'll get bored of this before you do so stick at it. Good luck
 
Horse plants, keep feet moving if you can small circles, teaching him its harder work if he plants and easier if he moves forward. I was given advice to fill plastic coke bottle with few stones and soon as pony plants rattle it to get it to drive forward. But just make sure you are careful with this and you have another person to help you first time to gauge ponies reaction is not extreme. I had good success with this. Also with a youngster I used a wip whop basically its a long plaited rope to flick over shoulders to drive forward. Good luck and like others have said sit it out ! I have heard of a lady taking a book before !
 
Thank you all for the advice so far, really appreciate it! I'll try and get someone to walk out with me/I'll lead him out too. I usually don't carry a whip on him as he's scared of them...I get the impression he was beaten in a past home :(
 
All good ideas above. Also, if possible, try to choose places to ride where you can ‘stick it out’ with him if you need to - a quiet bridle path, lane or field edge where you are not going to feel pressured by others as you could be there some time! A friend and I worked with a mare who was a champion planter - as others have said, it really does take a lot of time and patience - massive praise for one step forwards, turning and turning if planting, even walking backwards in the correct direction. Set small goals for how far you are going to get, and always finish on a good note. Unfortunately our ‘quiet track’ meant going up and turning back for home, but a better plan is somewhere where you do not have to turn round so obviously when going home. Ultimately she went well, but planting remained her default reaction when stressed, frightened or ****off.
 
I had a mare who used to plant her feet. We did a vet check and she was mildly bilaterally lame behind with spavins in both hocks joints. Once we medicated her and ensured she was pain free, we still had to tackle the behaviour which had become ingrained by that stage. My YO stood behind her with a carriage whip and I put my leg on. If she didn’t move off the leg immediately, she got a little flick with the carriage whip (not hard, just enough to put pressure on). Then lots of praise when she walked on. And repeat. And repeat. And repeat. She never really did it again after that, so it was definitely time well spent. She would spin round on hacks if she saw something she didn’t like, but once I got her back in the direction I wanted her to go, she did move forward (just faster past the terrifying bluebells in the hedge lol).
 
Cobbus did this. I would bend her head and pull her into circles until she got bored. Then I ask for the forward again. 9 times out of ten she went. If she didn't I just repeated. I'm a couple of hacks she stopped doing it.
 
mel2 said:
he is fine once he has turned back home ...
Click to expand...
This could be the issue right here. With nappy horses, you shouldn't (IMO) ever, ever, ever turn on the spot and go back the way you came. Always do circular or lollipop shaped routes. At the very least use something as a roundabout even if it's a tree.

I always hacked in too much traffic to wait it out, so I'd dismount when they got 'stuck' and then lead until I found a safe place to remount. Basically as soon as the horse came out of the yard, they knew that they had to finish the whole route. There was no other option.


Sometimes he plants his feet when he doesn't want to come out of his stable, or going back down the lane towards the field when I'm turning him out.
Click to expand...

Get his hooves moving by turning him and once he's going you need to be 100% committed to going where you want with him. It sounds funny, but your confidence and body language will make a difference here. It's napping again and you need to be calmly determined.
 
I had the same issue with my mums highland pony, I almost wanted some sort of reaction. (My horse would do anything but plant her feet)
What I found really helpful was to walk out with someone on the ground. (In this case mum as I was riding her pony as she had broken her wrist hence why we were solo hacking) she got loads of confidence from the human and when she did stop she could give me a little lead.

Touch wood she doesnt do this anymore and is much more confident on her own, shes the sort when she gets anxious or confused she just shuts down and needs a bit of mollycuddling rather than getting annoyed or upset with her. If you do she is even worse!
 
Sorry, long answer, but I had the same kind of thing with my haflinger mare. I tried all the waiting, leading etc but she just got worse and worse, stopping whenever she liked until I really did not want to ride her any more. I am afraid that in the end it was only by going a bit oldskool that the problem was sorted - I got a trainer in and she rode her out and basically laid into her with a schooling whip and (blunt, rubber end) spurs as soon as she started to stop and my horse suddenly decided that going forward was not so bad. After that session, I rode her out every day with spurs and a whip and had to reinforce the message a couple of times, but since then she has been fine. I also realised that I had got into the habit of, to a degree, letting the horse decide when we trotted or walked etc and now I do not let her get into any such habits and try and transition in different places and never let her decide when she would like to slow down or speed up. I think that has all helped and she is now, 18 months on, a joy to ride. I still always carry the schooling whip but these days I only use it for flicking horse flies away.

However..I did read your comment about your horse being afraid of whips, so this may well not be the answer for you, but I do think sometimes we can be too understanding and, certainly in my case, I think a well timed smack early on rather than me trying to find out what coud be wrong with the poor little horse :D would probably have stoppped the problem developing as it did. Good luck!
 
Thank you everyone for your replies!!

Yesterday, I took a short whip with me and he felt anxious at first...instead of lifting it to tap him on the shoulder, I sort of just let him know it was there by rubbing his shoulder with it? We managed a short hack on our own, he had a couple of looks at things!!

We then bumped into a friend and tagged along, we went to the beach where he led most of the way - even past scary rocks, rubbish on the floor (lovely I know) and flapping signs!

https://imgur.com/a/umPoMek

xx
 
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