Vile Mare - just a rant

[SouthWestWhippet]

AGHR following on from the Temper Tantrums post I just want to have a rant about my mare. I love her to bits but she is too bloody clever by half and it is maddening. I took her in the school this morning and all I wanted was a nice quiet trot round in a relaxed outline.

Well her latest trick is to shoot off at 90mph but the second you touch the outside rein, she throws her head up in the air and leaps up and down on the spot. So soften the contact.... and she zooms off again. She just WOULD NOT listen to my seat so I couldnt' stop her without using the outside rein... cue head in the air tantrum all over again.

The thing that drives me nuts is that she goes beautifully for about 8 strides and then she just goes NO THANK YOU I am BORED now... and that is the end of it. The only time she went consistently nicely was when I asked her to leg yield away from the track. We don't do this often and she had to concentrate. Cue lovely head carriage, floaty trot, dream pony... but the moment we finished the movement she was back to her old ways. I could cheerfully have shot her by the end LOL

Anyone else have a pony who is just too smart and gets bored and throws strops if you ask them to do anything more than once?

 

[Bri]

Yes!!!! I swear to god my mare is the most vile out there!!! She is far too clever for her own good and learns things frighteningly quickly meaning she then gets bored and has a temper tantrum!

Have been teaching her basics like rein-back and leg yield and she mastered them effortlessly and now uses them against me to avoid going forward

She also bit me so hard yesterday you can make out the individual teeth marks on my arm

Absolute troll of a horse!

 

[pottamus]

The last time I 'insisted' that my horse do as requested when he was having a paddy...he went into rodeo buck, plunge and drop shoulder action and chucked me off in style!!!! Don't you just love them!

 

[Kelly1982]

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Have been teaching her basics like rein-back and leg yield and she mastered them effortlessly and now uses them against me to avoid going forward

[/ QUOTE ]

SNAP!!! My mare has got far to many brains for her own good. I taught her rein back in about 2 seconds flat and now she goes backwards at 100mph if she knows she has been naughty as if to say 'but look i am being good, i am doing what you taught me'

 

[lisan]

Yep, mine too, my instructor had to get off her the other night cos my Madam annoyed her so much!! Just put her back on the hormonal mare, hoping her attitude might improve????

 

[Tempi]

er, have you had her back checked recently and her teeth? sounds like a more underlying problem to me.......apologies if you have xx

 

[samp]

Snap my mare will evade at every opportunity, Will refuse to accept contact on both reins will accept one and then not the other. She will turn her quarters in or out at every opportunity. My YO got on the other night as she was falling out through shoulders, refusing to move off the leg, accepting contact. YO had bit of fight, went to rear sent ther forward and after 30mins she started to work correctly. She is just so not easy and knows being a long 15.3hh with mum only weighing 8 stone she can take the mick.

 

[SouthWestWhippet]

Yeah, I had her back and teeth done about 3 months ago. Also she had a new saddle (which was professionally fitted) at about the same time.

She was out in her back but the back lady adjusted her (or whatever they do). I think some of the problem is that she was out for a while and so learnt to evade work then... and now she just plain old doesn't want to!

thanks for the thought though - great minds think alike because getting the back/teeth done was my first thought as well

 

[Skhosu]

yup....when I canter when I start to pull him up (say on the grass) cue bunny hopping, tossing of the head and 'humping'!

 

[filly190]

You mentioned that her back had been out for a while and you had it sorted. I would lunge her and watch closely from both directions, perhaps get someone to lunge and you watch, you will notice if there are distinct differences and check to see she is going straight.

I would suspect, that one visit from the back person may not have been quite enough, it may still need another tweak, but from the ground you can see an awful lot more of what is going on.

When a back is done, it can easily go back wrong again if they muck about in the field, thats why two visits are more reliable to confirm all is well.

If not the back and she is just being sharp, walk to canter, canter to walk on circles will get her listening, forget about trotting until she starts to work and do what you want. Dont spend long in canter though because she will get faster and stronger and then you have lost again, be one step ahead, even if you just do half a circle at one pace.

 

[SouthWestWhippet]

thanks for this. I do lunge her and she goes OK on the lunge (apart from a determination to look to the outside and see what is happening elsewhere in the arena) but sometimes she looks a little stiff on the left lunge just at first but once she is going forward she looks fine again.

I am intending to get the back lady out to her again in the new year. Was originally planning to do it this month but Christmas finaces are a little tight...

I know that she is argumentative by nature but I agree that it is important to make sure that there are absolutely no underlying issues causing her to act up.

I'll try the walk/canter/walk thing as well.
Thanks!

 

[Allykat]

I have a smart @rse for a horse!! Tonight we were schooling reasonably well, albeit with is mind somewhere else. I figure he is feeling a bit bored as he starts to lurch sideways out of the corners and every now and then he just shoots off in some random direction (The ears are firmly pricked and he does have a giant smirk on his moosh) I decide to do some leg yielding just from inside to outside track...nothing too strenuous. I ride straight down the inside track, just before E ask him to yield....Head comes up and two steps to the right we are on the track....just before E...head goes back down, horse goes shooting off and tail goes up to say look how good am I???

My poor mum was in stiches...she just said "well he crossed perfectly front and back!!" At which point I gave up and put him to bed

PS....Back was done end of oct, saddle was done 2 weeks ago teeth are due in Feb.....Conclusion......he was just being a git

But I do love my git

 

[YorksG]

The old lady, now retired, still tries to keep herself amused by playing silly tricks, she used to do horrible things when ridden 'cos she was bored! She hated school work and rides had to be kept interesting and varie or she got bored with them as well! Last weekend I was late with her supper so she let herself out of the box and came down to the kitchen to see where I was!