What do you think? Rearing 4 year old

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elsielouise

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Not many people replied to my question about my 4 year old but thank you to the two people who said turn her away as it made me think.

For those of you who didn't see it my 4 year old reared for the first itme yesterday as she wa sasked to leave my older mare. She's only ridden at the moment by less experienced riders and this was the cause I think as when I got on she was fine.

Just running this idea around now though my OH thinks turning her away is a bit extreme

Since she hasn't really had any structured work since I got her as she developed a cough my plan is to ride her out this morning myself on her own to re-inforce yesterdays good behaviour (eventually) Then I have 12 days off over Christmas so if I do a mixture of hacking in company and me hacking her on her own until I go back to work I'll then turn her away until nights are lighter.

That will only be about 8 weeks so won't have a huge impact and with a bit of luck she will have forgotten all about it.

What do you think?
 
I agree, turn her away until the nights get lighter.
You can then spend more time with her, getting her up together.
I feel if you rush youngster's along, it can have a very bad effect on them in later life!
Then if you plan to keep her for a long time it may come back to haunt you!
Take your time and do it slowly, it will pay off in the end!
 
i have just turned a 5 yo away, partly time and partly due to the fact thar mentally, he is not ready to progress further, i plan to keep this horse so i'm not in any rush now.
 
i agree, turn away so that you have more time to ride her.
maybe she just needs to "grow up" and hopefully in 2 months it will make her that little bit more mature so she is ready for some harder work.

my YO has a 3 year old that is just coming in to be broken.but she has not enough time at the mo and he has been out since november, and he is coming into work in january again.
 
I'd turn her away. The rearing is a reaction to pressure - she is obviously in need of a routine and I'd wait until you can set one before you continue ridden work
smile.gif


Your plan of action sounds good
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Thank you everyone

I've just ridden her out on her own for 20 mins and she was quite tense but apart from one attempt (foiled) at a mini tantrum, was lovely. The lack of maturity was evident as she sqealed much of the way round. I think I will do as I said. She was brought over from Ireland in the summer and has moved locations twice since then so has had a lot of change.

I think the 'reaction to pressure' comment sums it up as she's a lovely temperement little horse and I'd like to keep her for the long run.

We've re-inforced yesterdays message of no nonsense going forward and I think the plan of no pressure hacking in pairs and alone for a couple of weeks over the holidays then a break will be a good one.

Thank you and roll on spring!
 
We've turned a four year old away until the New Year, with five horses in work, plus a three year old being lunged there just weren't enough hours in the daylight.
It doesn't do them any harm, but in your mare's case I would do a fair bit of hacking befor turning her away if at all. Don't force the issue by making her go out alone to start with, just gentle hacks with sensible older horse, allow her brain to forget her momentary fight and then carry on alone later.
It's always a mistake to put anyone except a thoroughly confident experienced person on a baby horse, they take almost all their confidence from the rider, so I would stick with just you riding her for now.
 
I am not sure how people can say to turn her away without knowing how long she has been in work or what she has done. Also not sure why an inexperienced rider is riding a young one, that is still obviously learning. My philosophy with horses is either ther horse or the rider needs to be experienced and show the other how to do it, if they both aren't you are bound to make a huge mess. It also sounds like she needs more of a routine, it is the most important thing in young horses.
 
ooooo nooo.

Not sure now. The person who rides her is experienced in terms of has ridden for years, worked in racing yard, wasn't unseated at all by her tantrum. She's just not what I would call 'assertive' tho has been fine getting her to take the lead hacking and coping with spooks and things.

She isn't experienced in terms of schooling but I don't want her to do that anyway.

Perhaps we just pushed her too hard yesterday by asking her to leave mil when both were under saddle.

Unfortunately I can't ride two at once and my other mare is my loony warmblood. The 4 year old is MUCH less sensitive as is just daft coloured cob.

There is a solution in here somewhere!
 
Therein lies the difficulty. I don't really know what she has done up to me getting her in August and her developing a cough so not having anything regular. I work full time and my older mare NEEDS the work to keep sane. She is also my competition horse and has to get the time available. This little one up until yesterday has been consistently sensible hacking alone with me and hacking in company without changing her mode even with intermittent riding.


Maybe we should just keep as we are going and not introduce anything demanding at all until spring?

I am sooooooooo indecisive but have concluded am going to have a lesson on my older mare and get my instructor to watch baby under saddle.

Will talk it through with her then have much better idea of best option.
 
Think it sounds like young horse was just napping, a natural reaction to leaving the security of another familiar horse, but perhaps a little extreme and frightening for rider!

My last horse started rearing and with hindsight I was too quick to make a big deal of it. Obviously you don't want it to escalate and become a learnt evasion, but just don't put the horse in that situation for a while. Like you say, either hack in a pair or alone if safe, but don't try to separate from another horse yet - ie don't pick a fight you can't win. Once the youngster is more confident and has trust in its rider, the situation will hopefully not reoccur. As for turning away, why not for a short while? Gives both you and the youngster a break for a while.
 
I personally wouldn't turn her away just yet. I think your new plan of hacking out whilst you're on holiday over the next few weeks and then having 8 weeks off sounds good, as I wouldn't want to turn her away now with her last experience being of rearing/napping and getting away with it.

Regarding the rearing and following on from what Llewelyn said about not making a big deal of it, I can only share what I experienced with my 4yo. He went through a phase of rearing when we were learning to hack out on our own. My interpretation of this was as follows:
He knew that he was always to go forwards and so, when he came to scary things, he wouldn't spin or run away (as he knew this wasn't tolerated) but couldn't quite get past it so went up. The first time he did it, I did what I have always done with things that go up - put my leg on. He went further up and started spinning as well (he's rather opinionated and comes from a family of slightly 'loony' beasts). I quickly realised that I had to approach it a different way and we found a middle ground. If he went up, my leg stayed around him but not 'on'. When he put 4 feet back on the ground he had 5 seconds to collect himself and then I would squeeze with my legs and expect him to walk past whatever it was that was the issue. This worked. He learned that going up, spinning round etc was not allowed but if he needed to slow down or stop and look at something for a few seconds before walking past it, that was fine - he simply couldn't be pushed in the same way that other horses could. He thankfully grew out of the 'standing up' phase quite quickly - though I suspect that had I forced the issue in a different way, there might have been a very different outcome.

Of course there are different ways to approach any problem and I am simply relaying the way that I found most effective. Every horse is different and needs to be approached individually, but I wouldn't turn away until you've had a few 'confidence-boosting' excursions. Then, however, I think a break would do the world of good and let the learning sink in a bit!
 
i personally wouldnt turn her away completely - if you do it for a few months it will mean a 're breaking' period will be needed.

twig my 4yo has had the odd napping/rearing tantrum. its often due to nothing at all and very random! something which can be fairly normal in young horses!

as soon as she stops/plants herself and tries to evade going forward (which usually results in a rear) before she gets the chance to go up i open a rein up and turn her in a tight circle - withough having to be rough! and then face her again at the direction i want to go. this not only makes it very difficult to go up but also helps diffuse the situation and you'll more than likely find she will then go forward - if not, simply repeat.

of course as the old saying goes, there are many ways to skin a cat but i find this works a treat!
 
My horse was a just backed 4 yr old when I bought him, to be honest it was a recipe for disaster as I hadnt gone out to buy a 4 yr old but we got there in the end. He used to throw tantrums and he did scare me, he used to run backwards at speed when he didnt want to do something. I was told 'he had to go forwards, no matter what' I used to sit there for ages urging him forwards, tickiling him with my whip and also steering him backwards! so he didnt get all his own way, then a couple of more experienced people said that I had to give him a sharp smack with my whip. I dont agree with beeting horse up at all but this was my turning point. The last straw was when he ran backwards, semi reared, so I leant forwards, then putting in a whopping buck. Off I came and torn my ligaments in my shoulder. When I recovered I got on, padded up to the nines and hit him when he ran backwards, he was shocked, shot forwards and apart from the odd mini tantrum he never did it again.
Im certainly not saying batter her but it only took one sharp slap for my boy to get the message.
Good luck and be careful.
 
If there's probelms like this in riding - firstly I'd check two things -

1. if is horse sore anywhere. Even something like a pulled muscle, sore teeth, saddl ewhcih pinches, or a kick your horse got from another horse while out coudl make her sore and be a reason for this. I've got a 5 yo I'm starting, and what I've found is that he has zero tolerance for anything which isn't right. If sounds wrong, he'll let you know straight away (he's right, but sometimes its nicer if he had a bit more subtlety!)

2. secondly, I'd start a bit of groundwork. If she's not 100% with you being leader / boss when you're riding, she'll be a bit trickly with some groudnwork stuff too.

The groundwork stuff is good because you're controlling yor horses feet, and everytime you do that you're reinforcing the concept that you are important, and are to be respected and obeyed nicely.

Young horses to me just ask a lot of questions. 'Can I walk over here? Can I eat this bit of grass? Can I take another step forwards? Can I stop now?

They're learnign so much at this stage. If you can keep answering their questions (yes, no, definietly not, yes...) they'll come on nicely.

Theres a few groundwork ideas here:

http://irishnhsociety.proboards41.com/index.cgi?board=usefulinformation

Best of luck. Mayeb ease up on thr riding a bit until you're the groundwork sorted, and agree you can take it fairly easy over christmas / winter, you'll have lots of time in summer to continue with her.
 
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