Unenthusiastic warmblood mare

[Hollie anne]

Hi there, I have a just turned 8-year-old oldenburg mare. I have had her since being a foal and had professional help the whole time. She has never been a really hot horse, and had her lazy moments... but once in front of the leg works very nicely - she was working medium level.

About 7 months ago we found she had a small tear on her suspensory at the front and she had a few months off. She came back into work 2 months ago. The first month back in work, her energy and attitude were good. Then the last two weeks she has been very backwards, on the forehand, and ignores my leg (soft), then also hard kicking, then the whip (tap) and lastly a hard hit(s) with the whip gets some response. I can get her to work, but it's hard work and it shouldn't be so hard.

I wonder if there is something wrong with her and if anyone has experienced anything like this... she was once slightly lame before and the vet said it could be kissing spine...But then another vet and physio thought that was a strange diagnosis when I shared a video of her with them and they thought it wasn't anything major.

She definitely isn't lame/uneven in her legs at the moment and when loose, she will have a good canter, and passage type trot around full of beans. The canter ridden work also feels quite good (but could do with more energy), trot work feels quite good a lot of the time, but lateral work is very hard work now and she often ignores my leg or even goes against it, falls in, falls out. Before I was doing all the medium work with her at a reasonable quality.

I am going to try giving her a higher energy feed next week, but have been upping it each week. I also tried her before on a vitamin for hormones and it didn't do anything. She looks fantastic, has great muscle, a very shiny coat. She did have slight conjunctivitis (not yellow) last week though... but I have treated it and it seems to have gone away.

She is also easy to do everything on the ground with including groundwork - very responsive to me.

Lastly, I also took her up the gallop track last week and she was better... but I wouldn't say very light when I ask for lateral work as the gallop track is wide and I play with it there a bit too.

All her tack is custom-fitted / it's been checked.

I think in a few weeks if the feed doesn't help I will get the vet as riding isn't so much fun when it's so much work.

But I just wanted to see if anyone has a horse like this!

Thanks in advance ( :

 

[Pearlsasinger]

I would want a vet to do a work up but it might be a problem at the moment, so I would turn her away for now. If you are not enjoying your riding experience, think how she feels about it. If she was ok at first there is obviously a new/recurrent problem now.

 

[greenbean10]

Are you riding her in the school a lot? Could she be going a bit sour? If she was better at the gallops then perhaps she just needs a little more variety. How about poles, jumping, hacking? This is the most basic explanation, but she could just be getting a bit bored!

I have a warmblood who is very similar and around this time of year can be the same. She gets very resistant to your leg and is extremely lazy unless we are doing something she enjoys. I generally put it down to hormones. Spring can be a difficult time for horses especially mares, so if I am finding her flat in the school I switch things up, perhaps giving her a few days off then hacking out and doing things she enjoys.