what exercises for horse whose brain is slower than his legs?

ycbm

ycbm

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I'm not exactly looking for advice, because I'm very happy with how things are going. I just want to see what other people's approach would be, and just in case I'm missing a trick anywhere.

So, two years ago horse (now 6) was a planter, for anything up to three quarters of an hour at a time. Six months ago horse was a big, big spooker and didn't go forward easily or confidently. Roll forward to today, horse is forward, responsive and a BIG mover (especially canter) with a natural outline and a very active hind leg. He remains easily distracted - this morning by a new mole hill :)

He is weak, gangly, seems to still be growing, and his legs get tied in knots. He can be in a transition, or half way through a canter circle, and seem as if his legs outrun the speed of his brain, and get knotted up. He's a worrier by nature and frightens himself when he loses balance.

He has a block in his stable doorway six inches high, to stop floods, and after two and a half years he still trips over it regularly. If he was human I suspect he would get a dispraxia diagnosis.

He's a16.2 QH (double muscled halter bred) x (TBxID)

So all you knowledgeable people out there, don't be shy, tell me what exercises you would use, in an arena or on hacks, to improve his coordination.


Mince pie and sherry to all who want some. I can't stand either :D
 
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I would do some in hand work over poles to get him started and build his confidence, I would really mix them up, raised, off set, alternate sides raised, different distances that are not set to his stride, ensuring that every successful step was praised, once he gets them and you can see he is using his brain to work them out then I would do the same ridden, I would do something involving poles every day, a few steps backwards would be carefully introduced at some point. Once he is using them well in walk I would start trotting and later cantering with a few small x poles when the time is right.

Otherwise the normal transitions, trying to do a downward one before he loses control, it is often a lack of confidence that causes them to forget what they are doing, saying he is by nature a worrier shows you are aware that this is the underlying reason, so do as much as you can to make him feel clever and important, even if it is only a minor success, having a "reward" for every tiny step in the right direction should help build his self esteem.
 
Mazes built out of telegraph poles and logs of various dimensions - mazes in hand, mazes under saddle and mazes in his turnout area with hay/water/some incentive in the middle.

Taping can also help increase bodily awareness.
 
Don't do anything for too long. When he gives you what you ask move on to something else and go back later.. Slow it down. You say he's a big mover. If he's young and unbalanced then this is a problem for him his brain says move big but his co ordination and strength is not there yet so make every pace smaller ... (Keep forward but with a smaller stride) . You can make full use of his big movement at a later date but he can't cope with it yet. Don't do more than 8 to 10 strides without some form of balancing aid/ movement ... Even if it's just a half halt.
 
I would just be hacking him over lots of varied terrain if he's young. My new horse tripped over his own feet when I first got him but only a few weeks on going out on all sorts of ground he's a lot better. He's not a young horse but hasn't hacked and has been stabled his entire career. Initially he was forging quite often and generally just getting his legs in a knot despite being an established SJ but he's stopped all that.

(I suspect when I take his shoes off he'll be even better!)
 
Can you explain taping more? It's not something I have come across, other than seeing it on human athletes.

Thanks everyone :)


I can offer brandy butter on the mince pie? I don't like that either :D
 
FfionWinnie said:
I would just be hacking him over lots of varied terrain if he's young. My new horse tripped over his own feet when I first got him but only a few weeks on going out on all sorts of ground he's a lot better. He's not a young horse but hasn't hacked and has been stabled his entire career. Initially he was forging quite often and generally just getting his legs in a knot despite being an established SJ but he's stopped all that.

(I suspect when I take his shoes off he'll be even better!)
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Have to admit that he frightened me witless last time I rode him on a bumpy field. He was almost falling over!

I haven't dared to try it since, but maybe I need to give it another go soon.
 
ycbm said:
Have to admit that he frightened me witless last time I rode him on a bumpy field. He was almost falling over!

I haven't dared to try it since, but maybe I need to give it another go soon.
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Ride your other one and lead him then - let him make his own mistakes lol

Try riding a 17hh shod WB on sheet ice when you've only ridden sure footed BF cobs and natives at 14.2 or less for years :D. I thought I was going to die!
 
No way! Suicide mission :D

I don't have access to any fields that don't have one in five slopes and big bumps on them. I need full use of both hands and all my wits about me on the cob alone.

I'll pass on the WB on ice thanks :) you're braver than me!
 
jules9203 said:
I have a mare that was quite successful dressage, sj and eventing. She was extremely careful and very rarely had a pole down. However she would often trip over the 50cm step in and out of her stable.
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Well this gives me heart. He absolutely loves show jumps. Cross country is not his forte. But when I had three little jumps on my arena, he was landing and turning to find the next one. We've only done it twice so far, maybe I'll start him doing more. I was waiting for more strength, but if he loves it and I'm careful maybe I can use it to build strength and coordination.
 
We do a lot of work in hand over jumbled up poles .
I very lucky to have an eight acre wood which is the site of a very old quarry it has banks and slopes and rides through it every summer ( it gets very wet in winter ) I go down and drag fallen branches across the tracks and slopes lots of these are very short I am talking ten feet or so so will put a branch right on the lip of the slope and one at the bottom it's a complete jumble in jungle in summer .
We walk them round here with them learning to adjust their step .
We also use several places on a neighbours farm we're ride up and the side of a stream .
H arrived completely unaware that his brain was attached to his feet he would use run through a line of trotting poles making as though he had no idea he avoid stepping on them .
I did a lot of this type of work with him you need to go slowly even if it damages the walk rhytmn until they twig (haha ) that they can influence what happens .
I am surprised how good H's coordination is now , he's very clever now out hunting at crossing bad ground it used to a case of run until we trip over or stop.
It's interesting you say your horse is weak H was a very weak big heavy boned horse
I call this my horse agility training my PHysio says its perception training ( that's not quite the right term but I can't remember what it is ).
Another two exercises I do in the school is two poles at opposite sides of a small circle with the inside of each pole raised you make the circle as small as they can manage and walk them round it in time they can go to trot .
Then I do leg yield in hand and ridden over a line of poles lying end to end again raised at one end this a hard one for them fathom so its for when they are beginning to get it .
I also often leg yield in walk across a single pole rather than ride straight over it when warming up.
I also use cones to make tight spots they have to get through mixed up with the poles .
 
I know what you mean about the legs going in every direction thing. My horse was like this at 6, but he had very little muscle. He's gotten better (7, 8 soon), but its not perfect yet. I now accept that if I let him think, we get into more of a mess and he gets spooky at stuff around him. I fix this by never doing a straight line when schooling ever, its constant bends, circles, anything to get him thinking. He's been improving a lot recently because he is spooking less and focusing more. He is at a point now where he can do straight lines again without thinking and freaking out.

It has just taken time too. Slow maturer in body and brain thanks to the warmblood side of him. He's always going to be quirky, but he is better with his legs now, or maybe I am just used to the odd movement perhaps.
 
You've got it! I have only just introduced straight lines, first time today. I don't for one second let him think for himself (if I catch him in time!) or we get massive spooks at a bit of grass waving in the wind.

Mine has whacks of muscle because of his halter bred QH breeding but no idea how to control it :)
 
I would do all the Tellington Jones TTEAM exercises. The labyrinth, the star, poles, pick up sticks, barrels, (6 x 45g oil drums in 2 rows, he walks down then, reverses, weaves around them, then make them narrower so he hits them. His response should be to stop, look where the problem is and resolve it. figure 8 bandage on the horse, bum rope, the TTEAM body work, head lowering especially so you can do it from the saddle if he gets upset. The exercises done in hand, then halterless and then ridden in a neck ring over the obstacles. (obviously in a school) The exercises are all done very slowly, literally one step forward and 2 steps backward. Not so he learns to walk over poles but so he learns to stop, put his head down, see where his feet are and think how to deal with the problem.
 
ycbm said:
You've got it! I have only just introduced straight lines, first time today. I don't for one second let him think for himself (if I catch him in time!) or we get massive spooks at a bit of grass waving in the wind.

Mine has whacks of muscle because of his halter bred QH breeding but no idea how to control it :)
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Yeah mine only got his muscle and build when I moved yards and suddenly he had lots of grass and haylage to eat. I am surprised he didnt act worse actually. :P
 
He is at the "clumsy teenager "stage. The theory ,as explained to me by a very knowledgeable local instructor,is that their bodies grow quicker than their brains can adjust to. Nerve impulses take a finite time to travel a given distance. If the distance is continualy increasing , the brain will fail to adjust quick enough.
 
Can you turn him away in the lumpy, sloping fields that you have access to? He will learn to balance himself without relying on you to warn him about the step, poles etc, if you can do that. Then when you bring him back into work, hack him over as varied a terrain as you can, even if that means boxing him to get there. Like many other big youngster, mine included, he needs time to grow and grow up.
I certainly wouldn't be asking him to canter on a circle until he can balance himself in a straight line.
 
When I got my younger horse he was 6, big, gangly and had hardly done anything. He tripped quite a bit and I couldn't canter him in the school. He was too unbalanced and had no idea where his legs were.

Luckily we are right on the South Downs and my instructor said not to worry about cantering in the school, just do lots of hacking. So we did loads of hill work and did a lot of steep tracks where he really had to figure out where to put his feet. Sometimes I did get off if very dodgy ground but generally I just let him figure his own way up and down. He did trip and stumble but it didn't take him too long to improve.

The first time I cantered him was on the Downs. It felt a bit like what I imagine riding an octopus would be like. It was pretty unpleasant at first but when I asked for a bit more speed he was better. I am not yet brave enough to try cantering him downhill as I think we would end up face first pretty quick, but he is vastly improved with so much hacking on different and often difficult terrain. I still choose good tracks for a gallop but he can now canter on undulating terrain without a problem.

I also did a lot of pole work, in hand and ridden. And started taking him to Working Equitation which really makes him use his brain and challenges his footwork.
 
Pearlsacarolsinger said:
Can you turn him away in the lumpy, sloping fields that you have access to? He will learn to balance himself without relying on you to warn him about the step, poles etc, if you can do that. Then when you bring him back into work, hack him over as varied a terrain as you can, even if that means boxing him to get there. Like many other big youngster, mine included, he needs time to grow and grow up.
I certainly wouldn't be asking him to canter on a circle until he can balance himself in a straight line.
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He lives on one :) his own field is 10/12 acres of steep hillside full of grass tussocks and grassed over mole hills. My neighbours despair of my field management, but it's deliberate neglect.

He's not just a big youngster, I've had plenty of them. He's actually quite peculiar in many ways. He was turned away while I was ill this year and he got more and more anxious until he was back in work. We love him though :)
 
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Mike007 said:
He is at the "clumsy teenager "stage. The theory ,as explained to me by a very knowledgeable local instructor,is that their bodies grow quicker than their brains can adjust to. Nerve impulses take a finite time to travel a given distance. If the distance is continualy increasing , the brain will fail to adjust quick enough.
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I like this theory :)

It's a little challenged by my other six year old, who's grown almost four inches since he was four, and is currently practising all his medium dressage test moves. The other is definitely not normal :) He has, though, improved consistently for two and a half years, just very, very, slowly! He's probably the most consistent horse I've ever trained, in fact. It's what keeps me going and stops me losing my patience with him.

I'm sure the theory is true of some horses, though.




Thanks for the contributions. I can add brown turkey meat and cranberry sauce to the offer.
 
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It's very important that when you do this sort of pole work you don't help him at all .
He needs to see that if he does not look he will trip .
H Was weak yours sounds well muscled but in mines case think his backing had been so rushed he had no idea he could do anything about this himself .
Can you load to any local forests I also get them off road in rough places to learn it's easier for me because I can always have a hunter for support if they need a companion .
You just need to get him out and about in walk in rough places a lot .
I have no choice but to deal with this because all our horses will hunt and they need that skill for that .
 
Mines from the steroidal bull type QH lines, GS. His muscle is purely hereditary and decorative :D

I'm very wary of anything at the moment that will inhibit his newly discovered sense of ability to move forwards freely. I don't 'need' him to be progressing any faster, and I'm also wary of knocking his fragile confidence. I'm currently contemplating whether to take him across the road onto a field this morning or not. Got to get out of bed first though!
 
ycbm said:
Can you explain taping more? It's not something I have come across, other than seeing it on human athletes.
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Equine Kinesio taping is in its infancy in this country - you need to find a level 3 qualified practitioner who ideally is also ACPAT/Chartered Physio. As well as helping with injury, taping can help improve posture and also bodily awareness/proprioception.

Taping is not my area of expertise so unable to explain any more than you can find by googling - sorry! All I can say is that I have seen it work wonders on a small handful of horses that had various issues. The caveat is of course that other management techniques and therapies were used as well, so what improvement you attribute to what is debatable.

May be worth a try though.
 
I have used taping a fair bit .
It does work but it's hassle and I don't think in your horses case it's the best and easilest way forward.
You won't damage your horses forwardness by going perception work because it gives improves the right type of forwardness .
I can still remember the first time H took a bigger longer step to solve an issue I had put in front of him that's when I knew I was winning .
When you first they will often stand on everything then hopefully they might a look at things even stop this ok in fact it's good the grey matter is in action then they step
IME they shorten to solve problems before they stretch it's important you give them time to learn it does not matter how they do it as long as they are thinking .
The place I have is perfect I am very luckily because it's an old quarry it's quite dark and you get lots of dappled light which they have to sort out to .
It was physios idea to use the wood like this .
 
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