Very forward moving horse

[Arabs4life]

Hello everyone,

I will be new to endurance riding, but have been riding my whole life. I just recently free leased a Arab/Saddlebred mare that has endurance rides under her belt already. 25s and a few 50s. She is great on the ground, impeccable ground manners. The owner, who I love, was very honest and informative about her. Pros and cons. I was told from the get go that she is a very forward moving horse and can be hard to handle sometimes. I rode her before getting her, but in a pasture…she did great. I took her on the trail today, and boy did I find out how forward moving and reactive she is. She is a “feeler” horse and very reactive to the emotions of the other horses around her. My friend’s horse was spooking, not listening and moving forward…which caused her to do the same. Was easy for me to gain control of…but… another rider on the trail got dumped off her horse and the horse bolted…my girl reacted big time. She was spinning around trying to get her head from me, put her nose all the way to the ground and was backing up because I would not allow her to go forward, side stepping, moving laterally. She was wanting to take off like the horse that bolted…lol. Took me about 10 minutes to get her calmed down enough to move on I had to do small circles with her along with figure 8’s. She rides in a endurance halter-bridle with quick change bit piece. She rides in a Kimberwick bit with curb chain. She does not really listen to this bit when worked up. I really had to get in her mouth to get her to stop (which is NOT a good thing and I do not like doing at all)I thought about using a Mylar 3 ring combo on her, because the owner said that she does very well in it. I plan on doing a lot of round pen work with her, but would changing to the Mylar be much of a difference. I just feel like I am putting more metal in her mouth without correcting the problem. I want to do a endurance ride in Sept. with her. She can do a 25 easy and always vets in with A’s. She is not a drinker or eater the first leg of the race and is a handful as well. She calms down on the 2nd leg and will eat and drink and a lot more calmer. Just looking for insight on how to deal with this issue. She is a great horse. Beautiful mover when she is focused and on task, a joy to ride.
Thanks

[SuzieQNutter]

Good luck and please stay safe.

[Arabs4life]

Thank you. Safety for myself and my horse are my main concern for sure.

[CBurkott]

My very first lease horse as a teen was an Arabian. Oh I know the looky loo spooks they can be. I joke now it’s how I developed my velcro seat and can stick spooks. easily. But at my age now I don’t really want to.

[prudence]

The situation you found yourself in on the trail was a bit unusual. Try riding with a calm buddy and find out more about her - is she happiest in front or in back, and what are the problems with both positions? Baby steps and above all stay calm yourself. Do you have long climbs you can do where she will walk and you can figure her out better? We have two Arab/Saddlebred crosses and one of them sounds like your mare. We use a little curb bit with a roller on him that he listens to but I don’t think the kimberwick is very different. Don’t know about the Mylar.

[irish_horse]

I actually think it was great that you got the silly behavior: now you know what she is capable of! And that you can handle it. An endurance ride might be all that kind-of crazy and more, or it might be a nice calm day, you never know what is going to go on around you.

A lot of work with a horse passing you either direction, leaving other horses, small group work where you set her up for success, will go a long way in establishing a relationship so she might know her boundaries with you. What you did with keeping her feet moving is good: I think “shutting down” a forward horse is never a good idea and can lead to rearing, etc. Keep those feet moving in a constructive way.

I’ve used both the kimberwick myler and 3-ring combination on my forward horse. But found that if they’re not listening it really won’t matter. The 3-ring does have some serious brakes, but my horse strenuously rejects any nose pressure, so back we went to the kimberwick on the least pressure setting.

And good luck.

[beau159]

How old is she?

For a horse like this, do what you can to teach her to pay attention to you – and not what’s going on around her. Whether that’s making her sidepass, do serpentines, rollbacks, etc etc whatever you need to do to keep her attention. You won’t change that she’s a forward going horse (nor would you want to for an endurance horse!) but you CAN change how she responds to situations. If she learns to keep her attention on you, then the “problems” go away. Of course, it does take time. Keep at it.

[tabula_rashah]

I would be putting a lot of miles on her out on the trail by herself until she gains some confidence and understands that she needs to look to you for direction instead of other horses.