the trained, mature horse and those first few rides out = jigging

[pintopiaffe]

:sigh:

The horse in question is a mature, sensible, generally just-shy-of-lazy guy. Working well in 3rd level. I can get on him after time off with a halter and single lead rope and plod around the pasture just fine. Rider has 30+ years, including thousands of trail hours on a working/dude ranch, plus the whole stressaghe thing, starting babies etc.

On the road we have a deal, he walks in a nice, loose forward walk with his head down, he gets the buckle.

BUT, those first few rides of the year up the road… starting conditioning… as soon as we turn for home, he starts jigging.

I’ve tried halting, wait 'till he takes a breath, walking as many (few) steps at the walk, halting again. “Forgetting my hat” and turning back the way we came. I have yet to have that work. EVERY time we turn back = jig.

I’ve tried putting him into lateral work. That works–until we straighten. :sigh: I can’t do lateral work all the way home–it’s the first few rides this is an issue, and he’s not in any sort of condition/shape to be doing something that hard. It would be begging for injury.

I understand it’s a form of barn sour. I also understand if he’s on my aids, he can’t jig. I can’t GET him on my aids when he hollows his back and jigs. That vicious cycle.

It’s not the saddle… today we were bareback. It’s not weakness going downhill–he does it on the flat too. He’s not sore. He’s been on 24/7 turnout and while he’s been off since November, I’m not asking too much. (a mile or so/20-25 minutes walking to start.)

It’s plain old “I want home now and I’m fresh.”

Looking for new ideas. Inevitably I get on his mouth too much, or worse–really use my seat/back and sometimes that ends up in a pop-up (more like a capriole than a rear–he goes up AND forward, no chance of going over, it’s a sunfish leap thing he’s always done if you box him up too tightly) or… just get frustrated. I try to channel Old Fat Nuno and that helps, but doesn’t solve…

I could get off and walk home, but that seems like it would be a reward. In fact, I use walking home as a conditioning thing for ME, but I don’t feel like I can get off if he’s doing it–reinforcement of the jigging, ya know?

In a few weeks he’ll be his normal, sane self and I’ll forget about this until the next big time off. And it’ll happen again. I’d love some tools to try to save my sanity and his soundness/condition/correct muscles…

[coloredhorse]

Honestly, if anyone has the answer to this I’d love to hear it! :lol::lol::lol:

I’ve started doing some light roadwork on my competition mare, who’s been out of work for a while healing an SI injury. I only have two horses here, so we definitely are always fighting the buddy-sour thing. My gal jigs and hollers (charming and ladylike thing that she is :rolleyes:) both the first 50 yards or so out and on the way back.

Pre-time off, I could take her out easily. I know that time and routine will take care of it. But it’s damn irritating. Until she regains X amount of fitness, I can’t do lateral work with her, though I know that works. Wanna jig? OK, well try jigging in shoulder-in! A few repititions of that would fix her little red wagon, but that’s not a venue that’s open to me. I see that isn’t the fix for your guy, so I have zero answers for you pp. But lots of sympathy! :no:

[twofatponies]

Mine too! We were doing super last summer and fall. She would walk home last while everyone else trotted ahead. No problem. But we did two rides this week and boy oh boy she started with the rushing and pulling about 1/2 mile from home the first time. At least the second time she only started it about 1/4 mile from home. I just keep the reminders going - as long as she walks she gets a loose rein. If she speeds up, I slow her down, then drop the reins. She speeds up, I slow her down, then drop the reins… It’s irritating, but I think given the progress on two rides she’ll go back to pleasant with a few more practice rides. My husband’s horse didn’t “backslide” in her training for some reason - but mine did!

[willowmeadow]

walking

I do exactly what two ponies does. As long as my mare is walking she gets a loose rein. She can walk as fast as she wants, but can’t break gait. It takes a few reminders each Spring, but really works with my mare.

[Tiffani_B]

Reward the horse for walking, of course. Loose rein, treats upon arrival, etc.

When he doesn’t walk home politely, he gets to work when he gets home. Actual hard work. Kinda makes him not in so much of a hurry to get home.

Actually, I always work a horse when we get back from riding out. At least 15 more minutes, longer if the ride was light or he misbehaved. It seems to give him the mindset that getting home isn’t that big of a deal.

[tpup]

Jigging = immediate one rein stop, and yield HQ and turn him around and around a good 10 times until he is dizzy! Use your leg back far behind girth to turn him but keep hand firmly on hip in ORS position. When he’s tired of turning, ask for forward walk again. If he jigs, ORS and do it again.

If you don’t like yielding the HQ or using the ORS, and your horse will back, then I would halt and back him up a GOOD 100 yards. Stop on YOUR terms. Ask for forward. If he jigs, stop, back him up and do it again. Back him until he softens (gives to bit, head comes down).

If you are not on a road and in a place you can do it, the best thing to do is put him to work, a.e. trot small circles - hustle his feet fast. Then ask for forward. A nice, quiet walk is his reward. When he does the right thing, leave him alone. Nice walk on the buckle. If he starts jigging, put him to work.

Good luck!

[gothedistance]

I’ve had several jiggers over the past million years. Gad! What a misery. :no: In my book a jigger is a jigger is a jigger…forever.

BUT… I’ll share what I did to help alleviate the jigging and change it to an (admittedly rapid) walk. As long as it was flat footed, I didn’t bother correcting. But…it had to be flat footed.

1. When you turn for home, don’t walk. Trot. A good working trot is fine.
2. When you get within a mile, ask for a halt, ask for them to stand, and immediately dismount taking your time to slide to the ground. Stand there for a few minutes, fiddling with tack. Loosen the girth, pat their face. Make the horse wait for at least a full minute. And then hand walk, pausing now and then to check tack again, pat again, offer a mouthful of grass, whatever.
3. About 1/2 mile from home, mount up again, and ask for a slow trot. Go about 100 feet, and stop again. Dismount, fiddle around, whatever.
4. About 1/4 mile from home, mount up again, and just cluck softly. Don’t use your legs or hands. Let the horse just walk. If it goes faster into a jig, USE YOUR VOICE COMMAND to stop again, dismount, fiddle with tack, MAKE THE HORSE WAIT. Offer a treat or a bit of grass. Anything that will take the mind away from racing home. Stroll a few feet down the road, stop and mount up again taking your grand old time. If the horse starts to move forward, use your voice to tell it to stop again, and do a sloooowww slide dismount off. Check your watch, let 30 seconds go by as you quietly pat the horse. You want the head and neck to drop down. Wwhen that happens, the horse is no longer thinking of rushing home.
5. Do a slow, casual mount. Sit and check your tack, snuggle your butt in the saddle, kind of give a big, long loud sigh. Then cluck softly. Don’t use your legs or hands. Let the horse just walk forward - loose rein. If it goes at a flat footed walk, pet the neck and just stay relaxed. If the horse starts to faster out of the walk, stop again, do a slow dismount, fiddle with tack, MAKE THE HORSE WAIT.

What you are doing is breaking the cycle of the horse’s mind ramping itself into the “rush mode”. Anything you do from the saddle will only exasperate the issue. You HAVE to get on the ground, and you HAVE to see that the horse stops moving its feet. The “stand still” mode shuts down the “jig” mode.

This isn’t something that can be fixed in a day. In some cases it takes years.

But the above method does work! Guaranteed. :yes: Just remember – with a jigger you should never make walking a fight. You won’t win.

[pines4equines]

Hay

I might have an answer here!!!

You say your horse jigs on his way home? But just on the way home? Well, as soon as he stiffens to even start the jig, turn him around and trot away from home at a very brisk pace. Trot him until you feel him give up. You know a sort of suck back kind of feeling. Then, turn and head home. Again as soon as he even makes an up tempo step to trot/jig, turn and trot away from home as fast as you can. Trot, not canter. Then when you feel the give up turn and head home.

I had to do this with my guy repeatedly and sometimes these days I have to repeat the exercise but really my horse is pretty steadfast in regards to walking home. He won’t jig going home because he knows, we’ll head back out as fast as can be.

If you’re consistent that EVERY time he jigs heading home, you head him back out at a brisk trot, you’ll solve the problem.

Another bit, this exercise might take an hour the first time. My suggestion is to take a ten minute ride, then start your training session heading home otherwise this exercise can wear you out (if you’re older like me). Don’t ride for two hours and then start the session. It’s too exhausting and you’ll loose patience. Importantly, don’t loose patience. Just do this exercise as your training session for the day and keep doing it until your horse walks home the entire way.

My poor guy would just do a little bump up to try to trot/jig and then we’d turn and go away at a brisk trot. NOw, he plods along just like I like it. Don’t even allow a little bump up or hop with excitement. That’s an excuse to turn away from the barn and GO!

Good luck!

[texang73]

Lots and lots of small, proper circles both directions or small serpentines until he stops… wash rinse repeat if he jigs again… Boring, I know, but that and patience helps my guy alot!

[Icecapade]

I use a verbration… yes a verbration… don’t ask thats just what we call it…

it isn’t a see saw motion… I guess (I know you from the dressage forumn obivously) the best way to describe it… is keeping the bit alive.

I hold one rein steady… massage the other one in a circle… switch… hold the other rein steady, massage opposite rein.

It helps to have a steady eddie to pace off of as well. But it boils down to whatever trick you use, serpintines going back out one rein stop… be consistent with it.

I don’t like turning around, its annoying I want to go home, we are done… I want to continue forward movement, but not at all costs… so I tend to do that method because usually they will come down from the said nasty jigging.

MAIN MAIN MAIN MAIN MAINEST POINT!!! be consistent! thats really the key. =D

[pintopiaffe]

Thanks for the ideas so far. Not to make excuses or be argumentative–but I’m pretty darn limited because of weather…

No trotting possible, though I get the theory of trotting away briskly, and I think he’d click in to that one pretty darn fast, but my ONLY option is pavement.

I suspect the next ride out (might be this week, might not–I hate the inconsistency, but ICE on pavement is deadly, and windchill/standing air must be at least double digits above zero. I’ll ride at a nice sunny calm 13 degrees, but this 10 below windchill stuff is ridiculous. :uhoh: :no: ) I simply will have to take the time it takes.

He does know “wait.” When he was young and green we spent an entire winter learning halt, drop rein, breathe, wait. It was all we could do, which was wonderful.

The more we get out, the faster the problem resolves on it’s own. It’s just so annoying right now. The way out yesterday was sheer bliss, first ride on this year. Sun, blue sky, fluffy pony… It was SUCH a short ride, but even so, turn for home and his wee leetle brain leaked out his wee curvy leetle ears. :sigh: :lol:

No ringwork before or after, no ring to be found. It’s under about 5’ of snowpack. I don’t imagine I’ll see my schooling area fit to school in until at least June at this rate. Trust me, I’d RATHER be schooling.

[chicamuxen1]

Hah, the jigging thing can be sooooo hard to figure out. I had a fit endurance mare suddenly start jigging in that last mile. I tried everything. I spend a couple of extra hours riding away from home, circling, rewarding, yadda yadda yadda. Then I hit on it.

Walking, it has it’s own rhythm, and when the horse is relaxed and walking well, their head nods up and down and if you are keeping a light rein contact you follow that motion with your hands, forward, back, forward. Your hips follow the swing in their back that they get with a free, long, forward walk, left, right, left. Horses don’t jig with their heads down and nose poked out. They sort of bunch up and their head comes up. they get in a jigging rhythm. You have to break that rhythm and ask the horse to lower it’s head, swing it’s back, follow with your hands, establish the walking rhythm. The moment the jig starts I bump the horse out of it with my seat, don’t unconsciously follow it with your seat, bump them, bump them into a closed hand then lower their head and push your WALKING rhythm to them. You have to have them trained to lower the head and reach forward and down to the bit. When they start the jig, it may help to turn away from home to establish the walk rhythm with head down and good back swing then turn back and really emphasize the whole swing and reach down, bump once the fisrt step that is wrong and then go for the long and low again. Oh, stop and graze, walk a couple of steps with head down, graze, swing those hips!

Once I caught on to this it worked fast the jigging just went away. It helps that I ride alongside a nice grass field that last bit home. That bump isn’t a rein jerk, it’s a disruption of the horses jigging zone, jigging rhythm. It’s an uncomfortable step with an offer of comfort and relaxation when the head lowers and you follow with your hands.

Experiment with it.

Bonnie S.

[Icecapade]

[QUOTE=chicamuxen1;3869772]
Hah, the jigging thing can be sooooo hard to figure out. I had a fit endurance mare suddenly start jigging in that last mile. I tried everything. I spend a couple of extra hours riding away from home, circling, rewarding, yadda yadda yadda. Then I hit on it.

Walking, it has it’s own rhythm, and when the horse is relaxed and walking well, their head nods up and down and if you are keeping a light rein contact you follow that motion with your hands, forward, back, forward. Your hips follow the swing in their back that they get with a free, long, forward walk, left, right, left. Horses don’t jig with their heads down and nose poked out. They sort of bunch up and their head comes up. they get in a jigging rhythm. You have to break that rhythm and ask the horse to lower it’s head, swing it’s back, follow with your hands, establish the walking rhythm. The moment the jig starts I bump the horse out of it with my seat, don’t unconsciously follow it with your seat, bump them, bump them into a closed hand then lower their head and push your WALKING rhythm to them. You have to have them trained to lower the head and reach forward and down to the bit. When they start the jig, it may help to turn away from home to establish the walk rhythm with head down and good back swing then turn back and really emphasize the whole swing and reach down, bump once the fisrt step that is wrong and then go for the long and low again. Oh, stop and graze, walk a couple of steps with head down, graze, swing those hips!

Once I caught on to this it worked fast the jigging just went away. It helps that I ride alongside a nice grass field that last bit home. That bump isn’t a rein jerk, it’s a disruption of the horses jigging zone, jigging rhythm. It’s an uncomfortable step with an offer of comfort and relaxation when the head lowers and you follow with your hands.

Experiment with it.

Bonnie S.[/QUOTE]

funny you mention this- my old trainer used to have horses in big hackamores (braided ones- bosals technically are the refined version of such) with the heavy cotton rein and a mecate tail… the little tail off the end of the hackamore would swing side to side if they were balanced 50/50 if they listed forward on their forhand it would swing forward smacking them face and then jaw…

horses figured out VERY quickly how to make it work. similar idea.

good call Bonnie!

[Shadowsrider]

@pintopiaffe;3867700

I could get off and walk home, but that seems like it would be a reward. In fact, I use walking home as a conditioning thing for ME, but I don’t feel like I can get off if he’s doing it–reinforcement of the jigging, ya know?

First off, I don’t agree with this as a sweeping statement. And while many times, work from the saddle is best, there are times, I think, when getting off and walking is EXACTLY what often helps. In fact, get off and stand around a bit. Sit down and watch the clouds go by.

Jigging is probably one of the most difficult things to stop. However, here are some thoughts:

The entire reason your horse is jigging at that point is because he wants to get home FASTER, right? He honestly doesn’t care whether or not you are ON him, he just wants to get home FASTER. So…if you get off and walk, isn’t that taking LONGER? In fact, if you get off and stand around a bit, and mosey here and there, and what not, then won’t that take even more time? One has to break down what the problem is to it’s bottom line, in order to get the result you want. Is it you being on his back that he is arguing about, or is it how FAST he’s going (or not going, as the case may be?) Horses are very concrete thinkers. When they are focused on one thought, that’s all that matters, really. We are the ones that add to that and project other details onto it. Bottom line is, he wants to run home. If you make him walk, it does not matter how you do it. Getting off is not losing the fight…it’s making him walk without jigging. That’s all he’s going to remember, along with how LONG it took to get home with you OUT of the saddle.

Same thing with going forward, for those that have that problem. The bottom is that he doesn’t want to go there…so you make him go there…that’s the important thing. Not whether or not your butt is in the saddle.

Now, like I said, I also believe there are several things that can be done from the saddle to help, BUT…occasionally, depending on the horse and rider, getting off and lollygagging around each time he jigs, especially with an older horse who knows better, often does the trick. :winkgrin:

Now that being said, here is an article that may have some other ideas about working from the saddle that might be helpful…this article is more about a geen horse pulling and boring through the bit and getting out of control rather than a more experienced horse jigging, but it may still have something you can use:

Pulling When Going Home

[pintopiaffe]

srider–what a novel way of putting it. Interesting. Yes, it’s quite true walking on foot will slow him down.

Huh.

[LisaW-B]

Nevermind–I see you’ve been trying “forgetting your hat.” Maybe you simply need to be a lot more forgetful?

[Finn_sMom]

My very very good reliable boy has been doing exactly this. I didn’t realize it was such a common problem. I’m really excited to see everyone’s suggestions - will definitely give them a try. I’ve been worried that getting off and walking would send the wrong message - but we are on a road, and he starts jigging sideways with cars coming, so I am definitely more comfortable getting off and walking. I think the idea of going really slow, lollygagging the whole way might be the ticket!

If I remember from last year, it also solved itself after a few rides - I think he’s just become a bit barn sour from being iced in for a couple of months.

[ponygrl25]

My new girl is doing the jigging thing. She was off for 2+ years following founder and white line disease (including hoof reconstruction). When I got her the end of last summer I just worked on finding the right bit and saddle. She is also my first gaited horse and thank goodness she is patient with me. She WANTS to go ride and gets pissy if I ride anybody else. We are great the first part of the ride, long rein and swingy walk, but as soon as I let her gait out a bit that’s all she wants to do.I can bring her back with some circles and bending, but when we turn up the driveway she gets very antsy and no amount of stopping,flexing, backing, or waiting calms her. She will happily turn around and go anywhere, no fuss, and I think she DOESN’T want to go home. Now, she is 22 years old and very out of shape so I can only do a little out here in the mountains. So, how to deal with a horse that IS NOT in a hurry to get home.

[starkissed]

our TB has a tendency to do this, but he is usually ok if we walk, he gets jiggy at a trot.

Usually what I do (and you have to be really patient because you can do it 100x) is when he starts to jig, ask him for a lateral bend of his neck until his nose touches your toe and he stands still. He might not ‘relax’ the first time, so do it a few times on either side and allow him to walk off again. He may only take 3 steps of normal walk until he starts to jog, then just bend his neck until he stands and relaxes.

repeat a bunch. Usually this works pretty well

[pintopiaffe]

If I remember from last year, it also solved itself after a few rides - I think he’s just become a bit barn sour from being iced in for a couple of months.

:yes: <knocking wood madly> my guy has been back to his usual, saintly self the last 3x out. I think he’s figured out it’s ‘back to work.’

Considering this, next time it happens, I’m getting off.