Shoulder fore or haunches in by “the spot”? How about a growl to discourage the zoom?
My young mare is going through this too, it might just be “winter woolies.”
Shoulder fore or haunches in by “the spot”? How about a growl to discourage the zoom?
My young mare is going through this too, it might just be “winter woolies.”
We have a zoomy german riding pony who likes to express his thoroughbred side more often than not. He is a canter machine - that’s his thing and he like to express his enjoyment of said gait any time we go down the long side by gaining some speed (aka running). I found with him, I couldn’t just half halt him down to a trot as he would just splat on his forehand and hang on the bit. So anytime he went faster than I wanted I would just turn him in a circle 15m or smaller. Making it harder for him to zoom away. After a couple of those, he gets the hint and canters at a more respectable pace and balance. Basically making going fast not fun and more work. I do this also on bending lines like the single canter loop in First level. He was 6 when we got him and he was the same like your guy - shenanigans in the indoor, a gentleman in the outdoor. My older horse is like that too. I think outside there’s more stimulation so they don’t find an excuse to spook at some shadow like they would in the indoor. For the GRP we also found that a good lunge before riding can take the edge off. Good luck!
We are just starting to get the idea and coordination of haunches in at the walk so we probably have some time before that could be effective. I don’t think I have growled though! That’s an easy try hahaha.
Thinking back to winters, he’s done the same thing cantering down a trail. He would find something that looked funny and want to zoom so maybe it is more just the season.
We didn’t have a full winter at the previous barn either or with an indoor…he was fine at the old indoor up until we moved, but we moved the day after Christmas right after that deep freeze so many of us got, and it just started to get consistently cold at that point.
This was the exact approach my trainer took with us during our lesson yesterday. He finally did wear himself out enough we got a respectable canter past the spot, but it took all lesson
I appreciate the similar stories. He’s spoiled me up to this point with how good natured he is and how quickly he does take to training. I didn’t figure things would always be smooth sailing but hopefully this passes soon!
And sometimes it is perfectly fine to avoid the scary spot for a ride! Other times, yeah you might work on it all lesson/ride. There are days that I don’t want to deal with the resistance at the spooky doors, so I will cut the short end where the doors are. Then sometimes I address it super early in the ride. I was in a clinic and the clinician said it’s ok to cut out the scary thing and then inch closer to it through the ride. By the end of the lesson we were riding past it without a problem!
I also ask myself, if someone got on my horse without knowing he spooked all the time at the scary doors, would my horse still spook there? It just reminds me to try to not physically signal that I’m expecting the -omgherecomesthespookyspot! I try to ride through it like I don’t care. Harder to put in practice! But it’s a good mental exercise in reflection.
Thank you!
This stinker. A lesson was just finishing up that had a couple small jumps out. I took down poles to make a diagonal ground line to canter and left the small X up. He was pleased as punch to have stuff to do and wasn’t too bothered by the jumps placement near the big sun spot. I did feel one moment that felt like it could have turned into a zoom but we were already approaching the X and that was where his attention went. 20 min ride! Going to have to start getting creative!
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He’s so adorable.
I think I may have found a potential culprit for our antics. We moved barns the day after Christmas and the new barn has very nice second cutting hay. Old barn had inconsistent and not always so great first cutting. When I pulled out the weight tape tonight, we have started to pack on some pounds so the hay is getting cut back. I’m addition to the winter wooleys, we have had extra calories to burn too.
Outside of that, we’ve had some very good rides inside and have been able to rides outdoors more than a typical February including hauling out to trail ride. I think changing it up as helped some too. Hopefully with cutting back the hay, that will help both with the extra energy AND they extra weight. He’s in work 5-6 days a week so he’s not just sitting around as much this winter.
We are a week settled into our new barn, no issues for the first week whatsoever.
Well we’re into week 2 at the new place and now are finding things that are scary. This week it is the pole pile going to the right
At this point I’ve been riding him past if he doesn’t completely counterbend and wide eye the poles, if he counter bends, we ride circles past. If he ignores my leg, he gets a reminder with the whip. He started it yesterday, we ended after going past it relatively calmly. Today we started with some pole work to get his brain engaged and when we got to canter, same thing past the poles and rode through it until he could do it more calmly. Today I had treats in my pocket that he got when he did it more calmly to make no mistake that’s what we want.
This stuff is exhausting