Well… that was timely. The trainer of the event horse I mentioned, that Warwick Schiller was working with and we’ve been seeing videos of in his subscription service, just posted about the results on FB:
https://www.facebook.com/NCEquestria…8116666129289/
(In the video she’s walking on the buckle on a very windy day, after they’d been galloping. Previously it was hard to get the horse to leave the barn if it was windy, never mind gallop and then walk calmly afterwards.)
This horse needs to free up her feet., This is going to take the time it takes, but it works. When she stops, don’t push her forward, just use a really wide direct rein and move her feet from side to side. Two steps left, two steps right (sometimes it will be 10 steps!). Just keep moving her feet. Eventually she will take a forward step. Drop the pressure to move and reward. Pick it up and start again. It took me 45 minutes to go a mile the first time I worked on this. Eventually, instead of one step, it was three, then 6 then 20 yards of trot, then 100 yards, then we were down to a stop every 1/2 mile or so. Then it was a whole 6 mile ride with only a moment’s hesitation. The trick is not to get in a move forward battle, but to keep her brain moving her feet.
The hard part for me was/is that the stop is for a millisecond before it goes into a fast backup… and my trails are single track, so no circles or even turning around without going down a hill or into brush. I wish I had the secret to stopping the fast backup without getting after him. Right now I have to ride every step and when I sense he is thinking of being balky, it is a soft calf touch to remind him I have spurs on. So far it is has worked without much fuss, but I don’t know how effective it would be if I was out alone, or further on trail than he has been.
Part of me wants to let him turn around (as it stops the backing up), but make him stand there and outwait him – just don’t know if that would work and don’t want to ruin what I have going by intentionally testing it out. Just hoping that the good experiences eventually extinguish the balky behavior until I learn more of what works
I will check out his videos 
thanks.
sometimes moving her from side to side does work but if she is having a day where she really doesnt want to, she will move to the side then rear and spin around towards home.
If she’s good up to a certain point then acts out. I’d first rule out health issues. After that, I third the Warwick Schiller subscription. I don’t have any more advice than that but I hope you can get things straightened out with your mare OP.
If she is backing up fast and you can’t turn her you are in danger. Eventually she will get somewhere where she backs up until she falls over something or falls into something. It doesn’t matter what you do. If you pull the reins she goes faster. If you kick she goes faster.
Every time you interact with this horse you are training her. You are actually training her to go backwards. It is harder to retrain a horse than it is to train a horse so you are creating a horse that is harder for someone to retrain. I really think you should stop riding her out and get lessons in an arena. Become a better rider before you train another horse to do the same.
Could you board her for a while to work through some of this issues in an arena? I honesty think you can’t afford not to train this horse. She wasn’t sold to you to be what you wanted. Your options are really to sell her, get her training or find her a job she enjoys more than trail riding alone. Some horses just don’t enjoy going out solo.
When she starts backing up i can turn her and break her from backing then turn her back in the direction i want to go, she may try to back a few times before she goes and she has reared a few times if she really doesnt want to but she does go eventually. She has some days where she is really good. I have been able to ride out around the lake trail with only one fuss. But since the snow came she has gotten a lot worse.
The only boarding facility doesnt offer proper turnout, i had my older horse there last winter and she became a completely different horse so i will not board there anymore.
I really cant afford it but im going to look at a horse trailer this weekend so i can at least trailer to an arena. I have a feeling she is going to be afraid in the arena as well though since she will still be out of site of other horses.
It was you who said she is backing where you can’t turn her.
That sounds like a great idea, an even better one if there is an instructor there with you. She has to go forward I the arena without other horses. This will happen when she has confidence in you.
Only then do you start doing other things like trail riding.
[QUOTE=SuzieQNutter;n10312631]
It was you who said she is backing where you can’t turn her.
I did not say i cant turn her. I said she backs so i circle her.
Sorry trotting. I read back and it appears it was bluedrifter I was responding to. Not you.
Sell her on and get something different that will suit you better. Is your other horse a gelding? My (totally non-scientific) observation is that many mares don’t do well with a gelding as their only company. I’d get another gelding.
I’m sure someone could train her. I’ve seen long-lining/ground driving used in combination with other methods to address a rearing problem. But how much would that accomplish? She’d be coming back to the same situation where she is not successful for whatever reason. The seller may have lied. It’s also entirely possible that she rode out alone just fine for them and something has changed for her - be it environmental or health-related. Finally, as others have noted, maybe trail horse isn’t her thing. There’s a teenaged OTTB in our barn that shows 3’ & 3’6" like it’s nothing and carried a lead liner this past season. You just don’t hack out or fox hunt on him unless you want to die. And this is a barn full of timber racing jockies.
She may be the horse of your dream. But you aren’t the person of her dreams. Help her out. Help her into a situation where she can be successful. You’ll find another horse that matches you better soon.
Some horses are just not cut out to be on the trail. I worked with this beautiful paint mare that the owners wanted to trail ride - the horse absolutely lost her marbles about 10 feet from the outside gate. Could not handle it - alone, group, ponied, hand walked, after arena work to cool out - just not happening. Her trainer worked for about 90 days before handing her off to me.
I spend about 6 months on her, by the time I was done she was a finished equitation pattern horse (went on to win some great youth prizes) but was never able to be ridden outside of the arena. She just had to have the fence to feel safe.
Nothing bad ever happened to the mare, her owner was the original breeder and she grew up on their farm.
@susieqnutter – don’t worry, your message wasn’t lost on me. And for me, I have stopped putting us in a situation where balking can happen. He has continued to do it sporadically with my trainer on him, hopefully her corrections will eventually extinguish the behavior
Thank you and good luck with your journey.
I think I have one of these. I read this thread hoping I would find some help with my 10 year old QH mare. I’ve had her a year now and finally have come to the conclusion she’s terrified of trail riding. She’s okay with a group. Doesn’t refuse to leave the barn/balk/spin, no bad behavior. She’s just really scared. The arena is where she calms down. She can’t even handle riding around the barn.
What’s weird is that she was born and raised on a working cattle ranch. Lived there for six years. It was obvious when I started riding her in the arena she had no arena experience. But that’s her comfort place.
Good luck to the OP. I’m trying to decide with to do with my girl.
My seven year old TB (never raced but had a year and then some not working) acts the same way, I am ground walking her on my trails in the back yard… she is herdbound to one of my minis and I keep her focused on me… sometimes a tough proposition with 1100 lbs of TB spooking and worrying about her buddy but we keep pushing through it. I also do not have a buddy to go out with.
I make her do transitions in hand, slow walk, faster walk, back to slow walk, whoa, walk, try a trot if she is focusing on me for a few steps. The weather has been too crappy for riding but not for ground work.
She was balky when I first got her and it turns out she had ulcers - she would just stop and mouth the bit and once she looked at her side. She would try to start up but would then become nappy. Once she started the ulcer meds she was more willing but when she would act up I kept her moving and if she was quiet I would stop her. A work in progress but I knew I was getting a green TB. I hand walk with a stud chain… she is used to it and it keeps her mannerly. A rope halter also works for her. Good luck to the OP with her horse.
@Trotting
I have a gelding who used to be similar. I had a trainer look at him and she kept saying “he is dangerous and you going to be hurt” and “I think he needs another job other than trail riding, he hates it”. But I kept trying to tell the trainer that when Hoss rode along side with another horse he was almost the a model trail horse. I know you have said several times that you don’t have someone to ride with but keep looking even if a trainer or whoever could get another horse to go with you one time that would eliminate the question of is this horse just scared to go alone or does he act this way even when another horse goes with him. My horse Hoss is terrified when he goes out alone, he literally starts pouring sweat and pawing the ground frantically. He doesn’t want to be bad he just has anxiety. When we go with another horse like I said he is totally relaxed, he is the one I put inexperienced people on.
He has improved slightly when it comes to
going alone but I admit I haven’t had the time to work with him that much on it. The one thing that has helped is I will ride him to the gate then turn around and go back to the barn. Do that a couple times. Then I ride a little past the gate and turn around and go back to the barn. Then the next time see if he will go all the to the road then go back. You get the idea. It’s definitely helped a lot.
Good luck to you! Also if you’ve only had her 6 months then you probably still have to establish a bond with her so she sees you as a safe leader. I would also try some groundwork!
I agree with Zigzag and I also tied my horse to a tree near the barn for awhile, saddled, after our ride. She learned that just because our ride was done didn’t mean she would be unsaddled and turned loose.
First of course, rule out any health issue. My first horse did not want to go out alone. He would stop and if pressed to go forward would rear. So when he tried to rear I would back him up. Then I would ask him to go forward. If he didn’t want to go forward I would make him back up. Eventually he decided that he would rather go forward than back up. I don’t know if this would work with your mare. But it solved the problem for my horse. Also how about a treat when you have reached your turn around point- or halfway through the ride? Maybe horse could think OK going out isn’t so bad, I get a treat. Make what you want her to do the easiest option.
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