Stubborn stopping
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Okapi42
Posts: 495 Member
I always get good advice from the MFP horse crowd, so here's another one for you:
Jackson has recently started doing a really annoying thing - in the arena, being led around the yard, and especially out hacking.
He stops and refuses to budge any further, and would spin around and go back if I let them.
Sometimes, it's because of a THING, like a puddle I expect him to walk through, but more often than not, it seems to be a spot picked entirely at random.
Of course I try to get him to move on, but I don't want to escalate the violence too much - a smack and a good kick is as far as I'll go. I don't want to dismount (he does it on the ground, too, and I don't want to teach him that being stubborn makes me get off). When I'm leading him, making him back up until he's tired of it usually works, but that can be a problem on the road.
So I just have to out-stubborn him. Last time, it took 17 minutes until he finally went forward. (With a few circles back in between so the two of us wouldn't get totally tensed up about it.)
Any ideas? The dentist is coming out on Wednesday and I changed him back to his old saddle pad because of two little rubs on his back under the new one, but he doesn't seem to actually be in any discomfort. Just stubborn!
Jackson has recently started doing a really annoying thing - in the arena, being led around the yard, and especially out hacking.
He stops and refuses to budge any further, and would spin around and go back if I let them.
Sometimes, it's because of a THING, like a puddle I expect him to walk through, but more often than not, it seems to be a spot picked entirely at random.
Of course I try to get him to move on, but I don't want to escalate the violence too much - a smack and a good kick is as far as I'll go. I don't want to dismount (he does it on the ground, too, and I don't want to teach him that being stubborn makes me get off). When I'm leading him, making him back up until he's tired of it usually works, but that can be a problem on the road.
So I just have to out-stubborn him. Last time, it took 17 minutes until he finally went forward. (With a few circles back in between so the two of us wouldn't get totally tensed up about it.)
Any ideas? The dentist is coming out on Wednesday and I changed him back to his old saddle pad because of two little rubs on his back under the new one, but he doesn't seem to actually be in any discomfort. Just stubborn!
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Replies
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Gotta love our ponies, always keeping us on our toes!
A suggestion for while you're leading him is to get him to move sideways to "unlock" so to speak. It usually seems to work my guys, who sometimes do the same thing. The crossing of the front legs gets them moving again. And it might work under saddle if he's good on cues.
Depending on how tolerant he is (you don't want to experience a premature dismount) while you're on him, push him from behind. Use a riding crop, end of a lead, etc. start with a suggestion to move forward and gradually get more forceful... Sometimes you just have to battle it out a little bit and hope it's just a phase. :-/
That's just my two cents, good luck! 0 -
I'm afraid I've tried the driving from behind thing and he just ignores it. And he'll move sideways, just not foreward - it's like there's an invisible wall! Silly thing.
As you say, they do keep us on our toes!0
