Hi, I have read countless blogs, articles, watched videos, etc over the years regarding how to handle horses that rush their fences. I’m actually pretty good at the anxious/worried/rushy horses. Right now, I have the absolute opposite problem. I have a young horse who is just plain lazy. Yes, she’s been thoroughly vetted and she’s just kind of this way in general. She’s relaxed (unless spooking lol), and kind of likes to take her time whether during hacking / training or just walking through the barns. She has talent over fences and is pretty game. But, she’s just as slow when schooling over fences. I’m looking for ways to get her to come to the fences with more energy, because otherwise she tends to just peter out and want to just jump up, clear it, and trot off LOL. She doesn’t run out, or refuse, but I don’t like this habit and as fences get higher later it will be an issue. Just keeping leg on doesn’t have much effect. Any suggestions for waking up a lazy horse and getting them to canter forward to the fences?
This isn’t a jumping problem, this is a flatwork problem. If your horse doesn’t move off the leg when [walking/trotting/cantering/jumping/chasing geese/fleeing from dinosaurs] your horse isn’t schooled to your leg. Go back to this on the flat until your leg aid is applied once and respected immediately. A horse who makes you ask twice will make you ask a third time, and will keep making you ask. You set the tempo, but the constant motion of the hind legs is the horse’s responsibility to maintain.
Lots of transitions to get the horse in front of the leg. Might help to do your flatwork in a big field. Gets them a little more motivated.
This. Starts before you even get on, make sure the horse is walking forward by you when you’re leading her. If you stop she stops, when you move your feet she does too. Then when you get on make her march right away as you’re warming up.
I agree it’s not a jumping problem. This is the toughest horse I’ve ever worked with in terms of getting in front of the leg. I have tried everything I know and things I never thought I’d try lol. In fact one reason I introduced some jumping at this point was because sometimes that perks them up and helps keep them interested. She likes it fine, LOL, but hasn’t had that effect. I continue to address the flatwork every day. I’ve never had to ride so assertively in my life! But she’s a testy one! I’ve learned to give no 2nd chances, ask then make, I skip the “tell” phase lol. I’ve listened to other trainers, watched everything I can, had friends sit on her etc. And I continue to be open to ideas because while it’s improving it’s still a challenge.
Dressage whip. Or consider she, maybe, is just not a fast woman…maybe better suited to something not involving anything more then of a slow canter. I mean, yeah you can make them but if they just aren’t into it, they’ll never be really good at it. Don’t want to get into breed stereotyping but…her ancestry may be full of sedate types. Those occur In all breeds and types but are more common in some then others.
IME 4-5 is a real bad age for sass and backtalk, don’t let her sidetrack you. But this might just be her and a career over fences isn’t the best fit.
I rode a horse that backed off HARD in front of fences if I didn’t lay on my leg and have major contact with the bit. I carried a dressage whip in the arena and squeeze-tap-squeeze-tap-squeeze until I no longer had to reinforced with the whip. I also did tons of flat work in the field where he was much more motivated. Do some hill work if there are any close to you. I read somewhere that hills are great for getting a horse to get them more in front of you leg with having to squeeze and nag with your leg. The hills definitely made a difference in my lazy guy.
Teach her to listen to and respect your leg. When you get on and are wanting her to work (vs going on a trail ride – although you can definitely do work on the trails) always always keep her moving forward. Buckle of the rein doing no work is not an option. If your flatwork starts slow and unmotivated, even at just the walk, you can’t expect a “gear change” when jumping. I have to constantly use my leg. In the walk I have to get mine “bouncy” and moving forward or he is a shuffler… that means left, right, left leg alternating (not kicks, just pressure as he does listen to my leg - it will take time to get yours to a point of respecting the leg like this) and moving him into contact and using himself. It is a big workout to get a horse with a propensity for going slow to use their body. I agree with the hill work as well as ground poles and cavalleti to build her up. If she is weak all over, using herself and staying forward is going to be even more difficult. Sometimes they step up to the plate and understand that this is what you want and sometimes you will always have to put in the extra work.
Send her to someone (like me) who can light up anything.
Seriously though… lots of transitions on the flat with HIGH EXPECTATIONS (I ask, I GET, immediately).
Have you tried cavellettis? Placement and landing rails? Landing rails do wonders for those that tend to stall out over the fence and land in a heap, and can continue all the way to the out of the line to help her understand rhythm. Cavellettis and a well spaced series of poles can take a lot of that work off your plate.
Are you trotting fences or cantering them? How much jumping has she done?
I agree with everyone above, and re-tooling her sensitivity to your requests is absolutely a piece of it. But on the simple side of things, what do you do when she jumps? Do you allow her to land in a heap and trot off? One quick exercise is to ask her to canter (or even gallop) away from the jump. Doesn’t matter if she lands cantering or lands trotting, ask her to canter (or do whatever it takes to keep her cantering) every single time. Most horses quickly realize that they don’t get to quit until they canter and will start landing in the canter and also jumping with more enthusiasm. I’m just going through this now with my 3yo who would be perfectly happy to land trotting every single time we jump, no matter how big and energetically she jumps the jump.
I’ve also used this method very successfully on several horses over the years (young and old). Often times you can “reset” how they approach the jump by addressing how they behave on the back side.
https://horsenetwork.com/2016/04/calibrating-leg-pressure-rich-fellers/
I use this exercise from Rich Fellers on my lazy boy!
My big red homebred was about the same. At 4 is was tough as sass was his red-headed default if pushed out his (very slow) comfort zone. I found keeping him surprised really helped. Lots of roll backs to ground poles and then cavaletti, tiny bounces, etc. Basically all the things the Eq kids were doing, just super low, first trotting then cantering. 10 minutes of that and he’d give ten really good minutes of flat work. We built up his strength from there and as he got stronger he got more willing to “go” (and keep going) though he will always be quiet. Same qualities now that he’s coming 7 are an asset (he’s an amateur hunter). Good luck!
Ahh, I’ve got a very laid back horse too that would totally be lazzzzzy if I let him. I love him to death and he’s going to be perfect for my daughter when she’s big enough, but it is most certainly a TRAINING aspect to get them to sharpen up.
This. I give my horse one chance to respond to my nice soft cue (let’s say I’m asking for a transition from the walk to a trot) and then if he doesn’t immediately do it, he is getting whalloped with the whip. HARD. (Of course, making sure I have no rein contact whatsoever.) I’ll let him lunge forward for a couple strides, ease him up, then ask again. If he does it correctly, he gets to travel along. If he does not, he gets the whip again.
If done correctly, you should only have to correct them HARD a couple times the first time. That’s it. They get the idea. Now, all I have to do is hold up my hand (even without a whip in my hand) and he’s thinking “uh oh, mom’s serious today” and gets back to being responsive immediately to my seat and legs.
And of course, never allow them to carry on after you have used the whip. You only want to allow them to carry on when they’ve correctly responded to your cue, without the need for the whip.
It’s okay to be laid back. It is NOT okay to be lazy.
I know some people don’t like this method … but I had it shown to me when I was taking a few English lessons and it is very effective and has worked very well for him.
My other horse is the total opposite – I never have to ask twice for him to move. He is always ready. And not at all laid back!
I think all the other posters have wonderful advice that I would definitely use if I had a horse like this. One other idea is to get her outside of an arena to jump some small fences either on a cross country field or just out in a pasture. Try to make it more fun for her. My hunter is pretty lazy and he gets even more lazy if we jump a lot in arenas. I’ve found riding and schooling him over fences in an open field can liven him up and make the jump schooling a lot more productive.
I’d also add that stepping back to the responsiveness on the flat will help build fitness, which will absolutely help with that energy in her step. When we got my horse, he had been in a quieter program and was very sluggish to the fences- after a lot of flatwork and strength-building along with working on sensitivity to the leg, he’s much more willing to carry me to the fences. Still needs tons of leg and would prefer to be a lazy lump, but at least he knows when to turn the energy on because he has the fitness to do it!
Putting it delicately how strong a rider are you? What does your trainer say?
Some wonderful insight, feedback, etc. I totally agree with the building fitness, etc. What most folks are saying affirms what I think and have been doing, but I think what I need to continue to do is keep my reactions to her “non reaction” quick, consistent, and firm. She’s come a very long way but has a long way to go. She’s the type who will guaranteed give you as little as you insist upon, so I need to make sure I don’t nag and am clear, firm, and consistent. That’s true for all horses, but especially true for this one.
How strong a rider am I? Delicately? LOL not sure how delicate it is but I’m happy to explain. I’ve been riding for over 35 years and training/starting my own for about 20. I’ve started all breeds and restarted more OTTB than I remember. I’m very experienced working with hot horses, relaxing worried horses, calming reactive horses, etc etc. Had gobs of babies, backed most of them. I’ve had explosive horses that were never handled turn into steady reliable mounts. I have not had a horse this lazy, EVER. I’ve had kind of pokey horses but she’s an interesting combination of lazy and very, very smart. I will totally admit early on I babied her too much before I realized I was actually letting her train me a little bit to nag. When you work with enough hot heads I think you subconsciously train yourself to be pretty quiet with your cues and energy. Again, most of my equine career has been hot horses, sensitive horses, etc. This totally cold minded horse isn’t something I’ve spent much time with, hahaha now I realize WHY I usually don’t own or work with these.
So, here we are and it’s taken me awhile to figure her out. And while she’s coming along, and has come a long way, I still definitely would love to improve her responsiveness.
Someone commented about a quick HARD whip response. I am learning I need to do that with her. It is effective when I do it, and again, that consistency! Early on if I did, she’d buck, but she’s learned that’s unsuccessful LOL. She’s a sweet horse so people watch sometimes and I’m sure they’re thinking I am SO MEAN to that sweet young horse, but the moment you don’t follow through it’s twice as difficult the next time.
So am I experienced? Yes. Have I ever had a horse this lazy? Nope! And, I don’t hope to again, but, I have what I have so I’m going to get her nice and trained… I also believe no matter how long you’ve ridden or trained, or both, there is always something more to learn and always that horse who will be the reason you’re learning it 
An odd wrinkle to this is when you are riding a schoolie. I’ve worked with a local trainer who has some lovely horses, but they can be dull, and the real problem is, the trainer pretty much wants them dull because lots of beginners ride them. If the horse moves off smartly when asked, they can leave a beginner behind.
But what does it teach the beginner if the horse is dull? It teaches them to nag. So you wind up with a lot of intermediate riders who nag their horses, but never really solve the problem.
I always ask before smartening up a schoolie, but most of them are clever enough to recognize riders who know vs. riders who don’t.
I too have a lazy one! Welcome to the club 
I have noticed that the more he warms up, the more self-impulsion he has but it doesn’t seem like that might be the case for your horse. Fitness is definitely key for mine. This summer I moved to a barn where I was able to take him on trails around the farm, work on hill work, and lots of transitions and I believe it helped immensely. I still ride with a dressage whip on occasion when he’s still feeling super lazy (some days are worse than others) and ride with spurs, other days I will just have my dressage whip to make sure he really is going forward off my leg and not just because I have spurs on.
I have done everything with mine as it sounds like you have done. One thing that I am just figuring out now (he is 6), is mine pretty likely has some hind gut ulcers. The laziness despite being pretty fit seems like he just doesn’t want to lift up through his back end and go forward and we are now going the ulcer route since otherwise got a clean bill of health (now on vet #4). He also has this weird spook (he definitely isn’t a spooky horse) which was always thought of him being young, green, and silly, but now I’m thinking its due to his ulcers. I don’t know why I’ve had a bunch of vets look at every part of his body but never suggested it could be due to ulcers until vet #4 looked at him.
I am not implying that your horse has them - just letting you know what I found to be the issue with my young horse and something I wish someone stressed to me about 2 years ago. I would never think my horse would have them until reading more about it - he is a super easy keeper, great coat, overall healthy and happy in a great program on good food, etc., but it is something that I’m learning plays more into things that I previously thought and wanted to share the info with you in hopes that maybe it could be someone’s answer.
