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Discussion on Excited/nervous around other horses
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Member:
horse4u
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Posted on Saturday, Mar 1, 2008 - 8:19 pm:
My mare has been excited and or nervous in a group of horses this year. More so than in previous years. I don't know if it's because she hasn't been ridden as much because it's winter or what. The first group ride I was on, she was a real handful. The 1 horse length between horses was not happening. I ended up going to the back of the ride and walking with some gaiting, but no cantering as she wasn't "listening" to me and only wanted to gallop. Interesting note on that, she always wants to catch up rather it's one horse or many, but once she gets to the front, she goes into "monster patrol" and slows right down.
Last week there were 5 of us riding and she was fine. Up and energetic but listening. We stopped to rest and another group of riders (4) came and talked with us. When leaving, one of the horses was with us and my horse became tense. The other 3 came from behind and she was wound up like a spring. My friend took a look and was really surprised at how stressed she was and we ride together a lot. I was not ready for another repeat of the earlier experience so I asked if we could return to our original groups. We did and my horse was back to her usual self.
We have several rides lined up this year. Sometimes when we go on a group ride, I give her Calmex the day before and while on the rides. This does seem to help. Any suggestions? BTW, she usually calms down after a good run and or a couple of hours. The problem is I don't like to let her run when she is excited because she throws in a buck and or tries to pull the bit out of my hand and go. She is a Missouri Fox Trotter.
Usually on large group rides we end up riding in small groups of 6 -8 and those are usually OK. There were probably 30 riders in the first ride I mentioned.
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Member:
scooter
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Posted on Sunday, Mar 2, 2008 - 7:01 am:
Tis the nature of some of the beasts I'm afraid. Kind of a herd dynamic when adding a new horse to the herd.. I have owned a few like this and the thing that worked most of the time was to go with your regular group and add one or 2 strange horses to the group, from the very beginning. Also if possible putting her in pasture with different horses (that aren't mean). The horse that had the biggest problem with this had a split herd personality he wanted to be dominant, but couldn't quite work up the courage to over throw the current king. When riding him with strange horses he was a nervous wreck. Letting him smell and say hello to the other horses calmed him down quite a bit...but that horse was always on edge around strange horses no matter what I did. I think some are just like that and if she is listening find a way to work through it (not fun).
SHORT WALK trips with a strange horse or 2 is the way I went with my boy. He was able to gain confidence with the strange horses without being overwhelmed for long periods. I did not canter with the strange horse for quite some time...until I knew he was confident with them and would listen and not race. We eventually were able to ride in large groups and behave, but I could tell he was never confident and a little on edge. I couldn't change that about him...was his personality.
Good Luck
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