Seeking advice re. mare that hates water complexes

[TBEventer439]

Hello, long time lurker, 3rd time (?) poster. Apologies if this is rather long, just want to fully explain my dilemma.

So I have a 6 y/o OTTB mare. She is lovely - fantastic mover, bold jumper. Getting easier and easier to handle and travel with as she matures. We’ve placed well at numerous local CTs.

So here’s my issue - I cannot get her into water complexes without her having a complete meltdown. We have schooled water all over the Carolinas at probably 10 different venues over the past 18 months (some multiple times). I’ve worked with a few really excellent local trainers. She even spent a week at a nearby facility and schooled the water several days in a row with a professional who I have much respect for.

We last schooled water a couple of weeks ago - and she still acted like she’d never seen water before. It took what seemed like forever to get her in, with my regular (awesome) coach supervising and helping us.

A couple of weird things to add - she has no issues with puddles at home. Once she got over that, I thought my problem was solved. Nope.
Also, once she goes into a water once, she will do anything in that water complex. Walk, trot, canter through. Jump a bank in, jump a bank out. Once she gets her feet wet the first time, she’s game for anything. It’s only getting her in initially that’s the issue.

Wondering if anyone else has had a horse who had a similar dislike for water, and did it ever get better? At this point I’ve never been able to complete a HT with her (after several attempts) and I’m starting to think maybe she’s just not going to be an eventer and I should move on. But with so many other things to like about her, I hate to give up too soon.

[PrinceSheik325]

I can completely empathize. My 7 year old OTTB has the same problem, though he is usually pretty quick to go into the water after having a stop to look at it. I’ve ridden in a bunch of clinics this past year, and the best advice I received was about 30 yards out from the water, bring him back to a trot from a canter. About 20 yards out, slow that trot to an active sitting trot. About 10 yards out, speed up the trot into the water. This technique seems to work for my guy. It gives him the time he needs to see the water and once I’ve given him the chance to see it, I get him back to business before he has time to stop.

Another thought…you can “school” the water while on course in a horse trials. I’m not sure I would try this at a recognized event, but at a starter trials, you can let your mare go through the water first a different way (without crossing your path) before presenting the obstacle to her in the show.

[JER]

Have you tried getting her legs wet before she goes in water? All it takes is a hose.

Some horses don’t like the initial wet sensation on their legs. (My dog feels this way about wet grass.) But if you hose or sponge down their legs first with water, they don’t experience that same initial discomfort.

Ultimately, you might decide she’s not suited to eventing. Better to realize this sooner rather than later.

Good luck.

[LadyB]

Its all about confidence building. No point even trying to canter or trot in at all until you can successfully walk in without any stress added to it.

Your goal should be to just walk in. Every time. It will be a fight, but it needs to become boring for her.

My gelding was a piece of work, he hated puddles too! He now leaps into water without second guessing, he’s soooo willing, but it didn’t happen over night, and he wasn’t born bold.

We did a lot of off property schooling with water complexes. Walked in, walk around, walked through. All at the walk, to make it very boring. Once he became good with that, you add some trot. Walk in, trot out. Trot through. Its a long lesson but all about building confidence.

Building the confidence now will make life so much easier in the long term. I used to think I need to canter through at the first try, and if I couldn’t, I would never get through at an event. It was the most magical lesson to learn. Teach them easily and quietly at a pace that works for them to build their confidence and they’ll give you the universe.

You need to have all the time in the world. If you feel like you don’t have time, then don’t go that day. It needs to be stress free and easy.

Have fun!

[TBEventer439]

Thanks for the suggestions! I will definitely try getting her legs wet first, I have not done that. And I guess I need to accept that we will not be doing any showing anytime soon… just lots of schooling. While taking our time

[LadyB]

Isn’t water an option at BN? If it is, then you can still go out, and just go around the water… depending on the event. Usually here in Ontario the water is an option, you can go through it or around it.

If you know of events that offer this, then I would go to those ones until she is confident.

[beowulf]

[QUOTE=JER;8310340]
Have you tried getting her legs wet before she goes in water? All it takes is a hose.

Some horses don’t like the initial wet sensation on their legs. (My dog feels this way about wet grass.) But if you hose or sponge down their legs first with water, they don’t experience that same initial discomfort.

Ultimately, you might decide she’s not suited to eventing. Better to realize this sooner rather than later.

Good luck.[/QUOTE]

^ Try hosing her down before a school. You’d be surprised - they’re already wet, so it’s NBD for some.

Conversely, got any big bodies of water near you, and a friend with a calm horse? Any lake will do too.

My guy used to be just as bad as yours, it was all about confidence. He wasn’t 100% sure that the water was okay - it was actually a problem once we got to Training.

Well, I got sick of the frustration from a little stupid water complex and a couple times a week I’d ride him over to the lake and actually make him swim - like, swim as in only the head above the water and his ears getting wet… apparently once a horse learns he can swim and not drown a puddle isn’t a big deal anymore… or at least with him. And ocean will work just as well.

As I hope you know, horses have a hard time perceiving depth. It’s not that they want to be disobedient, it’s that the depth of a puddle looks the same as the depth of the ocean to a horse… so they have to put a lot of faith in you as their pilot to lead them through what looks like a black hole oblivion on the ground.

Also, are you only schooling water during XC schooling? Stop that. Any time I can I canter through any water I can find, be it a puddle from rain, a puddle from me leaving the hose on overnight (hey, “free” water complex!), a stream, etc. Don’t just limit it to schooling XC because I think a lot of people don’t realize how horses connect things… if you’re just schooling in XC they may see a complex and know there’s jumps but not know their job is to go through the water A to B (think like an in-and-out) - treat the water like it’s from point A to B any time you see it and they follow suit.

[FLeventer]

I have a mare who doesn’t like the water complex. Actually she will leap the large water crossing if she can (A lot of times she gets pretty far actually. It can be entertaining).

She would not go through water. Tried leads, lunging, walking her through, backing her in, hunter paces with streams in a group/crowd, and everything else in between. It did not work.

I was at the end of my rope with this one. I have brought up a LOT of horses and introduced them to water. She was my only problem horse for over a year.

So I took drastic measures. I have a pond which is two feet deep and easy to get in/out. I set up a stall in the pond with corral panels and placed a feed tub in the stall. You want food? Go in the water stall (which has an open gate for her to leave whenever she would like).

The first two days were hell. She lost her mind and threw tantrums just being led into the stall. This is pretty expected/normal. Day three was better, followed by a few more good days. So I decided to try my luck at riding through the water.

Wouldn’t you know it she goes through the water with no issues. She drops in/jumps out/jumps small fences in water. No more water issue. It was a bit drastic, but it worked.

[beowulf]

@FLeventer;8310609

I have a mare who doesn’t like the water complex. Actually she will leap the large water crossing if she can (A lot of times she gets pretty far actually. It can be entertaining).

I’m 90% positive the reason a local recognized event did away with their brook/stream water crossing was because my horse (among some others) never got their feet wet over it… And it was an 9 foot wide brook… It ended up being a spot where photographers would set camp because it was a guaranteed photo-purchase given the entertainment value of the pictures and the “OH SHIP” looks from riders as their horses just plumb sailed over it… :lol:

[Heinz_57]

This may seem like an odd approach, but is she food/treat motivated?

I had a horse that seemed truly confused by water complexes; he wasn’t being naughty or throwing a tantrum (unless you tried to force it), he just didn’t seem to get it and once I got him near the edge, would just stand there like a donkey refusing to move. I knew he was OK with water, liked to play in puddles and would happily splash in his water tub. I stuffed my pockets full of treats and rewarded him every time he went forward towards the water complex (and, eventually, in it). As soon as he got his front feet in, he froze again. Altogether it took maybe 15 minutes, lots of cookies each time he moved further in, and by the end of the ride he was trotting in and out and digging the whole food-for-praise motivator. Now, he willingly marches right into water, even the scary crashing waves at the beach (a whole 'nother kind of water monster!).

No amount of persistence with the ‘traditional’ approach was going to work for him, and trying to push him in was only going to push him over the edge of sanity into hissy fit territory. It’s OK if it takes forever; you might have to rinse and repeat the process quite a bit to cut down the amount of time it takes to get in.

[enjoytheride]

Send her to a cowboy type trainer who does lots of trail riding, what you have is a basic disobedience to the leg problem that has developed into an issue. And when she comes back take her trail riding a lot.

My new mare came with a “doesn’t do water” warning. A couple months after I got her I took her on a 6 mile trail ride with 14 water crossings including 1/4 mile in a creek. She started out rearing up and down on one side while her friend left her in the dust, to cautiously following her friend, to going in ahead of her friend, to not really caring.

Locally water is not an option at BN even at schooling trials.

[Hilary]

Lots of good answers here - I used the getting the legs wet first with my silly spooky mare and it worked! Then she had a season where it rained EVERY. SINGLE. TIME she competed so she was just wet in general and water didn’t bother her.

I had a gelding who was a XC machine until he stepped on himself jumping off a bank into water. After that, if it was a new complex he would not jump off the bank, He would go in on a slope and once he’d done that he’d jump off/over anything and he never forgot a venue, but I had to be careful taking him new places so we could be sure to pass through before jumping in.

It is legal, but it’s sort of frowned upon by officials. His logic, of course, was flawed, since just because the pass through was fine, didn’t mean he wasn’t going to land funny or hit himself again jumping down in… or that the next time things hadn’t gone to pot, but once I knew what was going on in his mind, I worked around it.

[TBEventer439]

Unfortunately, treats do not seem to motivate her whatsoever. I have tried that a couple of times.

There is not an option for water at any of the schooling horse trials near me.

I will look into going trail riding somewhere with a water crossing or two. She likes trail riding so that may be helpful. My problem is further complicated by the fact that I do not own my own truck and trailer. That’s just not in the cards or budget at the moment. Otherwise I’d be out somewhere going through water every weekend.

Thanks again everyone for your suggestions!

[LadyB]

[QUOTE=Hilary;8310937]

I had a gelding who was a XC machine until he stepped on himself jumping off a bank into water. After that, if it was a new complex he would not jump off the bank, He would go in on a slope and once he’d done that he’d jump off/over anything and he never forgot a venue, but I had to be careful taking him new places so we could be sure to pass through before jumping in.

It is legal, but it’s sort of frowned upon by officials. His logic, of course, was flawed, since just because the pass through was fine, didn’t mean he wasn’t going to land funny or hit himself again jumping down in… or that the next time things hadn’t gone to pot, but once I knew what was going on in his mind, I worked around it.[/QUOTE]

When I first upgraded to training, I would ask the TD if we could take this route in, and then circle back to the jump into the water. Most are okay with it. It really helped to teach them to jump in and be confident on the landing.