I'll be working with a young mare soon a couple times a week (more this spring and summer hopefully)and would love to hear some opinions from you all about what I can do to improve her as a horse. I already know where I'll be starting and what I'll be working on, but more opinions and suggestions are always appreciated!
Fact File:
Name - Nelly
Height - 14.2hh (built like a freight train and chubby to boot)
Age - 6 or 7 y/o
Breed - Norwegian Fjord X
About her:
She is super cheeky, and has always been very pony-like attitude-wise. She is much too smart for her own good. I've known her a good three years, taught her to canter under saddle along with much of the rest of her ring work. She is super brave on the trails and will go nicely anywhere in the line from first to last of up to 13 horses. She doesn't always get along with other horses when she's with the herd and can be a big bully to the ones lower than her in the pecking order.
The Problem:
As Nelly is at a ranch used for camps and retreats throughout the year, she hasn't been worked consistently in the arena. She has subsequently decided that she doesn't need to do arena work anymore and rears if you ask something of her that she doesn't want to do. I hopped on her bareback to see the extent of the problem last week. To everyone's surprise she worked nicely for me for about 15 minutes. After that she began with her little rears (which get bigger as you go). I asked her to walk, told her to walk, and after a good whap on the bum with the reins got a "leap and twist" into the air, followed by a nice moderately paced walk. After a lap of walking with no protests I hopped off and put her away.
I'd like to get her back to her old sassy, but compliant, self. She really is a fun girl and I'd love to see her stick around the ranch [:
Groundwork as well as under-saddle exercises are welcome to be shared!
and here are a few pictures from the past two years for good measure:
Thanks,
-Dareh
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I ride a horse who had a similar issue, he wanted only to go on trail rides and was a nervous wreck in the ring and would sometime rear on the way there. we would do groundwork in the arena before every ride. leading, halting, backing, moving hindquarters around. then id get on and walk him on the buckle for at least 5 minutes, letting him go basically where he wanted just moving around. then take up the reins a little and start some circles, serpentines etc. our ring leads right to our trails so if he was being good Id let him walk out the gate and up the hill a little then come back to the ring. work on trotting, working only on forward first then contact and figures. again taking mini trail breaks if he was exceptionally good. at the end working on something, for him stretching down at the trot and halting ad hopping off when i got a good response.
hope that helps!
When my pony is off for awhile he gets quite fresh. He never rears though, so I'm not quite sure how to answer that part of the question.
Roo is the same size as Nelly heightwise, but he's a tb x welsh, so he's got a smaller build than her :)
I've started to lunge him for about 10 - 15 minutes before I ride, just so he gets all his silly energy out and can focus on working. Sometimes I will put out a few poles and maybe a tiny jump while I lunge him.
I find that really keeping him focused on what he is doing when he is being ridden is a HUGE help. I myself have to focus harder too, which is a plus for the both of us.
To start I usually do a few laps of the ring at a walk, switching between a normal pace and a faster working walk, doing a small circle in each corner to get him bending, and a big circle at each end of the ring. Then I will throw in a figure 8 at each end, keeping him busy and focused on something (there are often sheep in the field all around the ring, which he used to freak out about but he doesn't much care for them anymore.) Then I will do that all again at a trot. Sometimes he will get excited and pop himself up into a canter, and I'm like -_- okay no, back down to trot, and once I get him trotting nicely and on the bit etc, THEN he can canter.
When he does something good I give him a pat and tell him he's a good boy, positive reinforcement is always good :)
Also, when I've got something down pat and he's done it well a few times, I stop and leave it at that!
As for trails, lucky your pony likes to go out by herself, Roo HATES going by himself, especially to new places! He likes to go out with other horses on trail rides, but unfortunately none of the other horses at my barn get ridden so I don't have anyone to go with.
I'm hoping to get one pony who's the same size as mine back up and running, cause I have a friend who used to ride and would LOVE to come on trail rides with me! My barn owner said I could ride any of the horses at my barn for free, I would do paddocks for her though in exchange cause it would be a nice thing to do :)
Once she's re-sensitized to leg aids I will definitely work on some of that in the arena! [: First I need to get her stop-rear problem sorted. And bending for her is definitely a challenge, with her tubby little self :P hahahaha. Oh man she's a chunk. I think that will definitely be one of our first steps though, getting different movements in a nice active walk!
Hey you're barn owner sounds great though! It's really quite fun working with problem ponies I find.
Though I'll say she definitely isn't mine. I've just been working (as a volunteer and as paid staff) where she's part of a herd of 45+/- ranch horses. She's just too much for us to put any guests or campers on at this point so hopefully I'll get her out of her funk!
Maybe some join up? A quick good ride then call it good and wait till the next day? Just something that has helped me with some horses, some just seem to need that bond of respect to do what they're supposed to
I love my barn owner, she's a sweet older lady. I have pretty cheap board there too, $250 a month for full board, and it's only a 10 minute drive from my house, within walking distance of two nice big rings and tons of trails and a few beaches :)
I would lots of lunging with her to get her to lose a little weight, and get back in shape a bit. It might have something to do with her simply linking harder work with the ring, and if she's got a pony brain then that's likely not something she's interested in :D
If you can work her in a surcingle a lot to help get her working again, then it's a lot safer for you and a fairly simple way to get her moving. You can also long rein with her too.
Thank you all, it's so interesting reading all your ideas [:
AFS-I did actually free lunge her two days ago and it went well. Mind you, it was a process.. it took a good 20 minutes for her to finally decide she didn't want to run from me anymore. After that we did some more groundwork to let her take a break before I hopped on for a little while.
HHF-I really do feel as though a surcingle with any attachments wouldn't be the best idea for a horse that's as spontaneous as she is. I'd rather not have any restrictions going from her face to her body as she IS a rearer, and has flipped over once before. A surcingle by itself maybe, but I'm unsure what the point of just sticking one on her would be? I'd be interested to know though! UPDATE
I think part of it actually, is that she is just too much of a thinker.. she gets so bored! That's why she loves groundwork, because I'm always changing it up and doing different things and making her think. She just likes to think and play [: I applied that to our undersaddle work and and she's been surprisingly good! We did fight a lot during out first ride, but eventually I had walk, trot, halt on command and as soon as she'd done each a few times with no threats to rear or fussing, I hopped off. Our most recent ride literally only entailed one hissy fit!! We added backing up to our list of things achievable on command now, and ended off with a fun little walk around the ranch to cool off which she loved [:
I wouldn't put her in a surcingle right away, rather wait for her to settle in a bit and get used to working. There's isn't really a point in putting one on without side reins, so no I wouldn't both with that. And this may sound... cruel to you, but it actually might not be a horrible idea to have something attaching her face to her body. Granted that you don't have it too tight, it could possibly encourage her to stay on the ground when she throws her head up to rear. It would be a quick way for her to teach herself the consequences of rearing- again, granted you don't have it so tight she couldn't get herself out of trouble. And I'm NOT saying that I've ever tried that, but if I were you it might be something I would think about.
I worked with a pony who had similar issues (it seems) as this pony, only he would pull all his tricks even when you weren't on him. If you brought him into the ring in hand without a chain over his nose, he was going to rear. And he was so bad that he cut me a few times with his front feet while he was in the air, came very close to breaking bones multiple times. For him it was because he associated the ring with being away from his friends, along with work. So we lunged him everyday, and it only took about a week, but he figured out that when he was good we would go for a walk somewhere outside, but the SECOND he did anything naughty it was back in the ring and working. I just gradually increased the amount of time he was working until we could work for 45 minutes without any issues, but always making sure to go outside after as his reward.
If that doesn't help, have somebody lunge you while you're riding if you can. That way she can combine the lunging and rider aids until you can ease away from that.
Always remember give and take, make her work for a while, but don't push your limits and give her the reward she's looking for in the end- going for a walk out of the arena.