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Post by sarah00000 on Apr 10, 2010 9:17:18 GMT
I do sympathise with your problem, napping is not nice BUT very common.
You need to decide how much you want him to hack out on his own. Lot of people/horses never hack out on their own and lead perfectly happy lives, just going out in groups.
However, I personally have to hack alone most the time, so my horses MUST do it. If I had someone to hack with, I would prefer it, but I dont....
Therefore I :-
1. Put on a backprotector, as well as hat etc 2. Take a decent short whip 3. If I had one that was very bad, ask a friend to follow in a car or on a bike etc, so I had help in case of emergency.
I would then use voice and leg aids (swearing helps LOL), if voice and leg was ignored, I would use the whip, just once. Then return to leg and voice again. You dont need to bully the horse, just make sure he knows you are the TOP DOG, or herd leader, so he takes confidence in your decisions. He MUST go forward.
I normally find that by day 3 of hacking alone, without letting the horse get away with anything, life becomes easier and they start to play ball.
I dont tend to hack nappy horses in a snaffle either. I use either a pelham, a gag or something similiar, so I have more control of their head, if they turn / spin / run. A martinglale also helps.
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sinead
Junior Member
Posts: 109
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Post by sinead on Apr 10, 2010 9:28:46 GMT
second to all above!!
martingale hat body protector HI VIZ stuff so if u do have a paddy cars wil notice a hi viz jacket flyin around the road... short whip
i tried the nice approach with my boy- i guess they are all different- he spun and reared and would throw in the odd buck. didnt repsond to leg or tap on shoulder. so he got 2 fulll on whacks on the @rse and he went on. hes tried it a few times since then and each time reaction has decreased and yesterday he was lkie a angel!!
good luck!
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Post by sophieandcallum on Apr 10, 2010 18:52:51 GMT
I also had this problem but the smacking, kicking and voice didn't work. Smacks on the butt made him play up even more so I just spent about 20 minutes (I know yawn!) at the yard entrance and didn't react or get frustrated (VERY difficult I can tell you!). I nudged him forward like I would just to ask to walk on, kept asking, after he had his tantrums etc he got bored and gave in ;D Since then he hasn't hesitated to leave the yard alone Took alot to stay on but completely worth it, would try the above first though. My experience was with my stubborn, intelligent highland so probably similar to your boy so just thought I'd give you another approach
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Post by sarah00000 on Apr 10, 2010 19:03:42 GMT
sophieandcallum - yes that can work too. Had a mare, that you couldnt smack, cos she would react badly. I would pay the patience game and not let her go anywhere other than forward. She hated standing still, so when she knew backwards or sideways not an option, she would huffily go forward instead.......LOL
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Post by cuddles on Apr 10, 2010 20:07:01 GMT
why dont you try to give him lots of longreigning, that usually helps with nappy sorts.
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kayjayem
Happy to help....a lot
Posts: 10,046
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Post by kayjayem on Apr 10, 2010 20:51:31 GMT
Don't let him "plant" himself. If he stops pull him round in circles on the spot until he is gratefull to move forward! Even one step forward is an achievement so reward him and if he stops again do it again. turning on the spot one way then the other. If he walks forward just one step reward it, if he plants himslef just keep his feet moving round and he should eventually get fed up. It may take a long time but make it comfortable for him to go the way you want - lots of praise and reward for just a pace or two, but make it uncomfortable to object - if he says no make him spin on the spot and keep moving and don't let him get comfortable in his objection. Hope this makes sense!
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Post by sophieandcallum on Apr 10, 2010 23:01:19 GMT
sophieandcallum - yes that can work too. Had a mare, that you couldnt smack, cos she would react badly. I would pay the patience game and not let her go anywhere other than forward. She hated standing still, so when she knew backwards or sideways not an option, she would huffily go forward instead.......LOL Sounds exactly like my boy ;D
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Post by dressagemad on Apr 11, 2010 11:45:04 GMT
My mare always used to be a pain to hack on her own. Not dangerous or anything like yours but she would be really grumpy and throw tantrums when asked to step up a pace. She would be fine on the way home but going away from the yard was a bit of a nightmare. She was quite spooky on her own too.
To build up her confidence I walked her out inhand along our hacking routes. She would just lead out in her headcollar at first as she associates this with heading for the field so positive. She is really sweet on the ground and we have a great bond so she knew that nothing scary was going to happen with me at her shoulder. We would stop at things she had been scared of whilst hacking so she could safely get close to them and see nothing is wrong. We did this on all of our hacking routes then built up to put her in the trailer and take her to different hacking places as she had to get used to different sights and not just be confident on her own hacking route but on others too.
When she was happily walking around everywhere on her own in her headcollar I tacked her up in full tack and repeated all of the above walking everywhere inhand. She was just as good as if in her headcollar and was paying more attention to me than anything else and I talked to her a lot so when I then progressed to riding her on her hacks again she carried over the confidence with a lot of voice reassurance from me.
All of this took a lot of patience but I had around 15 weeks off uni last summer with nothing else to do so time was in abundance. Hacking is supposed to be her way to let off steam and be enjoyable for her so I wanted to get back to this and not make it a hard task as this wouldn't help either of us. This took around two months with walks most days. I just fitted our walks in around our schooling etc and whenever we had a free minute off we went.
She has only had one tantrum since being back to riding on hacks so I got off and took her to the spooky thing and then got back on and off we went. She is definately the type that is worse if you try and force her or have lots of leg/whip. She is good on her own and we are continuing our work and now the weather is better can get out a lot more.
Good luck with your horse. Hope my experience may be a bit insightful for you.
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Post by sageandonion on Apr 12, 2010 11:28:22 GMT
As with some horses who don't have any jumping ability, there are horses who simply do not have the confidence within themselves to hack alone.
If people specifically want to hack alone, then you must make sure the horse is happy with this before you buy. Otherwise, if the horse can't cope, then repeatedly wacking and putting it through its worse nightmare simply isn't fair. Either sell it or hack in company.
This wouldn't apply to the horse that is just trying it on of course, but be careful you are understanding what your horse is saying to you.
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Post by barefoot on Apr 12, 2010 15:12:59 GMT
I had a Connie yrs ago that was a horrendous turn and bolt in the other direction, he would go flat out back to the yard most of the time with his huge neck and mouth of iron, the older i got the more i could deal, he would also jump anything, any size that was in his way,inc a police car once!!! another time he took me under one those rd signs and almost decapitated me-to this day i don't know how i got away unscathed or why i put up with him!bl**dy minded i guess! I agree with KJM etc that if possible don't let him plant- i used to resort to making him reinback where i wanted until he stopped it and wouldn't let him turn to face the direction he was going in till he stopped threatening! more often than not it worked for him-trouble was though he knew he could bolt if he wanted, what works for one won't another. Definately body protector and high viz etc- didn't have back then but i would put it on these days. Hope you get him sorted-good luck!!
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Post by saz88 on Apr 12, 2010 18:34:17 GMT
We had this prob, got someone to walk with us, it gave horse confidence then eventually went out without any bother- did take a while though
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sinead
Junior Member
Posts: 109
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Post by sinead on Apr 12, 2010 20:33:00 GMT
think this all shows horses are def different! i know mine is tryin it on and has hacked out alone and in company plenty times before. some days he throws a paddy before we get out the drive, the next day on our way home with yard in sight he stops and spins to go away from yard, next we can go out for hours with no problems! no corrolation to when he has company or not- just when he feels like it! equally had plenty advice to rein back- which he wil with pleasure for miles or just plain rears. and if we stand there and i ignore him he just looks around at the pretty fields and takes in the view! hes just been broken 6months and has now hit naughty 'i dont want to' stage and is def pushin me to the limit!
good luck am sure you wil find out what works for your horse soon!
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Post by dressagemad on Apr 13, 2010 10:00:01 GMT
I agree with sageandonion that it is a thing some horses just don't do alone.
As I said in my post my horse just lacked confidence on her own but has always been willing to hack alone or in company. She would act lazy on a hack and plod along which was her way of acting out that she was scared/ unsure. She just needed time/patience and to experience the scary things she encounters and showing that they aren't so bad after all.
Now she is much more confident and I have finally showed her that she can enjoy going out and having a play on a hack. If after doing everything we had like walking her out inhand that she decided it wasn't any better then I would never have forced her. Hacking is meant to be fun and not a chore. It should be pleasant from beginning to end for both the horse and the rider.
My mare loves jumping so to make the hacks something to look forward to we have been hacking through the woods and jumping logs/ little branches and she is so much more confident now. She hacks with others a lot which she has always been perfect with going first or last or anywhere inbetween and we go for walks inhand so this all helps her when we do decide to hack alone.
I am sure a lot of her lack of confidence was down to her sensing my uncertainty and now I have a well behaved horse it is passing confidence back to me which in turn she feeds off. We bounce off each other which gives us both confidence which makes everything much easier.
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Post by trudey123 on Apr 13, 2010 14:46:45 GMT
Hi , i had exactly the same problem with one of my ponies , what i did was carried a short but wide whip , and carried an egg in my pocket so if he tried to spin i tanned his backside and if he reared i cracked an egg over his head ... sounds men but deffinatly did the trick and now my pony hacks out on his own and getslots of treats for been a good boy hope this helps <3
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