Slowing a rushy horse and softening a hard mouth

[BaronsQH]

I am looking for some guidance on a couple issues I haven’t dealt with in a long time. My last horse I owned for almost 8 years and raised from a foal, she was very lazy and I was always working to drive her forwards, but she was extremely well broke and I could literally ride her off seat & leg alone.

I purchased an unbroke 4 year old in June, did a ton of groundwork with her for the first 2 months and started her under saddle late in the summer. I don’t have much history on this horse, I purchased her from a girl who said she was helping out a friend sell some horses (but now found out she is a self-admitted horse flipper). My new mare was hardly halter broke when I got her, hard to catch, touchy around her back end, and extremely head shy. We are still working on the head shy issue, but she’s now much more relaxed with handling and definitely more trusting. She is a spooky horse, and very sensitive, basically the polar opposite of my last mare. She has a good heart, has not once offered to buck or rear throughout her training, and I really trust her, despite her sometimes nervous tendencies. In October, I moved her from a boarding barn with 35 horses, to my acreage. She was not at all happy alone, so I ended up quickly purchasing a second 13 year old horse mostly as a companion, but also as a second horse for my friends/family to ride. The second horse is definitely the boss mare, and my first horse has become her shadow. Second horse was owned by a very novice rider the past 6 years, and at one point was well trained, but hasn’t had anything serious asked of her for 6 years

So that’s the background, and now for the questions!

When I take the first mare out, she is constantly jigging, trying to speed up and turn back home, to get to her new BFF. If she breaks into a trot, I either half halt her back to a walk or circle/disengage hindquarters. She is very compliant, but a few seconds later she will try again. If I do ask her to trot, she speeds up and wants to rush into a lope right away. I never let her pick the speed but it’s frustrating constantly circling to try and slow her down. She doesn’t seem to ever get tired either. On the way back home she will settle into a fast walk, but as soon as I ask for a trot, it instantly turns into a rushy, strung out effort to lope. There was one time I asked her to lope, let her go and we went for about 3 miles before she started to show any sign of tiring. So far I’ve been focusing on lots of transitions, changing directions, and doing everything I can to keep her busy and responsive, which works when we’re on a circle, but I really struggle with our straight lines at the trot and don’t know what I should be doing differently.

Horse #2 is also a very energetic mare, she is not as herd bound, but also always wants to rush forwards into the lope. Her mouth is so hard from the previous owners riding, and she did not know how to disengage hindquarters or bend to a stop when I first got her, so that was the first thing we focused on. I can now get her to whoa from a walk just using my seat, but any faster than that there’s no chance. She doesn’t know what a half halt is, and braces against the bit like she thinks I’m going to haul on her to slow down. She is out of shape but has a ton of energy and surprising stamina. What is the best way to soften her mouth and become more responsive to my seat at the trot/lope?

Thanks in advance… Sorry this got so long, I’m basically alone in my riding endeavours so don’t have anyone to talk to about my issues!

[Melissa.Van_Doren]

You’ll just need to spend time with these girls. Frustration is a natural reaction when things aren’t going as planned, but as a trainer you have to learn to squash it back down and replace it with calm assertiveness.

Horses need tens of thousands of repetitions to really learn something fully. You’ve only just begun. I would keep my rides to 2 hours or less right now and JUST walk, so the horses learn that trails mean relaxation. After walking is “normal”, you can begin to add short periods of faster work.

Re-training always takes longer than training from the beginning. Right now, you’re un-installing stuff you don’t want. It’ll go most quickly if you go slow. And keep your emotions in check. :yes:

ETA: Out-of-shape horses are almost always heavy in the hand. They need to improve fitness and the balance that goes with it before they can be light. Again, patience and slow, steady work to improve strength and responsiveness.

And because we all have different ideas of time…
With horses behaving as you have described, it has taken me anywhere from 6 months to 2 years to produce really nice trail companions. Depends on the horse.

[katyb]

With horse #2, I’d try riding her bitless for a bit and see how that goes. Horse #1, it’s awfully early days to expect more than you’re getting, given her history.

[cloudy18]

Not a trainer, not even close…you get what you pay for. The jigging horse is likely going to be the tough one to fix. It’s a horrible habit, and tough to fix. If she will walk home, not jig, let her walk even if it’s fast. If she jigs or trots, do what you’ve been doing to get her to walk. Make sure you are sitting in that saddle and "walking"with your seat to encourage a walk.

If you have a friend, you can bring both horses out, work the heck out of them when they are near each other, rest when they are apart. You can also ride horse #1 away from home a short ways, return, work her near horse #2, repeat till you want to scream. Just ride away a short distance to start, and increase as she gets better about returning at a walk.

For horse #2, I’ll just tell you what I’ve been doing at lessons with my green mare. Snaffle bit only, no shanks. Start at the walk and then you can move up to trot, etc. If you are riding in a field vs arena, pretend you have corners. Or do this anywhere you have room. Shorten inside rein and bring hand towards withers, roll wrist so thumb is up. You just want horse to bend head so you just see the eye. Do half halts with outside rein while you lightly bump with inside leg in time with the half halts, and circle. Release when horse softens neck/head. Ride straight for a bit, repeat circles. If she is bracing and rushing, continue circling until you get her to soften, even just a little, and release and ride straight. I wouldn’t lope for awhile, not until you have made a lot of progress at the walk and trot and can reliably stop at those gaits.

[Shermy]

Do you use both reins when asking to slow down? You had said she braces against the bit, if so, I would only use one rein to down shift.

Do you know the one way stop? I rarely use it, but know it is there in case I need to shut down the horse, but you can just use one rein to disengage the front. I need to barely use one rein to down shift, but like all else, it takes time.

Does that make sense?

[Guilherme]

The best way to deal with a “rushy” horse is to go back to the ground and fill the holes in their groundwork training.

There are all sorts of ways to approach this (long lining, long line longing, short line longing, round pen, etc.). But putting a “stop” on a horse on the ground you stay out of the mouth and that prevents problems later.

Oh, and ask me how I know this works!

This can be accomplished from the saddle but requires a confident, skilled rider who also understands the difference between “training riding” and “riding.”

G.

[Halcyon_Days]

excellent suggestions so far, and I ditto all of them. Have you considered a supplement for your first horse to help with the anxiety? I’ve had great results with SmartPak’s Smart Calm, or SmartCalm Ultra, or a magnesium supplement. I would stick with just walk and easy trot, or just walking if trotting turns into mess, hills are great–any other riders in your area that you can join up with at times? You can also get off and lead for a while when she gets super stressed and is starting to short circuit, maybe even have a few carrots as a snack, make it a fun outing and bonding experience. Sometimes taking a dog can really help, if the dog will run “point” it can give some horses a lot of confidence. With the second mare, I’d try something totally different–say a bosal, hackamore or maybe a combo bit (myler, mikmar) to work around her preconceived ideas of how to brace or respond to the bit, or even work her in a rope halter for a bit, do some natural horsemanship–clinics are great to get a jump start on your training in the winter months

[dog_amp_horsemom]

Clinton Anderson has some exercises that are good for your problems - one is the crusing lesson - another one is circling a tree about three times and then trotting to the next tree and circle three times. He has some good trail riding tapes addressing barn sour, buddy sour. if they want to rush to the barn - when you get to the barn work the hell out of her and then offer her to walk calmly on the trail - so that she associates the barn with lots of work and she might not be in a hurry to get back.
The ‘hard mouth’ - he has a flexing exercise that really helps because the hard mouth is just a symptom of a cause.
You can probably google some of the above on you tube and get an idea of what to do.
It takes lots of repetitions to phase out the bad behavior and rewarding the new good behavior. I enjoy helping horses that have had a bad start in life - but it does take patience and confidence!

[Palm_Beach]

[QUOTE=Guilherme;8457938]
The best way to deal with a “rushy” horse is to go back to the ground and fill the holes in their groundwork training.

There are all sorts of ways to approach this (long lining, long line longing, short line longing, round pen, etc.). But putting a “stop” on a horse on the ground you stay out of the mouth and that prevents problems later.

Oh, and ask me how I know this works!

This can be accomplished from the saddle but requires a confident, skilled rider who also understands the difference between “training riding” and “riding.”

G.[/QUOTE]

Agree with G. The easiest and safest way to fix the problems is on the ground. It does not sound like either horse does the basic ground work exercises reliably. I’d also tie both girls up on a daily basis - and then start separating them once they tie reliably. When you only have 2 horses, they get attached really quick and separation anxiety gets magnified x1000.

[Foxtrot_s]

Horses can pull extremely hard, yet when they want their mouths can be soft as butter. Patience, lots of it, and lots of time. My TB mare was competitive and very forward and it took literally thousands of half halts to get her not to be so rushy. But it worked…not on the reins, using the body and lifting your hands. And not letting her act like this at all…nip everything in the bud. Use the good tips provided here.

An equal whoa and equal go are precious things indeed. When opt in a gait, aim to have the horse stay there until asked to change. None of this going down a slope at a walk and then trotting up the other side and then walking again. Sort of a good housekeeping way of working.

Go with one rider, then two and then three, and go in front, the middle and the back, etc.

The young one is only four and needs time to learn.

[magentagiraffe]

First make sure she isn’t in pain. Check teeth, saddle fit, etc.

Next make her work. Give her a job. Make her think about you and every step instead of whatever is going in in that head of hers? Shoulder in/out, haunches in out, etc. GENTLY flex her head to one side then the other if she braces. Lots and lots of transitions both within and between the gaits. I think it boils down to hours in the saddle.