What have you given up on with horses?

[FanyDuChamp]

I was reading some other threads about hacking out and problems people have.

It got me thinking, I have 2 horses. Captain (17yrs old) was bought to school and do dressage with, he is an ex-CDE comp. horse. He refuses to hack out alone and gets extremely stressed hacking out in company, so stressed that he'll make himself ill. So after repeated tries, using different techniques, we have given up trying to hack him out, he hates it and is good in every other way. Loves schooling and enjoys his work, he has an excellent work ethic. If he had been younger we may have persisted but in my eyes it was not worth the hassle.

So is there anything you have given up on? Do you think that you can compromise or does it have to be your way?
FDC

 

[Firewell]

Yes I gave up hunting my old horse!
I tried, I went every week for 7 weeks but instead of getting better he started off bad and became dangerous. He just wasn't cut out for it so I gave up! He was also awful at sponsored rides and would bolt.
He was however amazing PC event horse as he was fine flying XC on his own, not even strong! Amazing showjumper, amazing hack so it didn't really matter .

My late mare started stopping SJ (due to pain but I didn't realise that at the time) so I did dressage and she loved it.

I think it's usual to work with a horse and not against it. I wouldn't be happy with a horse that didn't hack though, I would have to find another home for it as I love hacking. All my horses hack, even if they are spooky/nappy as babies, they get over it .

 

[lara b]

Other than the odd small log I have given up on XC for now! Too many of my friends have seriously hurt themselves and the big hairy is just as scardycat as I am so don't see the point of putting ourselves through it. Maybe once I have built up some confidence SJ we will have a go but not sure. Was game as anything when I was younger but not anymore!!

 

[Nocturnal]

The main thing I've given up on is my sanity

 

[FanyDuChamp]

I think it's usual to work with a horse and not against it. I wouldn't be happy with a horse that didn't hack though, I would have to find another home for it as I love hacking. All my horses hack, even if they are spooky/nappy as babies, they get over it .

I agree you must work with the horse. I see what you mean, but my lad wasn't bought to hack and was older when we bought him 13, so we decided not to sweat the small stuff really.

Fany hacks and is as bombproof as any horse I have ever met, so we don't miss our hacking. She dislikes working in the school, too much like hard work! So she gets school whilst out.
FDC

 

[lara b]

The main thing I've given up on is my sanity

 

[FanyDuChamp]

The main thing I've given up on is my sanity

Yep, I see where you are coming from.

 

[Nudibranch]

I had to give up riding for 3 years as I had two oldies who became arthritic and then the same thing happened to my 13 yo! (She was an ex racer so who knows what mileage was on the clock.) I couldn't afford a 4th horse and they weren't ready for the big paddock in the sky just then. Since then, 2 have sadly been pts but I've just bought a weanling so he'll be the new riding horse - eventually. So for now I have sort of given up riding

 

[rach260]

Given up on hacking alone, my boy gets out of the yard gates panics freezes then drags me back to his stable. And seeing as he's a shire x gypsy vanner if he really doesn't want to do something you can't make him, he's just to strong.

 

[Andalusianlover]

I've given up trying to get a decent score in a prelim dressage test!

I have a very talented Andalusian who unfortunately suffers from Attention Defecit Disorder when we go out to do stressage. He will easily do 1m SJ and x-country courses but as soon as we hit the dressage arena he whinnies all the time, bongs about like a pratt and generally wont allow me to ride him. He's awesome at home.

I'm lucky to scrape 50 and when we event, the lowest I've had so far has been 43. Shame when you can do double clears at 1m no problem. Stops us being competitive!

Any ideas

 

[Suziq77]

I've given up lie-ins and having time to myself. I wouldn't swap back though.

Andalusianlover - can you ask your instructor to ride him at a competition to see how they get on? He will no doubt do the same thing with them but they might have some tips for getting him to listen to you and ignore his surroundings.

 

[Mince Pie]

I have given up XC and anything over 70cm showjumping on my cob, and if the big mare doesn't get over her "thing" with coloured poles I don't think I will be jumping her either (although this is assuming I can actually ride her anytime soon as she is broken again )

 

[jsr]

'Proper' schooling. I hate it, he hates it and I generally really really can't be bothered to spend my precious free time doing something that becomes a chore rather than a pleasure. So we play in the big fields when we don't have time to hack and of course it involves some form of schooling but no structure or routine.

He is never going to be a prancing head to his chest push button ride so why spend time fighting to get him in a shape he's obviously not comfortable in and stressing myself in the process. We spent an hour yesterday in the fields, we did lots of transitions, loads of trotting changing the rein etc and lots of lovely canters (some controlled...most not so!) and ended with a flat out gallop! Much more fun than round and round and round and round...

 

[Hippophilia]

My 17 yr old TB mare won't tie. Her previous owner tried to fix her but to no avail. Its a bit of a bugger but she is so excellent in every other way I just accept it and work with it. She's so intelligent I suspect that she worked out that if she freaked out every now and again when tied she would never be tied again!

 

[skint1]

My daughter recently gave up trying to take her TB mare to competitions, the mare stressed at loading and stressed at comps, my daughter then stressed, they wound each other up yet further and neither had much fun. It's a great shame because the mare does have some talent for jumping and very nice paces too, in the right hands she'd be fantastic imho.

Also around the same time she was getting really nappy out hacking so my daughter gave up that too, which just left schooling for them, but even that could be a struggle. She then kicked her field mate and this caused a lot of stress at the yard....

My daughter said after nearly 4 years of trying her hardest, having lessons, getting vet checks, chiros, saddle fitters, supplements etc she was tired of fighting with the mare over ever little thing, there was always progress but in the end there was the inevitable slide back to unpredictability, no matter how hard she tried she wasn't going to be the right rider for this horse, and so for a while she gave up on her all together and sent her away on loan to a lady who felt her patient, unhurried approach and non-livery yard environment would be good for her.

Three weeks in her new home the patient unhurried person decided she was not going to settle and she's been returned so my daughter is now trying to decide whether to just turn her away for a while and start again next year or to see how she goes out hacking.

Not sure how the mare will handle being turned away but frankly she doesn't have much choice if my daughter doesn't want to ride her, none of the ex racer charities we have contacted want her (she's not "at risk") , and we can't find anyone else interested in lwvtb, (I wouldn't sell her outright in case the person taking her found themselves overwhelmed and she ended up in a bad place) and I can't afford/don't have the experience to put her in foal and then provide a responsible home for the foal.

 

[StormyMoments]

riding... the horse never seems to be able to stay in work for long enough to actually get anywhere so i have come to terms with the fact that he will never be ridden much in his life time - but what we get we will cherish hes only 10 and he has no conformation faults to cause him to be out of work but it seems the lack of brain plays a huge part

 

[FanyDuChamp]

Rach260 I feel your pain, Fany is a draught horse (Ardennes) and is incredibly strong. Once she heard her BF whinny whilst we were out for a walk and took off with me hanging on skiing behind her. I finally had to give up when she was on the drive, she was simply too strong to hold on. When Fany plants her feet there really is nothing you can do, nothing frightens her and nothing moves her when she doesn't want to move! So I know where you are coming from!
FDC

 

[FanyDuChamp]

My 17 yr old TB mare won't tie. Her previous owner tried to fix her but to no avail. Its a bit of a bugger but she is so excellent in every other way I just accept it and work with it. She's so intelligent I suspect that she worked out that if she freaked out every now and again when tied she would never be tied again!

I think sometimes, especially when they are that age, you just have to work around things rather than trying to force issues.
FDC

 

[bumblelion]

Erm, holidays, nice hair and nails!!!! No seriously, I'v given up on hacking. I love hacking too and think it's important for the horses to go out at least twice a week but the road our house is on is just too unpredictable! It's in a village but it's got busier and busier as a short cut to a nearby town and you get so many lorries using it. It's quite a narrow road, everyone further in the village parks their car on the road, so you have to manoevre around them or wait for cars to pass so you can do so and when both horses napp, it's not much fun! The other way out of the village is a busy A road from a crossroad and you can't see what's coming as there's a hill, until they're on top of you! For these reasons until we move (in a year) I'v given up hacking! I'm lucky in that I have a menage and 6 acres to bumble around in, but do miss hacking!!!

 

[Rudolph's Red Nose]

I have given up ..

1/ healthy bank balance
2/ clean interior of car

but I wouldnt be without my two boys ..

 

[bumblelion]

My 17 yr old TB mare won't tie. Her previous owner tried to fix her but to no avail. Its a bit of a bugger but she is so excellent in every other way I just accept it and work with it. She's so intelligent I suspect that she worked out that if she freaked out every now and again when tied she would never be tied again!

My tb won't tie either, he just pulls back, snaps the twine and then scares himself and bu**ars off!! He's an exracer and very sharp so I reckon he'd been cross tied one too many times in the past! It's difficult isn't it! I did a couple of years ago manage to get him tying up and then I went away for a day, put him on full livery, the staff who knew him and knew he wasn't to be tied up (told them lots of times, wrote instructions!!) thought they'd be able to cure him and thought they knew better! They tied him up in a barn, then immediately got a hose pipe and turned it straight on at his legs, well he freaked,(they didn't tie him onto twine as they thought he wouldn't be able to escape that way?) and then he pulled the ring out of the wall and galloped off! What made me more angry was they knew he wasn't to have his legs washed by anyone other than me! He was blistered in racing so is funny about his legs also! He only trusts me to do things and that's taken 5 years to gain! He's a very funny chap!

 

[Ibblebibble]

one of mine won't tie up, so i don't, trying to 'cure' him was making both of us stressed so i stopped i just run a lunge line through the tie ring and let it hang, he'll stand like that and now rarely pulls back or tries to wander off, if he does i can grab the line and reel him back in

 

[Jackson]

I gave up on long reining my horse. Maybe I didn't try hard enough, but he just could not grasp the concept...

 

[FanyDuChamp]

My tb won't tie either, he just pulls back, snaps the twine and then scares himself and bu**ars off!! He's an exracer and very sharp so I reckon he'd been cross tied one too many times in the past! It's difficult isn't it! I did a couple of years ago manage to get him tying up and then I went away for a day, put him on full livery, the staff who knew him and knew he wasn't to be tied up (told them lots of times, wrote instructions!!) thought they'd be able to cure him and thought they knew better! They tied him up in a barn, then immediately got a hose pipe and turned it straight on at his legs, well he freaked,(they didn't tie him onto twine as they thought he wouldn't be able to escape that way?) and then he pulled the ring out of the wall and galloped off! What made me more angry was they knew he wasn't to have his legs washed by anyone other than me! He was blistered in racing so is funny about his legs also! He only trusts me to do things and that's taken 5 years to gain! He's a very funny chap!

Bumblelion I'd have been fuming! I am afraid I would have moved him very quickly! Sounds like your poor lad has suffered a bit on a professional yard, as did mine.

IbbleBibble-
I love your solution, he knows he is safe and you do too. What a great idea!

My lad is very sensitive/ quirky and I explained very carefully to my YO what he will and will not tolerate. Luckily she listened and took his needs very much into account. Hence we now have a very chilled horse, happy with where he lives and behaving like a perfect gentleman.
FDC

 

[bumblelion]

Bumblelion I'd have been fuming! I am afraid I would have moved him very quickly! Sounds like your poor lad has suffered a bit on a professional yard, as did mine.

IbbleBibble-
I love your solution, he knows he is safe and you do too. What a great idea!

My lad is very sensitive/ quirky and I explained very carefully to my YO what he will and will not tolerate. Luckily she listened and took his needs very much into account. Hence we now have a very chilled horse, happy with where he lives and behaving like a perfect gentleman.
FDC

I did move him, we moved somewhere with land and stables, so he's now at home! I can do things my way and don't have anyone thinking they know my horse better than me!

 

[FanyDuChamp]

I have given up XC and anything over 70cm showjumping on my cob, and if the big mare doesn't get over her "thing" with coloured poles I don't think I will be jumping her either (although this is assuming I can actually ride her anytime soon as she is broken again )

I know what you mean. My old boy could clear a 5 bar gate and a decent size hedge when out hunting but he would throw all his toys out the cot when the coloured fence came up in SJ. We tried to acclimatise him by putting them in his field, he jumped out! We tried in the menage, he jumped out! In the end we just had to persevere and he did eventually jump the fences and we were quick successful but he never did get over his hatred of the horse eating coloured fences/poles!

Hope she is better soon.
FDC

 

[Hippophilia]

I think sometimes, especially when they are that age, you just have to work around things rather than trying to force issues.
FDC

Exactly.

 

[FanyDuChamp]

I did move him, we moved somewhere with land and stables, so he's now at home! I can do things my way and don't have anyone thinking they know my horse better than me!

Don't blame you. My bugbear is "one size fits all" yards. I am lucky my YO simply doesn't think like that! I'd love to have my own land and stables but no really feasible at present, but hopefully in the future!
FDC

 

[4x4]

I gave up trying to school in my field - scary woods one side, by-way on the other, so plenty to spook at, plus the old adage about them not liking it in their own field, so it's either when the crops are cut around us or not at all!

 

[Mince Pie]

I know what you mean. My old boy could clear a 5 bar gate and a decent size hedge when out hunting but he would throw all his toys out the cot when the coloured fence came up in SJ. We tried to acclimatise him by putting them in his field, he jumped out! We tried in the menage, he jumped out! In the end we just had to persevere and he did eventually jump the fences and we were quick successful but he never did get over his hatred of the horse eating coloured fences/poles!

Hope she is better soon.
FDC

Funny you mention going over a 5 bar gate... hopefully she has just bruised herself this time, she slipped on some rubber mats last week and knocked her leg.

Eve x