Tips for calming a stressy horse

[Booboos]

New boy, who is on loan from my friend, is proving to be quite stressy and hot.

He is a 7yo PRE. My friend got him at 4yo already started in Spain but had to re-start him with a snaffle and gentler ridding. He has scars on his back legs from rope burns so god knows how he was broken in and is quite worried about people, e.g. if you make any sudden movements he shoots back a mile.

To ride he is very hot which might be typical PRE but I have no experience of the breed. To start off I can get a semi decent walk but he never fully takes the reins forward and down. The trot work lacks rhythm but you can generally ride him from your seats encourage him to think about stressing. Transitions to canter are awful, the canter can get a bit hysterical but again is manageable with a good seat and inside leg bend. The problems start after the canter, especially right canter which he finds more difficult. He gets very wound up and I can't get him into a decent trot again. Today I spent 30 minutes after the canter walking him around just to get him to stretch, any attempt to trot wound him up more.

When he gets wound up he gets very stuck, prancing on the spot and not sure what to do with himself. I am used to flighty horses that need to be allowed to go forward, but he blocks himself and then has nowhere to go. Halting and taking a few deep breaths seems to help but I would like to trot after a canter rather than give up!

He lives out 24/7, no hard feed, grass and low energy hay although at the moment there is no grass here as it hasn't rained in months (22 degrees today so no excuse from wind/rain/cold). I have tried Cool Calm and Collected but he won't eat it.

Any advice from Spanish horse enthusiasts? This is a video of him having a little canter

https://www.facebook.com/nafsika.athanassoulis/videos/10153391112103141/

 

[j1ffy]

As no-one else had replied I'll have a go! I'm by no means an expert though...

Poor horse, it sounds like he's had a terrible start in life so no wonder he's tense. Spanish horses are quite different to warmbloods in terms of what they find easy and what the find difficult, so IMHO techniques to relax them need to differ (my Indio is a bit different to most PREs as he loves to stretch!). The more compact, uphill Baroque types find stretching work very hard, and if he's been trained by a poor Spanish trainer then he may have never been taught to do it at all, even in walk. Add to that that Spanish horses need to 'think' and get easily bored, and you can see that going in circles encouraging them to stretch is likely to be an exercise in futility

I would stay in walk and use the lateral movements to encourage him to use his back and relax. They find lateral work easy and you can control his steps more - e.g. Shoulder-in so you can ride the inside hind and encourage him to work into the outside rein. Concentrate on being able to adjust the bend and keep every step 'through' rather than a tense scuttle sideways. Then break it up with walking literally on the buckle so he begins to learn to relax forwards and down. Once you have the walk, move up to trot and do the same. Only work on stretching once he's relaxed - then he'll get the idea as his muscles will be warmed up.

One other thing I've seen a lot (including in one of my PREs) is some Spanish trainers ask the horse to be up and 'collected' in walk from day one. My poor horse didn't realise he could step out at all, he could barely negotiate the curb of a pavement. I've seen others that look lame in walk because the only way they could 'collect' was to take a short step then a long step. The long rein walk will eventually help to fix this (including on hacks) if that's an issue too.

 

[Pigeon]

I think this is a fairly common problem with PREs - they are built to collect, it comes so naturally that it is a go-to response to stress. I also agree that they are intelligent and over-achiever types, so again can be prone to stressing.

I would say hacking would be my first move. With a couple of friends, literally just go for walks. The longer the better - can you trailer to anywhere good? Dartmoor or the Ridgeway or somewhere like that?

Also what about in hand stretches and massage? With my horse who was very hollow it took the longest time to teach him to stretch, but one day the penny dropped that it felt nice and he would do it all day long now. I started with carrot stretches for him. Also walking in hand over poles. If you can get their back lifted in theory the stretching should come naturally.

Aside from that it is just time, I guess! Maybe look for an instructor who is experienced in the breed? (or in other baroque types, or even welsh cobs who can be similar in personality)

 

[Cortez]

Sounds like a pretty typical Spanish horse. Is he built very uphill and short? The more baroque types are not really designed to do the stretchy, long and low thing and I don't annoy mine by asking for the same sort of exercises that would be easy for a warmblood. Spanish horses are different in their movement, not nearly as bouncy as a modern horse or over the back. This is not "wrong", it's just the way they are constructed, they also tend to be very sensitive and hot, but in a different way than, say, a TB is hot.

I use an awful lot of walk to warm up, and lateral movements in walk. If he was trained with a curb bit then a snaffle will probably not be pleasant for him. Having mostly ridden WB's I found I had to learn how to ride in a radically different way when I started training PRE's & Lusitanos - a BETTER way, I now think (but riding anything else is pure torture now!). Good luck with your PRE, I hope the two of you find a way to understand each other.

 

[Booboos]

Thank you all.

He has nice conformation, not too uphill or short (I think, but I am not very good at conformation critique). His main problem seems to be that he's worried about his rider. He will work long and low but dishearteningly he is better at the start of the session than at the end. He has a soft mouth and is really responsive to the seat but when he loses the plot he switches off.

We're taking him out on a hack tomorrow - according to his owner he is hot on hacks so we'll see as it's all road work here (nowhere near Dartmoor, I'm in France). I've talked to his owner and we'll have the physio out too which can't do any harm. I don't like his saddle either but I don't want to bring up too many critical things all at once.