Welcome home Triss! She sounds like a super sensible girl. You’re going to have so much fun with her!
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I think she’s adorable and I’m glad you’re having fun with her!
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I would ask “WHY?”
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She is so cute!
Sometimes a horse is like “yep, here’s my ride, time to get out of here and go home with you”. Something about her demeanor looks as if she thinks she has found her destiny.
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Nice girl. Take more videos!
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No new photos or videos, we’re not quite up to one handed lunging yet, and I’ve been alone at the barn, but tonight will be ride 5! I can’t say they’ve been the most productive first rides I’ve put on a horse, but I’m trying to give myself some grace and be okay with going at our own pace.
She’s clearly had someone get on her before, she was very clear about understanding someone getting on. Once I’m on though, she doesn’t seem to have a clue, when you ask anything she defaults to backing up. When we do get to some sort of forward motion she can kind of steer, but getting moving forward has been a struggle.
I am definitely at least 50% of the problem. I haven’t been pushing her much because I’ve been alone on the property, but I also think I’m blocking her with my seat. She’s got a forward, ground covering walk under saddle (despite her short legs) and she’s really sensitive to weight shifts or any rein movement so I think she’s interpreting any tension or stiffness in me as a cue to stop.
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My riding teacher put me on this older QH whose answer to doubt, not understanding, or he just did not want to, was backing up.
This disappeared in a few months, then after an extended vacation he was back to his old habits. I thought it through and decided to keep his hind feet moving to doing turns on the forehand. I had already taught him the aids. I only rode him 30 min. once a week.
It took a few weeks, but he finally decided that it was more work doing repeated turns on the forehand than him backing up. He decided to go forward 95% of the time from that time on when I rode him.
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A seasoned trainer told me once that if a horse is inclined to be spooky, every time he spooks (every time), do 12 spook-less circles right beside the spook item. If the horse spooks on any trip by the item, start the count over.
My spooky horse got the message on this. After a couple of weeks of diligent application of the method, I could feel him gather a spook and then abort – “no wait! I don’t want to do 12 circles!”
Attaching the correction to work does seem to penetrate the brain of horse.
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It’s me, hi, I’m the problem, it’s me, or something like that.
We’ve gotten to where we’re walking around pretty consistently, not perfectly, but good. She hasn’t done anything worse than an aggressive tail swish and threatening to kick out (aside from biting my foot today) and she’s been pretty quick to knock that off if I just ignore it, which is what makes this next part so frustrating.
I cannot get myself to make her trot. She does this little plant her feet, swish her tail, and pop her hip up, and I just freeze up. She hasn’t given me any reason to be concerned, I didn’t have this problem with my TB (who had sent 3 people to the hospital that I knew of), and I used to be totally comfortable starting colts. I am so. flipping. frustrated and mad at myself. I want to trot, and canter, I want to take her out on the barn trails, and I want to take her to a clinic this summer. What I don’t want is to keep being a giant wimp, but I can’t seem to push myself past this freeze response.
My good barn friend offered to lunge her with me on her tomorrow, so hopefully that (and maybe taking a page from the fox hunters and adding a little liquid courage) will get me past this block.
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Are you worried she’s going to pull a stunt, or are you worried she’s in pain? Identifying the core of your anxiety may help.
Definitely try the friend lunging her IF friend is really good at such things and typically on the same page as you. Maybe have a neck strap on your mare to give yourself a handle to grab rather than her face, if it comes to it?
Also, there is NO harm in admitting you need pro help - it doesn’t reflect on your experience level or anything else! Even if it’s just a couple sessions to work this out. Good luck!
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THIS!
If friend understands longe = long & low, then by all means.
Agree the neckstrap for you, start w/o any reins - knot them on her neck.
If you walk only, that’s fine.
If you can add trot, great.
Save canter for the next session.
FWIW:
I spent a Summer on the longe, no reins, & it improved my seat immensely.
Also taught me how much seat/balance & leg control gaits.
Let us know how it goes 
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It’s definitely worry that she’s going to pull a stunt. Friend is definitely good to lunge her and is mostly on the same page (and very willing to gently call me out if I’m being dramatic or over reacting). Mostly friend is thinking (probably correctly) that once I get a few trot transitions and circles down it won’t feel like such a big deal and I’ll be able to push her through even if she does get a little spicy.
I did start her on nexium on Wednesday though, since she’s been extra girthy the last two weeks. I am also going to have the vet come out and do a chiropractic and acupuncture treatment on her just to cover all bases.
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How is she picking up the trot on the lunge without a rider? Do you use a verbal command as well when you ask her to trot?
One of my mares was sticky about picking up the canter when first starting under saddle and wanted to suck back and buck when you put your leg on and was offended enough by a tap with a crop that it wasn’t very productive at that stage. What did help a lot was teaching her the verbal command (“canter” and a “kiss” instead of a cluck). Then I could ask her to canter with just a bit of leg and the verbal command (starting with canter and a kissing noise and then just the kissing noise) which allowed her to understand more clearly that I wanted the canter rather and it all improved quickly with much less fuss.
If you haven’t already/aren’t already it might help to try working on her verbal commands for the transitions without a rider on the lunge line first and then add that with a rider. You can also have someone on the ground giving the verbal command rather than just the rider, even without a lunge line. I’ve known a couple of ponies who were more inclined to take direction that way than from their rider at times!
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Are you positive the saddle fits correctly? Even having your friend leading her may help as you ask for a few trot steps? I would be worried about a “possible” rodeo type situation on the lunge if she may want to kick…
ETA: Some mares can be pretty dramatic/ distracted/ cranky when having their first couple of Spring heats. Just a thought.
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This sounds so much like my guy. Part of his was saddle fit, part was lack of strength and balance, and part of it was just not wanting to (also an older greenie). Improving the first two, along with establishing voice commands and lunging with someone on him, has been beneficial. R+ has helped a lot too but that’s been more of an experimental thing.
I’d check on saddle fit, feet, anything physical that could be making her not want to go forward. If that’s all good, she might just not feel like she is fit enough or can stay balanced. I have to remind myself all the time that my guy literally sat doing nothing for most of his 8-ish years of life, and just isn’t as physically (and maybe a bit mentally!) adapted to a rider yet.
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How did the lunging session go?
This was a new one for me to experience and I found it most frustrating!
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Same. It’s so hard to figure out if it’s a pain issue, strength issue, not particularly wanting to have a “job” after already living the good life for so long issue, etc.
On some thread I used the term " work ethic" and got a fair bit of backlash but an older western trainer I like to watch on utube has shown that it most certainly is a real thing.
He has quite a few horses come in for training that he videos and posts the rides and you can see when the horse just does not “want to”.
I had just never had one!
Between some miserable weather and scheduling conflicts we haven’t done our lunging session yet. We did do a refresher on verbal cues, and they seem to be translating well to under saddle so I’m confident in them.
I have an EQ Saddle Science saddle, right now I’m using the same protocol we used when rehabbing my KS horse and doing a fit check and adjustment every 2 weeks. Once she’s in full work I’ll do a full fitting and may change panels. So far she’s been pretty clear from the moment you get on if something is bothering her.
@candyappy I absolutely agree with the idea of work ethic, I’ve had horses on both ends of the spectrum. If anything right now I’d say we have a work ethic imbalance. She’s got a work ethic, but she reminds me of some of the older ranch horses I’ve know who want to get out, get the job done, and be finished. She hasn’t seemed to connect walking around and working on steering and bending as her job yet (another reason I need to woman up and get her trotting).
I dreamt vividly about trotting her last night, and it felt so real I woke up excited to update this post and say we had conquered it, until I woke up enough to realize it was a dream. Hopefully that’s a good omen!
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