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  Discussion on Trail horse agitated between obstacles
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New Member:
zubiedoo

Posted on Monday, Oct 31, 2011 - 12:16 am:

I have a quarter horse that I have ridden for 9 years, since he was a 2 year old. Lately I have been attending informal competitive trail rides. He is calm on the trail and usually calm during the obstacles, but impatient while waiting for the other riders to complete their obstacle. I took some criticism for circling him last weekend, when he was tossing his head, fighting me and wanted to move on. He even squealed a little before I gave him some schooling. I admittedly did not ride him a lot this year, but he has these moods where he is impatient and might even nip at me when I am leading him. I am considering a vet workup but I think if pain were his issue he would not only act this way when standing still under saddle. Thoughts on how to deal with this? He has had a health cert and teeth work done and has the best of farriers, so there are no obvious health or maintenance issues. He is kept on about 4 acres of pasture with access to heated waterers and a lean and diet is mainly grass hay right now. he has 5 pasture mates and is in the middle of the pecking order.
Member:
lhenning

Posted on Tuesday, Nov 1, 2011 - 12:07 pm:

I think it is wrong for others to criticise you for reprimanding him right when he is doing something wrong, but if you can't school him right on the course then perhaps if you could set up a similar situation at home you could work on his patience. Find any place that brings the same attitude out such as just inside an open gate perhaps? He wants something but he has to wait to get it, that sort of situation.

I would use the circling when he is antsy and let him stop when he calms down. Make him work hard when he becomes impatient by doing small serpentines at a trot so he sees the easier thing is to simply stand still. Watch for him to relax and come back to you then immediately let him stop circling. If he gets antsy again, go back to the serpentines and circles.

This really is a situation where you need him to learn how to focus on you even when there is a lot of commotion and you can work on that any time. Whenever he looks at anything else, disengage his hindquarters by bringing the inside rein toward your belly button while placing your leg back and pushing his haunches over. Do this all the time you ride him whenever he becomes distracted and soon you won't need to do it more than once and his focus will be only on you. You can't do too many of these as they really work a horse toward softness.

I've seen many webpages that are geared toward barrel riders and cutting horses that work on this problem of impatience. Many of those horses start to anticipate the gallop cue when the riders are waiting for their turn and exhibit the same problems as your horse. I would search for some of those articles and you might find other exercises you can use.
New Member:
zubiedoo

Posted on Tuesday, Nov 1, 2011 - 2:13 pm:

Thanks for the advice. I was struggling with this horse only at these pauses. The other obstacles were not running approaches either, they were just poles and backing and maneuvers. I had tried flexing him, soft circles, and backing him then resorted to some pretty brisk fast circles. I could feel his back quivering and bunching up just before this, as if he was going to blow, which he rarely does. Thanks, I will try to recreate the scenario outside of a competition. I miss the days when he would just stand still! He is all business on the obstacles, if they require him standing still, he does that. So it is puzzling.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Wednesday, Nov 2, 2011 - 4:08 pm:

Hello zubiedoo,
Linda gives excellent advice on developing a calm down routine. I just want to add this is a common behavioral problem and unlikely a issue with pain. If it was it would not disappear at other times.
DrO
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