Post by calekio on Jan 12, 2012 15:29:15 GMT 1
My friend has a welsh sec c mare who is 8yr old, i help her out with her and she lives in my field and look after her 6 days a week basically.
Now the poor girl has had a bad experience. She spent the first 3yrs of her life with her breeder, sold at the sale by person A, who then sold her to person B. This person sent her away to be broken to drive and at this point must have been broken to ride lightly and had a foal at some point in all this, person B then sent her away to be trained how to show drive, sent her to a high recommended place who work with hackney's and this is where it all went wrong... they trained the hackney's to bring there legs up in show driving by holding them up and whipping them.... they've tried to do with Rosie and understandable the mare has lost it, exploded and bolted, cart tipped and drag till it eventually fell over, when owner was told she told them to halt all work and not touch her and went to collect her (i can't fault person B here.. its the people she trusted to train her!) when she returned home she was terrified and had cuts all up her legs.. relising she didn't have the time and money to fix the problems she now had she sold her back to person A, who done some work with her but then put her in foal and when foal was weaned that is when friend got her.
All last summer we couldn't do any work with her as she turned out to be in foal... had a lovely foal, who was weaned in autumn and then Rosie came back into work.. its only recently when friend decided she would like to drive her and get her working nicely that she's investigated what happen in the past and found out the above.
So.. now have a 8yr old mare, who i think is very low mileage all round but has a severe lack of confidence, especially when out hacking. Until now we couldn't even get her to walk out in hand by herself but we've been working with her slowly.
So far she will ride out in company, she'll be upfront for a bit but when she ancors the breaks on wwe just put another in front to give her some confidence to go forward, she is ridden by novice teenager but mum is very experience and kid has been taught from the start to ride quietly.
We've start walking her out in hand, just around the farm at the moment which is tracks she knows very well.. going out in very stop start, stare at everything like its going to eat you, snorting the whole time and if your really unsure trying to stand on her handler for comfort (i think its a thing of how close can she get to you!)
She is walked out and asked to walk actively, the more we can get her walking actively the less she tends to act like everything is out to eat her, when she does put the breaks on stand at her shoulder and ask her to go forward, kinda have to pull her forward from behind if that makes sense (if you go past her eye level she won't move at all, so have to ask her to go forward again with arm stretched out) if this doesn't work we tend to have to zig zag up the track until she gets back moving.. if anything has changed along the track she is mortified and plants.. like today there is a new horse in the field and took up 10 minutes to get 2 feet down the track!)
Flicking the rope behind you does nothing and with her past experience with whips i won't use any type of whip (we are slowly working on desenitizing her to the lunge whip, so she knows it won't hurt her anymore)
When we turn around to walk back not such a issue.. she marches home so we just work on slowing her down and asking her to stop and stand and then carry on.
So any advice really? I think we are doing everything right, any advice on when she stops and is differcult to get moving again? I know her owner will look at getting a RA out when she has a bit more money, but can't afford it right now.. the goal is to get her hack out solo/in front of the group (she hacks out with minis so really does need to be in front! lol) and she'd love to eventually drive her again.. but talking way down the line here.. no rush as at the moment she only goes out at weekends in company with us walking on the ground and we are working with her during the week when the kids are not about.
Obviously once she will walk out confidently in hand will then progress to long reins, then rider on.... but we need to get her going out in hand happily first.
Now the poor girl has had a bad experience. She spent the first 3yrs of her life with her breeder, sold at the sale by person A, who then sold her to person B. This person sent her away to be broken to drive and at this point must have been broken to ride lightly and had a foal at some point in all this, person B then sent her away to be trained how to show drive, sent her to a high recommended place who work with hackney's and this is where it all went wrong... they trained the hackney's to bring there legs up in show driving by holding them up and whipping them.... they've tried to do with Rosie and understandable the mare has lost it, exploded and bolted, cart tipped and drag till it eventually fell over, when owner was told she told them to halt all work and not touch her and went to collect her (i can't fault person B here.. its the people she trusted to train her!) when she returned home she was terrified and had cuts all up her legs.. relising she didn't have the time and money to fix the problems she now had she sold her back to person A, who done some work with her but then put her in foal and when foal was weaned that is when friend got her.
All last summer we couldn't do any work with her as she turned out to be in foal... had a lovely foal, who was weaned in autumn and then Rosie came back into work.. its only recently when friend decided she would like to drive her and get her working nicely that she's investigated what happen in the past and found out the above.
So.. now have a 8yr old mare, who i think is very low mileage all round but has a severe lack of confidence, especially when out hacking. Until now we couldn't even get her to walk out in hand by herself but we've been working with her slowly.
So far she will ride out in company, she'll be upfront for a bit but when she ancors the breaks on wwe just put another in front to give her some confidence to go forward, she is ridden by novice teenager but mum is very experience and kid has been taught from the start to ride quietly.
We've start walking her out in hand, just around the farm at the moment which is tracks she knows very well.. going out in very stop start, stare at everything like its going to eat you, snorting the whole time and if your really unsure trying to stand on her handler for comfort (i think its a thing of how close can she get to you!)
She is walked out and asked to walk actively, the more we can get her walking actively the less she tends to act like everything is out to eat her, when she does put the breaks on stand at her shoulder and ask her to go forward, kinda have to pull her forward from behind if that makes sense (if you go past her eye level she won't move at all, so have to ask her to go forward again with arm stretched out) if this doesn't work we tend to have to zig zag up the track until she gets back moving.. if anything has changed along the track she is mortified and plants.. like today there is a new horse in the field and took up 10 minutes to get 2 feet down the track!)
Flicking the rope behind you does nothing and with her past experience with whips i won't use any type of whip (we are slowly working on desenitizing her to the lunge whip, so she knows it won't hurt her anymore)
When we turn around to walk back not such a issue.. she marches home so we just work on slowing her down and asking her to stop and stand and then carry on.
So any advice really? I think we are doing everything right, any advice on when she stops and is differcult to get moving again? I know her owner will look at getting a RA out when she has a bit more money, but can't afford it right now.. the goal is to get her hack out solo/in front of the group (she hacks out with minis so really does need to be in front! lol) and she'd love to eventually drive her again.. but talking way down the line here.. no rush as at the moment she only goes out at weekends in company with us walking on the ground and we are working with her during the week when the kids are not about.
Obviously once she will walk out confidently in hand will then progress to long reins, then rider on.... but we need to get her going out in hand happily first.
