why do horses nap?

When being seperated from his friends; youngster who hasn't been trained properly; horse who has been allowed to get away with it!
Napping is a habit -some horses will just try it on- and will get worse if allowed to carry on, IMO of course
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i think it can be a number of things, insecure about something,not wanting to leave friends at home, not very confident, i am not an expert i genrally put my mares down to her taking the p*ss as she will one day be an angle the next she will nap every 5 minutes and stand there with her eyes closed so she really isn't scared just lazy lol but thats proberbly just be being a heartless mummy
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I think most napping is rider created.
Some bloodlines produce horses with a greater tendancy to nap- you can pretty much guarentee that anything that shares Moon's sire will have a tendancy to nap! However, if you start them properly and never put them in a situation where they might nap, it should never become an issue. Unfortunately, many people handle the beginnings of a nap wrong and it becomes a problem.

Generaly, a nappy horse will get worse if you fight it.
 
I see napping as a straightforward reluctance/refusal to do what the horse is being told to do, and there can be many reasons for this. In some cases, the horse has learnt at some point that it works and gets it out of doing what's being asked (this is the case for my pony I think).

It can be a fear reaction, but this is a strange one because their gut reaction is flight, not to stop. I think it can often be insecurity - being out of the comfort zone/asked to do something new/away from the herd.

I guess if a horse suddenly starts napping for no clear reason then it's best to check if it could be a pain reaction.

Sorry...am I waffling? What I'm saying is, the reasons are varied and can be complex (pyschologically within the horse) and our reaction to it needs to consider why the horse might be doing it.
 
Horses are a 'Fright & Flight' animal. When they see something that they are unsure of or scared of they want to put distance between them & it. When they nap it is a similar situation, they want to stay away from what they find unnerving but want to keep an eye on it as well.

Some breeds are more highly strung than others. As the horses confidence grows their tendency to nap diminishes.
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What everyone else has said, plus maybe bad experiences, psycologically that they do not want to hack out, so link in with the fear factor

Or associate pain with hacking out
 
Lack of leadership from the rider too. If the rider is uncertain, the horse will prefer to stay at home. Having said that, some horses will nap with anyone - it is sometimes a "Kevin" stage when they have to learn that "Yes, I do really mean we are going that way."

My horse was a reluntant loader going out, but OK coming home, so I came to the conculsion that he would rather stay at home with his friend than go into the trailer, so that was a form of napping.

He is much better now.
 
I have a horse that was fine until it saw a scary filler at a show, it never napped at home, scary filler or not. I found out he'd been upset in show arena's in the past so took it slow. Now we're ok in arenas but today whilst schooling my instructor got on as he was ignoring my leg on th eright rein, and he napped with her. I think it was more temper than fear, he's never been smacked just spoken to sharply for misdemeanors in the 8 months I've had him, but think it's the only way he knows how to deal with any stressful situation now, though the cause and underlying reason for the nap has been different.
 
My opinion only:
A horse misbehaves for a few reasons, pain/unbalanced/confused.
There are 3 types of horses, bucker, jibber and tanker. The behaviour starts due to one of the reasons above, and sometimes continues due to one of the causes being ongoing, or simply habit.
Yes, I do think certain bloodlines are more likely to lean towards one way or the other, but that is basic temperament.
I think that all bad behaviour has been taught at some stage.
 
vicjp - sorry to be so ignorant but what is a "jibber"? I had a nappy horse and I was never sure how to overcome the problem. Using (reasonable) force e.g. a tap with a schooling whip, seemed to help sometimes but on other ocassions it only made the problem worse and actually softening my approach worked better. I would love to know how to iron out napping once and for all it if it is possible?
 
I would also love to know how to overcome this entirely! I find it difficult to get my boy to lead out hacking or own his own as he will just stand there and try to turn for home, he is generally quite nervy and looks for things to spook at. Is it best to take a soft approach or push him forwards? he's 5 and really needs to start learning now, but im just confused?
 
*Because they are tired?*
lol, what she said...

i recently reschooled a mare who had never been asked to work properly EVER, and she has some real issues with me asking her to work properly - didnt see why she should.
but once she realised she had to do what i wanted and formed correct muscle and started using her back end instead of towing herself along using her front end she has absolutely stopped napping (was pleased yesterday because her owner said he doesnt know what ive done to his horse but keep doing it
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Is that because the reasons for the nap were different though? If they're napping to get out of work, then a tap with the whip will probably remind them that yes, they do HAVE to do what they're told. If they're napping because they've seen something that makes them suspicious/cautious then I would think reassurance will probably work best. The trouble is, it's hard to tell which one it is!
 
her napping would involve running backwards and rearing and bucking, but she would pretend things were scary as a starting point
 
I have tried for over a year to get baron out of his napping, ive tried almost every approach so far.

I think he napping originated from fear (long before I got him), when you get mad with him he sees red and gets that wound up he cannot focus on anything but napping.

I think horses nap for different reasons (fear, misunderstanding, pain, seperation etc) but once a horse has napped and been allowed to get away with it he can then see a way out of doing something he doesnt want to do, so will then do it out of plain naughtyness to get out of doing things. This is what I think Baron is doing now 95% of the time. Not that I have ever allowed this as I always follow through but it does not stop him trying and it can be quite scary sometimes, a 16.3 bucking, spinning and going anywhere but the way you want it to, I just walk him backwards now.
 
Quote:Generaly, a nappy horse will get worse if you fight it

What? My pony when i first got him was a nightmare napper, i spent a month fighting it every single time and NEVER letting him win if it meant arguing with him for hours at a time and now he never naps, ive seen plenty of horses cured of napping by fighting them.
 
When i first got my horse he was very nappy.

He had basically been abandoned and had no self confidence.

He would nap because he didnt like leaving his friends as he was very insecure on his own and then he would nap when out riding as it would suddenly pop into his head he was out on his own and they become very nervous and anxious.

after lots of TLC he no longer naps or on the rare occasion he does it either because
1)he genuinely frightened (he gets scared of running water and you can feel him shaking bless him)
2) hes being stubbon, sometimes i can feel him start to nap if we take a different route home than usual as we usually go that way as its off the road and quicker he gets a bit confused when i want to got the longer way round.

I think most horses become nappy when they have had a bad expereince with something and then they think it will happen again if they go near it.
 
It is a fear reaction that comes over 1000s of years of development. Your horse is both a prey animal and a herd animal. As such their instinct is to stay with the herd as there is greater protection in numbers. When you take the horse away from the security of the herd the survival instinct kicks in.
 
Jibber means a horse that likes to dig its toes in and rear.
There are 2 types: proper and pi55 taker.
Both can be overcome, but you should never bully a proper jibber.
Sometimes the problem is knowing the difference, it can be a very fine line.
 
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