Very nervous pony: how to introduce tack?

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Scot123

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Hope you might be able to offer some hints and tips - or tell me to go to a professional :)

Last autumn I bought a wee welsh x who I hoped to do a little bit of hacking on and use for leadreing for the children. She is 16 and had been at her last home for many years, and simply been turned out to pasture for the last 2/3years.

My problem: she is VERY nervous and scared of everything.

Lovely natured otherwise, really sweet & wanting to be with me, but any sudden (or not so sudden) movements, coming near her with a rug, cars, dogs etc etc and she is terrified.

I managed to pop a saddle on her after much work. But I just don't know how I can gradually introduce a bridle - it seems that's an 'all or nothing' situation. And I think she might just burst with fright :(

Any tips?!
 
Time and patience and when that's finished more time and patience.:D

If she's sweet then it is just fear and you are just going to have to go very slowly and build the confidence up.

Lots and lots of reassurance, tiny steps at a time, break down what it is you want her to do into small stages and reward everytime (treat, rub or voice) she makes progress.

And watch her like a hawk for the reactions, the moment the eyes start to roll for instance or she tenses, stop and reassure, wait for her to relax (chewing/mouthing) and only then continue.
 
I take it she is fine (if nervous) in a head collar?

Can you start by putting that on like a bridle (as in stand to her left, have the head piece already done up but the rest undone, gently put hand around and hold nose...)?

And do the 'don't push it too far' thing - i.e. go until she just starts to look nervous, the back off, praise and reward. You should get further each time.

Then try same with bridle? (With mint/honey/whatever on bit...)

You could also try asking what people do to start off nervy youngsters and pretend you're starting from scratch?

Good luck!
 
Thank you. Yes, she's fine in a headcollar - very jumpy and backing away until it's on, but then OK.

So do you think just continue with gaining her confidence in other ways before tackling anything as scary as a bridle?

That's what I was thinking, it may almost be like starting her from scratch. Which I myself as a relative novice would be scared of doing in case I make matters even worse...

But maybe hold off that stage until she's more confident in other ways??

Thanks!
 
You can get endurance bridles which go on like a headcollar and you can clip the bit in, that might be useful for when you start bridling her. You can buy bit clips separately and even attach them to a headcollar for a bit of simple getting used to it for short periods.

She does sound very nervous though so I would probably want to do a lot of despooking with her. Has she definitely been ridden before? It sounds like even if you could tack her up now riding might blow her mind.

Have you tried taking her out in hand depending on your surroundings or general in hand exercises if she's not ready to go out? Rugs and flappy things might be a good place to start :-)
 
I've got an older welsh d who is exactly as you describe yours to be - very sweet but ultra jumpy and backward thinking....absolutely time and patience to build up trust as others have said...but also what has really worked well is clicker training - he's very food orientated (but mannerly) so the targeted food and clicker noise helps him to be distracted from panicking and allows him to focus on what I'm asking of him, plus it helps me to be able to ask him clearly....it also helped him to think forward instead of backing away and to stand still with me instead of bolting off in a blind panic.
Plenty of info on it on here if you do a search.
Like you say, I had to totally start from scratch and treat him like an overgrown feral foal - also had total inspiration from sarah Weston's book 'No Fear No Force'
Good luck!
Ps my boy had also spent his life not doing anything apart from ambling around his field like yours...don't think it helped his cause...despite being very polite, his mind was blown by being asked to actually do anything
 
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We have a welsh d who was a total nerve bag when we got her, she would jump if you breathed!
Time and patience is the biggest thing, but we also found being a native, she loves her food. She will do almost anything for a snack. She also loves a scratch. So, when we started to introduce tack, initially used tid bits, which I would not normally wish to do, but for her it worked. Once she was accepting of things without jumping all the time, we switched to a good scratch as her reward. It is almost a distraction way of doing things, but for us it worked with this particular mare.
I won't tell you the time scale, and she still has the odd lapse, but it was well over 6 months before we could do anything much at all with her.
 
I know the lady who brought my Connie over from Ireland and backed him and she said he was very unhappy about his ears being touched so she used to totally undo the bridle to put it on. She said one day she just totally forgot to do it and managed to put it on like normal and he was fine, never looked back. He is totally fine with it now and I can do anything I want to his ears :) just take it slow and steady and reward her lots
 
Cobiau Cymraeg Nadolig said:
I've got an older welsh d who is exactly as you describe yours to be - very sweet but ultra jumpy and backward thinking....absolutely time and patience to build up trust as others have said...but also what has really worked well is clicker training - he's very food orientated (but mannerly) so the targeted food and clicker noise helps him to be distracted from panicking and allows him to focus on what I'm asking of him, plus it helps me to be able to ask him clearly....it also helped him to think forward instead of backing away and to stand still with me instead of bolting off in a blind panic.
Plenty of info on it on here if you do a search.
Like you say, I had to totally start from scratch and treat him like an overgrown feral foal - also had total inspiration from sarah Weston's book 'No Fear No Force'
Good luck!
Ps my boy had also spent his life not doing anything apart from ambling around his field like yours...don't think it helped his cause...despite being very polite, his mind was blown by being asked to actually do anything
Click to expand...

Have to agree with this.

Clicker training was the only thing that worked for me with my mare who existed in a perpetual state of panic when a human being came near.

It made sense when I read about it. Developed for large marine animals who had no concept that a human was anything other than a danger or a nuisance.
 
To be honest with a mare of that age I really would think twice about trying to use her as a kids riding pony.
Is it really fair on the horse?
Will she ever be safe enough to trust with a small child?
Remember a kid might not anticipate a nervy ponys reactions like you might be able to.
A 16YO is a very different undertaking to a 3YO.

I think it was Mark Rachid that likened a horses mind to a window that closes a little each year - new information can still get in but not as easily - and of course old habits are harder to get out.

I bought a 'ride and drive' from sale once that turned out to be virtually unhandled (having lived wild on the fells until she went barren) I felt it an insult to the mare to try and change her after all those years so she lived her years out with a friends herd.
 
Thank you all. I've taken a couple of days to reply so I could think over all your answers :confused: I'm going to look into the endurance bridle for down the line whenif we can get to that stage.

Also that's really interesting about the clicker training. I'd only ever known it for dogs where it obviously is proven to work well. I'll do some reading on that as I've no idea about it at all for horses.

As to whether it's fair on her... I think I'll play it by ear. At the moment I don't see why not. She's been ridden in the past and I don't think she's old enough to retire off. I think it's worth working at. Obviously down the line if she's still majorly stressing then would have to re-think.

I'm hoping, as you suggest, that some of it is still due to moving home as when I viewed her at her last home she was very different and laid back. 6 months now and counting...:)
 
Ahh if she's been ridden before then fair enough, I thought she was unbroken.
Good luck with her in any case, a patient owner and lots of time are the most valuable thing for a nervy horse - and she's already got those by the sounds of it :)
 
Scot123 said:
Thank you all. I've taken a couple of days to reply so I could think over all your answers :confused: I'm going to look into the endurance bridle for down the line whenif we can get to that stage.

Also that's really interesting about the clicker training. I'd only ever known it for dogs where it obviously is proven to work well. I'll do some reading on that as I've no idea about it at all for horses.

As to whether it's fair on her... I think I'll play it by ear. At the moment I don't see why not. She's been ridden in the past and I don't think she's old enough to retire off. I think it's worth working at. Obviously down the line if she's still majorly stressing then would have to re-think.

I'm hoping, as you suggest, that some of it is still due to moving home as when I viewed her at her last home she was very different and laid back. 6 months now and counting...:)
Click to expand...

Re Clicker training.

One thing I found good was that my son could do it with the pony as well. It's not much fun looking at a pony that won't let you get close so it was a way for him to interact with her. He used to do the targeting/clicker training (which moved onto touching/stroking nose) while I cleaned up the field.
Through that he was the one she initially would let get close if she had had a scare about something. She never felt threatened by him.

He's 12 though, so probably a bit older than yours.
 
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