Unflappable Mare suddenly spooky !!!

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tubby1

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I have a lovely cob cross mare. She was bought as a confidence giver and has been great. She can plod or she can up the gears if required. When I bought her she was ridden in a Kimberwick & was very on the forehand . I have done a lot schooling with her & now ges reasonably well in a loose ring snaffle with a lozenge. Until this week I have ridden her twice ths week & she has been really heavy in my hands and charging round like a cart horse, in between ties she has been good. I decided to pop the Kimberwick back in this morning just so she realised tanking off wasn't acceptable but she was awful really spooky, not listening and tanking off. I'm at a bit of a loss what to do next . I suffer badly from confidence issues & I don't want to lose my confidence again so I need to sort this. Any opinions would be welcome :)
 
My instructor works wonders with my confidence. If you can I'd recommend a decent instructor to work with you and your girl. Good luck x
 
Has anything changed at your yard? New horse, someone leaving, change in routine or feed? Lots of horses take a bit of time to settle when they start coming in at night for the winter too. If there have been any changes then it could be down to that, otherwise maybe she has pulled/injured herself slightly and is feeling it a bit under saddle?
Hope you find a reason soon, have had confidence issues in the past too, so know how you feel.
 
When my normally placid boy got spooky overnight I eventually worked it out with the help of my trainer that it was a pain response. Got the vet out to reinject his hocks and no more spooky pony, so sometimes it can be a pain related problem...
 
If I understand correctly the mare has changed her way of going in the last week, and when you try and get her to use her hocks more is misbehaving? I'd be checking for pain-related issues too, probably hind leg, but could be something else. I think the spooking may be a cry for help.
 
Thanks for all your replies, I never thought of the spooking as a pain response. I will certainly check that out. That would make sense coz its just not like her at all . I have a good instructor who has helped me with my confidence. She gets very little hard feed but we have just changed to haylage from hay so will try to monitor that as well.
 
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