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Discussion on Mare that doesn't want to work
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Member:
mientjie
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Posted on Thursday, Feb 15, 2007 - 12:28 am:
I own a 5 year old, 16.2hh Clydesdale cross mare. We moved her to a new yard last week. Two days after the move I started lessons with a new trainer. During the lesson my mare did this ugly slow trot and refused to listen to me. This has been going on all week. On trail rides she's wonderful, she does extended trot, works round. The moment she goes into an arena she starts this slow trot again. If I use my dressage whip she stops and refuses to move!!
She did something similar last year and my trainer at that time got on kicked her hard and hit her with the whip. The trainer was fired after that. I do not want to use this method as I feel that it is cruel. Amanda was fine since then but now I don't know what to do. Any ideas?
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Member:
ajudson1
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Posted on Thursday, Feb 15, 2007 - 7:39 am:
I think she just needs time to adjust to her new home. How far away did she move? Maybe her willingness to go outside the arena is because she is looking for "home". If she were my mare, I'd just go on a nice long trail ride and do my training there in short bursts. I do arena work myself, and all of my horses are different in how much they will endure. I don't let the horse decide when the lesson is over, I always make it my idea to stop, but I do end it if the horse is "asking" to go explore. Keeps us both happy.
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Member:
dove2
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Posted on Thursday, Feb 15, 2007 - 10:39 am:
Do you know much of your mare's history? I knew of a horse that was ring-(arena)sour. He was great on trails, and even working outside the ring. However, he just hated being in the arena. After a couple months of trying to express this to the rider, he finally had to "shout" and ran through the arena fence, with rider onboard. Is it possible to work somewhere else for awhile and see how she responds there?
Another possibility might be the footing of the arena. My own horse dreaded going in our riding arena at first. This was possibly due to the horrible, hard footing, or (I hate to say this, but....) my less than balanced and sensitive riding skills. Your mare may have had to deal with unpleasant riders in her past, causing her anxiety upon entering the arena.
Angie makes a good point. Possibly being confined in an arena when she is still not secure that she's in a safe place might make her anxious as well. I think your best bet is to vary your riding locations if you can, and see where she is most comfortable. Like anything else with a horse, you can always work her slowly toward your desired venue.
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Member:
tuckern
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Posted on Thursday, Feb 15, 2007 - 4:54 pm:
Lea-Anne, did you do alot of arena work at the previous yard you were at? How did she react there?
It might just be a matter of giving her some more time to adjust to her new home.
If you do alot of arena work, I wonder if she could be getting bored?
To relate a story similar to Dove2's, my mare is totally arena sour. I've had her for three years now, and she still resents being in an arena. I bought her from a barrel racing family. They sold her because she started refusing to work in an arena, and had started becoming dangerous when they tried to make her work. However, she's an absolute doll on the trail. She loves going out. She's sure footed, level headed, and totally enjoys herself. And actually, my least favorite thing is arena work as well, so we are a perfect match. 
Nicole
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Member:
jmarie
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Posted on Friday, Feb 16, 2007 - 10:02 am:
I'm just going to toss in another thought here, though it may not apply.
My QH gelding Leo is tiny--barely 15hh--but he believes he has a very long canter stride. For the longest time I couldn't even get him into the canter without much fuss and bother, and even after that he refused to really extend in the ring and would nearly fall over at the corners. He'd do fine in a less-confined area, but he just tightened up in the ring. Eventually he spent a little time at a barn with a longer but more narrow indoor. The difference in his movement was amazing! Apparently he considered our 100 x 150 ring just too small for him, but the 175 x 70 indoor was just the right length.
I stress that this was all in his mind. He was a western pleasure-trained horse when I got him, and had run some barrels. He does have a rather exciting canter, but he certainly doesn't eat up the ground the way he seems to think he does. Since he was 15 when I got him, I can't guess at his past and wonder if he didn't run into a fence or wall once. All is well now, but it took a lot of convincing and rebalancing of his body to get him there. I got past it by doing months of up and downward transitions every three, four, or five strides until he was convinced he could "fit" inside the fenceline, and all ring sessions are and have been followed by a nice half-hour trek through the woods.
Could it be that your mare has a similar self-perception?
I also second Dove2's comment about footing. My Zip is much more open and forward in the indoor with the soft footing than he is in my outdoor. Though the fact that your mare likes the trail kind of throws a shadow on that theory, it could be some combination of ring sourness, the size of the arena, and the footing that she's objecting to.
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Member:
mientjie
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Posted on Saturday, Feb 17, 2007 - 12:22 pm:
Hi everyone
It turned out that Amanda was not arena sour, had a problem with the footing or the size of the arena, but was resistant!
My new trainer got on and after riding her for a few minutes (without hitting/ kicking her) she was moving off her leg trotting like she never has before and cantering! Now she is a dream to ride. I'm doing the Alexander course this weekend and so far it has been great. I now think of my position on and off of the horse. Have any of you done something similar?
Thank you for all your help and support with my problems!
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Member:
jmarie
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Posted on Saturday, Feb 17, 2007 - 3:23 pm:
Good for you, Lea-Anne!  Happy riding!
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New Member:
mellie
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Posted on Sunday, Feb 18, 2007 - 10:18 pm:
how can i become a better at reining my horse
i am a new rider and i could use some pointers?
My horse has had a bad experience with buggy and mules a man and his buggy and mule with a whip in motion cam charging in her direction she backed into a barb wire fence since this time she has become more spooked she does not like donkey's are mules can you help me to deal with this problem
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Member:
jmarie
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Posted on Monday, Feb 19, 2007 - 9:25 am:
Terri, that's going to be a tough project. A really scary experience like that is hard for a horse to get over, and I certainly wouldn't recommend reconstructing the events for training purposes. Normally you would introduce the horse slowly, from a distance, to buggies, mules, whips and things coming straight at her, but I see this as a dangerous thing to recreate. Most horses will freak at something that frightening coming at them!
We had a gelding who was attacked about 15 years ago by a small black pony. The pony DrOve the gelding through a gate and fences, into a stall where the gelding hit his head jumping over the pony to escape. The gelding wound up with a fractured shoulder and a fear of black ponies. So many years and shows and trail rides had gone by in between, and we'd stayed at the farm with the pony without further incident, that I thought the gelding was okay. I forgot about it. He didn't. Last year I bought a black mini stud. All the other guys were okay with him, but that gelding remembered, and within minutes he had reached over the fence and raked that little guy's back with his teeth, and the battle was on! I had to keep them separated right to the end when the gelding finally passed away (cancer, not pony-related). Some things just aren't that easily forgotten.
Do you have to come into contact with buggies, donkeys and mules often? She'll probably get used to each of those things separately over time, but the combination--buggy/mule/whip/coming straight at her--might never leave her memory.
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