Monsters in our new indoor

[FjordBCRF]

Commiseration/hoping to find some additional approaches. We moved to a new barn a month ago; a very big upgrade in terms of care, safety and amenities.

The old indoor is one of those “arenas in the barn” design where there is a row of stalls, aisle-way, arena, and similar on the other side of the arena with some grooming areas/tack room and stalls. Really very few opinions from the fjord about it.

New indoor is a full size dressage arena but more of a box with 2 big slider doors and 3 garage doors, and a small sliding man door.

We consistently DO NOT like cantering in this space. We worked very hard up to this point bringing his canter along, here is a snippet from a Richard Williams clinic this fall

IMG_0540

In the new arena, I have gotten some pretty nice transitions up to the canter, but then we get our turbo boosters going if we don’t like a door, or a shadow or the way the light is coming in. He’s good at the walk and the trot…the canter though has been so disheartening. The new indoor is also eerily quiet, and I will put on music when we ride to mitigate that a bit.

I’m working with my trainer to get him through it and it’s a lot of keeping his nose to the inside, pushing him forward at the canter, and basically just being as relaxed as possible and sitting back deep. The couple mild days we’ve had, I’ve ridden him in the outdoor and he’s been just a doll at the canter so I think it’s this indoor.

Any tips? He is young, he will be 6 in April. He has done so well up to this point, showed out first schooling show in the fall Intro B and C in an indoor and got 69 and 70 scores respectively. I was so hoping to keep the momentum with the canter progress going, but I think that isn’t going to be the case at the moment. I don’t want to sour him but I also don’t want him to think he can get out of being a solid citizen.

This is also the first winter we are training through so also possible the cold is amping him up…being a fjord though, this is thankfully all he does and I can ride it through

Tips/tricks/monster repellent recommendations?

[FjordBCRF]

This is what he thought of himself today after a very zoomie lesson

[anon40672407]

Any chance the barn owner will let you turn him out in there overnight? Just let him hear every possible noise, sniff every possible corner until he’s bored silly?

[FjordBCRF]

Likely not and I don’t know that it would make much of a difference, he is literally as cool as a cucumber until it’s canter time. It’s definitely more of a visual thing than sounds as well or so it seems; coming up faster on something funny looking is the specific trigger.

He’s also decent lunging; sometimes he cares at the canter and sometimes not. I only lunge him once a week or so though.

[FjordBCRF]

A part of me thinks it’s boredom with it being winter as well. We aren’t in an outdoor much, not on trails much, and we do have to share the arena more with lessons so it’s not always easy for me to set stuff up for him to focus on. I also Cant use my cart with this indoor because the other horses would lose their minds so we’re resigned to ground driving until the weather breaks. Prior to the move, we also worked on foundational things, but not in a drilling sort of way.

Yesterday I had the arena to myself, set up a couple barrels with cones to put rings on and a couple cross rails. Totally fine, and fine with cantering the rings from one barrel to another and over the cross rails. I think figuring out more of that type of thing when I just have half the arena might help.

[wsmoak]

@FjordBCRF

fine with cantering the rings from one barrel to another and over the cross rails.

Hmmm… if “keep him busy” works I wonder if the longer stretches just give his little pony brain a bit too much time to invent things to worry about. Which to me means you might not be able to ‘just canter’ but need to be asking for the next thing almost immediately. If we cannot canter the long side yet, then we transition back down after (exactly! decide in advance what you will ask!) four strides, or add a circle or a serpentine. Or a halt. Stopping is a good thing.

Just some thoughts, I am in no way an expert. He is adorable!

[luvmyhackney]

Sounds like he is bored so making his own fun. Personally I’d just ignore it and put him to work when he does it.

And Boo on not being able to drive in the indoor. Other horses can get used to seeing a cart. They might run into one if they show.

[FjordBCRF]

@wsmoak

Which to me means you might not be able to ‘just canter’ but need to be asking for the next thing almost immediately

I agree. I did start to bring him back a couple training steps and working just on walk to canter and then back down after a stride or two on a circle. I have NOT done that when he’s gone full zoom but I think I will try next time and see if that resonates.

I also cannot get after him too much or that just shakes him up, I have to keep my patience at all times otherwise that will make it worse.

@luvmyhackney - I know. The last barn the horses were all like WTF the first time and then we’re pretty much fine. They do a LOT of jr lessons though so I can understand it a bit from that perspective.

[Impractical_Horsewoman]

Winter sun can be really weird and intense, and I once rode a mare who would absolutely have meltdowns at the shiny patterns the sun would make on the footing at certain times of day.

But the fact it’s only at the canter suggest it’s also adrenaline (getting amped up) at the faster gait. I have a feeling that this might calm down in summer, when the light is steadier.

I agree with the many transitions and keeping him busy and focused. I know it can be exhausting to have to keep a horse thinking literally every minute of a ride and never relax!

Do you find yourself subconsciously postponing cantering longer and longer into the ride? Sometimes it’s easier to have a short canter early and get it over with (and keep inserting little bursts of speed here and there, and channel it, rather than trying to calm him down through long stretches of walk and trot).

[FjordBCRF]

@Impractical_Horsewoman

Do you find yourself subconsciously postponing cantering longer and longer into the ride? Sometimes it’s easier to have a short canter early and get it over with (and keep inserting little bursts of speed here and there, and channel it, rather than trying to calm him down through long stretches of walk and trot).

I try to switch things up with him! Today we got right into and he was as bad as he’s been so far; it was in a lesson today and that was pretty much how we spent it haha. Sometimes I will try and do it at the halfway point then work a decent amount of walking/trotting work after. If I finish on it and he’s good, we call it a ride and are done.

The winter sun is weird. I had a sunny weekend day where I was there earlier than normal and got him to calmly canter these sun spots!

This less pronounced spot however, was the devil.

The other thing too is that he is probably more fit than he’s been to date which I imagine is playing into things.

[Impractical_Horsewoman]

Ah! It was the same with the pony I used to ride! I couldn’t even predict what sun spots she’d object to!

But he is young, and has had a major disruption to his routine. In summer, after riding in the heat, in an arena that is consistently bright, hopefully in future winters he’ll settle down.

I know it’s harder when you have only half the arena and are worried about the safety of other riders, as well as have less room to maneuver!

[FjordBCRF]

Glad it’s not just us

I also wonder if a week or so off from all riding would do him good and just stick to ground driving and groundwork. He’s not had any significant time off since about May 2022. I did get right back into riding him when we moved; was keeping things pretty short, sweet, and simple to start but it was a big change.

Most rides I max out at 25-30 minutes; if we have to work through shenanigans it may be longer but I actively try not to overwhelm him and it’s worked really well for us up to this point.

[TWH_Girl]

Awww he’s just so dang cute!! Love him. I bet he’ll get better in time.

[FjordBCRF]

He 100% has that going for him, he’s such a ham haha. I got him as a three year old and this is the worst we’ve gone through so I have much to be thankful for with him!

[TWH_Girl]

6 is the most difficult year, I swear! Just keep doing what you’re doing this year. He will outgrow this.

[AnastasiaBeaverhousen]

Transitions into the gait and within the gait.

I think walk to canter and canter to walk are better than canter to trot. Ymmv.

Try to do more than just canter circles. You can use the long diagonals to canter to the center transition down to the walk for a few strides and then canter again. Or trot if you find it easier.

Challenge him a little bit and give him something to think about beside pony devil stuff.

I know it can be disconcerting to have your horse take off with you, but use the opportunity to teach him how to extend in canter. That’s where transitions within the gait come in.

Hope this helps.

[FjordBCRF]

@AnastasiaBeaverhousen

I know it can be disconcerting to have your horse take off with you, but use the opportunity to teach him how to extend in canter.

Thankfully it is just speed with him knock on wood, which I can handle for the ride. He’s done a couple pony bucks in the past and it was communicated under no uncertain terms that was unacceptable behavior and he seemed to agree it wasn’t worth the effort. I had a horse my last year in high school that escalated to bronco bucks within a couple weeks of owning him, launched me high and hard, and my confidence took a hit. As long as we keep it to zooms, I’ll be ok.

Agree about the transitions within the gait as well and my trainer mentioned that too. A couple rides ago, I did manage to get a couple of nice forward strides out of him which was a nice glimmer. Once the weather warms up, his energy levels drop so I do like that we have more go, but we could dial it back about a notch and a half

[endlessclimb]

What happens if you add leg during the zoomie? In the “wanna run? Ok let’s run” type of way. Then, when you’re ready, halfhalt and ask for something different.

[FjordBCRF]

@endlessclimb

What happens if you add leg during the zoomie? In the “wanna run? Ok let’s run” type of way

He gets a little frazzled but really no change in speed. Once he gets past “the spot” he wants to come down on his own. When I add leg there he ranges from “Awww cmon I’m tired”, to a good level of responsive to it until we get back to “the spot” then it’s tuck butt and zoom.

The day I got the nice strides out of him was on the opposite side of the ring from where the spot was asking him to keep moving forward for me. Very nice, controlled and decently balanced for him just learning.

[FjordBCRF]

If I give him his head a little more with a “wanna run, let’s run” he seems to be less stressed. So maybe working on a balance there too could help.