what to do, naughty when schooling?

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daydreamer

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Hi,

I wondered if anyone had any advice on what to do when your horse is being naughty when schooling.

I was riding my new share horse tonight (probably only about the 5th time or so) and he kept bucking/leaping about. I tried keeping him going forward, trotting circles and figures of eight but that didn't seem to help, I also tried doing trot to walk transitions and half loops etc to keep him busy and calm but that didn't work either! For some reason I always imagine I have a limited number of "sits" in me so after about 4 episodes I got off on the basis that I didn't want to fall off .

I then lunged for a while and he was fine and worked well the majority of the time but had a few daft moments in canter.

So I guess I am interested in peoples opinions, do you think it is best to...

-keep the horse going really forward and busy
-try and keep it calm
-get off before you fall off
-have more faith and stay on and ignore the behaviour
-chalk it down to a bad day and not worry about it
-something else?

???

(The horse in question is well schooled and has had his back, teeth and saddle done within the past couple of months.)

Thanks
 
maybe try lunging the horse before you get on him/her this may calm the horse down abit hope this helps
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I would keep going until i found something that the horse didn't flap about doing and then stop there so they associate good behaviour with finishing a session.
 
Agree with dwi, if you continue through the bad behaviour until they're going nicely and then stop, they should twig on after a few sessions, think I'd have follwed your lead though and jumped off before falling off.

Good luck for next time.x
 
It sounds to me as if he is trying to tell you something. You say that he is well schooled in which case he should know better.

Could the problem be due to the way you are asking him, have you warmed up enough, is your leg/rein contact too strong, has he gone stale with school work and are you nervous? Does he behave like this with his owner, if so then I would be looking at a pain issue and would be having his back, saddle and teeth checked again.

Finally, is he completely sound when working on the lunge or being trotted up in a straight line - hind limb lameness can be very difficult to diagnose, even by the trained eye. Check that he doesnt have windgalls or heat/swelling around the hock area.

IME horses dont get up in the mornings and plan how to p*** us off, they either cant do what we are asking of them due to a pain issue, or we arn't asking the right questions.

Dont forget, this is a new partnership which will take time and patience and you are doing the right thing by seeking advice. It would be great to see some pics of him and you riding which may give us a better idea of the problems you have.

Hope this helps and do keep us updated.
 
Thanks for the replies.

Llwyncwn it may be something I was doing but obviously I hope not! The first time he messed around was whilst I was warming up in walk, doing walk halt transitions and a little leg yield so the only thing I can think there is that for some reason he didn't want to do the leg yield. I don't think my leg or rein contact is normally strong, I have lessons once a week at a well respected riding school to try and keep improving my riding. He hasn't been doing much school work with his owner at all, she nearly always hacks but he did a lot with previous owners so maybe some problem is just appearing now I am doing a bit more schooling?

On the lunge he did look completely sound, my old share horse was unlevel and i could usually spot that but i will make sure I look specifically for any unlevelness next time. There were no windgalls or heat/swelling anywhere in any of the legs.

I agree with you that the vast majority of horses don't behave in a particular way to annoy us so hope that I can work out what is going on if the problem continues. I am going to have a lesson on him the weekend after next so maybe that will highlight something. I don't have any pics, sorry!

Thanks a lot for your help.
 
If his owner only hacks him, and you're trying to do leg yeild he probably doesn't understand? Either that or he's rusty....or just hates schooling.

I'm afraid that there are horses who just hate being schooled - I had a german warmblood on loan who had been schooled to within an inch of his life in germany and just hated flatwork.......
 
He definitely understands leg yielding and can actually do it well, I have done a little with him no problems on the other occassions i rode him, just in walk. Apparently he did quite a lot of dressage at one of his previous homes and his owner has competed in some local prenovices and done well although obviously that doesn't involve any lateral work. He may be a bit rusty or maybe I am just discovering that he doesn't like schooling. Only time will tell :-/
 
Okay Daydreamer - can I ask a few more questions?
Does he do this with anyone else?
Are you only schooling him or are you hacking him out as well?
Have you changed any of his tack since you started riding him?
Since you had him on loan, has he changed home?

Don't worry - we'll sort you out somehow
smile.gif
 
sure, I know he can be a bit spooky with his owner but not sure if he has done any of the bucking (apart from when he was objecting to a schooling whip which we don't use now). I have only schooled him so far, it was about the 5th time I have ridden him, the first couple of times the owner watched. He isn't terribly fit so i have only done about 35 min each time and have done a bit of pole work and a few tiny jumps in previous sessions to provide some variety. I haven't changed any tack. I am just sharing him so the yard hasn't changed although last week he changed to in at night out in the day rather than the other way around.

Hope this helps provide some more clues!
 
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