Sudden fear of ditches

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charlotte79

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My horse and I have been happily competing BE90 for the last 2 seasons and have never had an issue with ditches. I took her to an xc clinic in an arena in Feb....it had a ditch on a very slight incline...so we watched 2 people have terrible trouble getting over it. I never had a thought my mare wouldn't go over it but she turned herself inside out. Eventually I got her over it but it wasn't fun. So a few weeks later we did a hunter trial which had a tiny ditch halfway round...I didn't think it would be a problem but 3 strides away she slammed on the brakes and tried spinning...I slapped her shoulder gave her a boot on re-presenting and she went over. I've dug a ditch at home and she'll jump that fine but xc schooling each time its the same...at one particularly scary ditch I had to lead her with a friend behind tapping her bum (mad at myself as I feel I overfaced her at this ditch and probably made her more scared of them) guess I'm just looking for some positive encouragement that we can overcome this sudden fear of ditches. I'm so disheartened atm as my first BE is next week and I know they'll have a ditch.
 
To me this would be one of a few things.

Either she is hurting, either before she attempted the ditch or because she twisted and hurt herself when faced with an unusual uphill ditch.

Or, she had a different piece of tack that does not agree with her?

Or, she was somewhat concerned at the unusual uphill ditch, but then scared even more if she was smacked, and smacked each time she was near the ditch. You say it was not fun, maybe it was not fun for her to be near a ditch that day too?
 
Don't loose heart!

It is important that you practice over ditches that she can walk into and through, just keep at it. Try to get to as many different venues for practice as you can. Make nothing of it, the first couple of times I would lead her through and over first.

Make sure that when you go to your next event that you don't worry and send bad vibes to her, I would be singing on the approach and coming back to a jog.

Its so annoying when something like this happens, but I am sure you will be able to re train her and will soon be flying over everything again. Good Luck with the event :)
 
Red-1 said:
To me this would be one of a few things.

Either she is hurting, either before she attempted the ditch or because she twisted and hurt herself when faced with an unusual uphill ditch.

Or, she had a different piece of tack that does not agree with her?

Or, she was somewhat concerned at the unusual uphill ditch, but then scared even more if she was smacked, and smacked each time she was near the ditch. You say it was not fun, maybe it was not fun for her to be near a ditch that day too?
Click to expand...

To be fair, it could be pain related, however I am assuming that she is jumping every other type of fence fine, including steps, which would surely highlight it?
 
I don't think its pain as She is jumping everything else wonderfully. She is a very sensitive mare and I think she got freaked watching other horses freaking out. Yes I did smack her but only on the shoulder when trying to spin...it wasn't fun as it took the last 30mins of the clinic to get her over it. I genuinely believe she has lost her confidence(she isn't a bold horse) and was hoping someone might have similar experience with this.
 
Red-1 said:
To me this would be one of a few things.

Either she is hurting, either before she attempted the ditch or because she twisted and hurt herself when faced with an unusual uphill ditch.

Or, she had a different piece of tack that does not agree with her?

Or, she was somewhat concerned at the unusual uphill ditch, but then scared even more if she was smacked, and smacked each time she was near the ditch. You say it was not fun, maybe it was not fun for her to be near a ditch that day too?
Click to expand...

It wasn't uphill...it was at a slight dip in the arena so a more downhill approach. I'm not a fan of smacking horses and only reprimand her for spinning or behind my leg if she isnt sharp enough. It wasn't fun.for either of us as it ruined the lesson and she got very wound up. She is super sensitive
 
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