aceofspades
Grand Prix Poster
My Little Baby Ace
Posts: 1,308
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Post by aceofspades on Dec 17, 2011 20:47:54 GMT 1
My mare is 4 at home she is lovely and quiet and loves her cuddles and fusses. recently ive taking her to her first 2 shows although she did realy well she is realy stressed there. Will not stand still at all shaking her head around and whining constantly. We have taking horses with her to nanny her and she seems worse as she wants to no where they are all the time. I would realy like to get her out and about next year but im worried shes always going to be like that and to be honest shes very differcult to handle
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Post by SarahW on Dec 17, 2011 21:27:33 GMT 1
At home, love can often be enough, but you might want to up your leadership when you are away from home so that she doesn't miss the leadership of other horses.
It's worth taking her to the calmest place you can find on the showground and then just gently insisting on moving her feet (and not letting her move yours). You can also try to replicate the show atmosphere in your training at home.
Always worth having a session with an RA to make sure that the IH type groundwork that you have been doing is as IH as it can be. There are big concepts and small tweaks that can all help.
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aceofspades
Grand Prix Poster
My Little Baby Ace
Posts: 1,308
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Post by aceofspades on Dec 17, 2011 21:35:11 GMT 1
thanks sarah will def consider that after xmas, she hacks out on her own and is fine in new situations whilst out hacking. the 2 shows we took her to was a very quiet local show and we only stayed long enough for a inhand class and left but she was horrible to handle where as at home she will back up move out of your space ect and would never think about comming into your space
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Post by lisap on Dec 18, 2011 8:29:14 GMT 1
Keep going. Repeat, repeat and repeat. The more shows and outings you go to, the more she will settle. It is perfectly normal for her to be stressy the first few times. We recently took three of ours to a local dressage competition and were so proud and thrilled with them when all three competed nicely, but were also relaxed in the warm up area, and also stood quietly on their own for a little while at the box. This was a big step forward for two of the horses who had been terribly anxious previously, but we've just kept taking them out and about and now they know the ropes. It is worth going through the pain and anguish of coping with a stressy horse to finally get a nice calm horse!
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Post by tikkatonks on Dec 18, 2011 9:23:09 GMT 1
Agree with the other if you keep calm and keep going they settle in the end.
I avoid taking nanny horses with youngsters, I believe it is better that the horse focuses on you and not where another horse is. Most important you have to be calm (even when things go wrong) act like it is all part of the plan. If you find things an ordeal then don't aim to compete just aim to go give the horse some grass or hay calmly, then go home. The first few times I took my coloured he found it too exciting to stand and eat so we just walked about and looked at things.
In hand classes are IMO harder to do than a ridden class like a dressage test. Showing classes involve lots of other horses, standing still, and not being allowed to eat grass. That is a big ask for a baby horse at its first show. If you want to do that kind of class I would agree that it would be a good idea to replicate at home first.
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aceofspades
Grand Prix Poster
My Little Baby Ace
Posts: 1,308
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Post by aceofspades on Dec 19, 2011 21:42:56 GMT 1
thanks guys that does make sence, i will take her on her own and even if were only there for 30 min or so, for all i no she might be picking up on my stress of getting ready ect for the show
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Post by megant on Dec 20, 2011 10:27:32 GMT 1
Could you travel her to a local livery yard or somewhere you could unload her, repeat some of the ground work you have done at home and then take her home again? Sort of replicating a show situation but less busy to start with and purely focused on working with her. If you are not too far away perhaps you could travel to a RA and work with her there.
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Post by lisap on Dec 20, 2011 10:30:12 GMT 1
She'll certainly be picking up on your anxiety, so you must get yourself into the frame of mind of "Don't care, don't care, don't care".
Also, don't just take her for 30 minutes. Go to the show, and let her be there for at least half a day or even a day. Eventually she will start to calm down. Once she has done that then you can take her home, so she gets to associate being calm with going home.
I'd either take her on her own, or take her with a couple of calm horses and keep her with them all the time, not taking them away from her. We tend to do this with our youngsters, so they get the benefit of being with horses who are not bothered by the new experiences, and who will give them confidence. If you keep taking them together, as your horse grows in confidence she won't be bothered about going off to do stuff on her own.
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Post by horsefeed on Dec 21, 2011 14:36:40 GMT 1
As someone said just keeping going, I chucked my youngster in this year and did 4 weekends in a row and by 4th one she was brillant
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