# Any advice on nappy horses?



## Kelly88 (Apr 17, 2009)

Noticed there's a few horsey people on here so thought I'd ask for some suggestions!

I have taken on a horse share with someone in the hope of sorting out a little problem. The horse is ex riding school, 11 years old. He naps when in the school. He will stop dead & will not move forward. He doesn't do it on hacks or when jumping (which he loves!) and his tack all fits fine so I can't see that it's a pain or confidence issue. It seems that flat work totally bores him from all the years at the riding school. 

Have tried asking him nicely to move forward once he is relaxed, tried circling him, tried really pushing him forward with legs & voice and giving him a tap with the stick, all with varying degrees of success. 

Thing is, now he knows I won't put up with him playing musical statues, he is starting to try spinning, rearing & backing up when asked to go forward!

So does anyone have any other ideas? It's soo frustrating!!!


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## Daisyy (Jan 15, 2010)

Have you tried a crop? Just give him gentle taps on the hind quarters, and if that doesn't work the shoulder


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## Kelly88 (Apr 17, 2009)

Yup, tried that, tried a schooling whip as well on his backside. And had a friend try cracking a lunge whip behind him as well. He puts his ears back, ignores it & if u persist with it he starts spinning, backing up & trying to rear. He will eventually go forward after his little tantrum if i persist, but it takes 10 mins of hard work & shouting, then he stops again 10 steps later & you're back to square one!

I'm thinking he might need to go back to basics with lots of ground work to try to get him out of this :bash:


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## iiisecondcreep (Oct 29, 2007)

Kelly88 said:


> Yup, tried that, tried a schooling whip as well on his backside. And had a friend try cracking a lunge whip behind him as well. He puts his ears back, ignores it & if u persist with it he starts spinning, backing up & trying to rear. He will eventually go forward after his little tantrum if i persist, but it takes 10 mins of hard work & shouting, then he stops again 10 steps later & you're back to square one!
> 
> I'm thinking he might need to go back to basics with lots of ground work to try to get him out of this :bash:


I took a nappy horse on loan a few years ago, he wasn't ex-riding school but he was young and just liked to push the boundaries! With him I found that just being persistant eventully worked. Just keep riding through it until he eventually went forward, he eventually realised that no amount of reversing or spinning in circles was going to help because I was more patient than he was stubborn. Using a crop or having someone using a lunge whip just resulted in aerobatic temper tantrums. He stopped napping within a few weeks.

With an ex riding school horse you could try to make schooling fun for him, he's probably spent many of his years just walking in a circle. Shouting or lunge whips/force isn't likely to help be because he'll be so used to it. You could try only using the end of the school away from the gate, or if there is a field you could ride in try there instead for a while.
Ground work would be a good start. Also getting lessons from a professional instructor would be a good idea (ie, not just a general riding school instructor), perhaps a dressage instructor who can give you different flat work exercises.


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## Daisyy (Jan 15, 2010)

Sounds like you need a trainer! Maybe just start off walking, for a week or so, reward him.

then the next week a bit of trotting, and just build it up? 

My old horse sounds a bit like him, we couldn't get him to move out on hacks, we sent him to a trainer and she sorted it out


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## Kelly88 (Apr 17, 2009)

Yeah, I put some cones out in the school today & spent some time getting him to go around them in all different ways, just to try making him listen to me without getting bored. It worked for a while but he got bored & stuck the brakes on again after 5-10 mins. 

The frustrating thing is he does it the second he gets into the school, so I don't even get a chance to give him something fun to do as he's already decided he would rather spend 20 mins fighting me :devil:

Was thinking about taking him on a hack next time & doing some work while he's out & about, so will give that a go I think. If that doesn't work we will have to look at getting an expert in lol!


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## Postcard (Aug 29, 2010)

Firstly, you are well on the right track - congratulations!

Secondly, how's your confidence doing? Sitting on a serious napper is no fun at all...

Here's how I would tackle it. I would take it back to basics in some ways, but increase the challenge in others. -

Take him out hacking tons, but rather than hacking along, make it a schooling session. Start off long & low & then ask him to work forward & 'up' & use voice commands with every aid you give so you're building up communication.

Don't do any jumping till you've got your flatwork down - you can use jumping at the end of a session as a reward.

Lunge him in place of some schooling sessions - it's likely he finds schooling really hard because most of the time riding school horses don't actually know how to work properly & additionally this will concretise your voice commands. Again, start relaxed & low & then build up & get your commands SHARP.

I use a one - two - three approach which horses cotton onto quickly - ask nicely with voice & light aids, TELL them with strong aids & voice, and a touch from the crop, then 3 - FORCE them with artificial aids, growling voice & very strong leg applied constantly. If you're unsure about using spurs, try roller spurs first. 

I would take his bitting down to something very light - I am a big fan of sprenger turnados if he's used to working in a single joint snaffle, or a peanut link if he's used to a double-joint. Basically forget about contact - don't give him an opportunity to 'misinterpret' hand aids.

Reward every step forward lavishly, and end sessions when you feel you've made progress so every time you leave it on a high note of good behaviour. Pop him over a couple of poles if you're particularly pleased.

I'm really not a fan of people using a lungeline from behind but do definitely get a friend to shout from the ground so it's an easier transition from riding school to riding horse. Lunge lessons might also help when you've got him listening to voice commands properly.

Finally, persevere! You'll get such a thrill from every inch of ground you make even if it seems a nightmare just now. It seems like he knows he's defeated, and often when they get to this protesting nappy stage they're on the cusp of giving in so if his rears are bunny hops really ride through it, think FORWARD & even if you end up galloping forward treat it as a triumph & give big praise & circle to slow.

Mental attitude is the biggest part of it - think FORWARD, FORWARD, FORWARD & work on those aids in walk & trot, walk to canter, canter to halt until they're sharp as a knife out on hacks & teach him to bend & give you power from behind & he'll suddenly find schoolwork a whole lot less challenging & then you'll be away & have a horse who's ahead of the leg & responsive!


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## Postcard (Aug 29, 2010)

Forgot to say - don't even think about entering the school for a couple of weeks, and when you do, make it at the end of a hack as a walk-off & a nice amble around as if it's part of the hack.


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## Kelly88 (Apr 17, 2009)

Thanks Annabel, confidence is fine at the moment, ask me again in a few weeks lol. The lady whose horse he is isn't particularly confident, which I know is part of the problem, so I am trying to tell her how good he is each time I ride to try & stop her panicking when she rides him 

Will definitely look at his bitting, he is on a jointed snaffle at the moment & to me it looks a little on the large side but I'm not 100% on that so I'll look into it. When he does want to move, he does better with very little contact and a long rein so I do think a different bit is worth a try.

I will be off on a schooling session disguised as a hack next then, hopefully we can make some progress that way! 

It is just so frustrating, especially as he has lovely paces when he moves & I'm convinced he could go far with his love of jumping! If only he would just get on with it & stop being a pain in the backside! :bash:


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## miss_ferret (Feb 4, 2010)

the first thing i thought of when i saw the thread title was 'ex riding school', napping seems to be a very common problem with ex riding school horses. first things first: get out of the school. do flatwork in a field in its something you want to focus on but you have to break the routine. hes done the same thing day in day out for however long hes been in the school, hes bored. you say he likes jumping, will he do this without hesitation in a school?


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## Kelly88 (Apr 17, 2009)

She told me he is fine when jumping & hacking, although I haven't jumped him yet myself as today was only the second time I rode him. She has no interest in jumping him though so I will definitely take responsibility for that side of things eventually. Maybe I could take him into the jumping school instead & trick him into working between popping him over a few jumps to get him going? 

It's a brilliant yard with a xc course on site as well so that's another option perhaps. 

I am not nervous about jumping him at all, just thought perhaps it's best to get him listening to me on the flat & moving forward rather than going straight in with what he wants to do?


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## miss_ferret (Feb 4, 2010)

thats what i was going to suggest, id work on the principle of if he does something you want him to do, he get to do something he wants to do (within reason). just be patient and he will come round. hes had a long time to learn to ignore whoevers on his back, you have to gain his intrest and if jumping is the way to do it id focus on that for the time being, just try sneaking in some bits of flatwork occasionally then get over a jump before he realises :2thumb:


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## Kelly88 (Apr 17, 2009)

Excellent, thanks for all the suggestions!

He also has a running martigale at the moment, any advice on that? I would like to get rid personally, as I dont really like using things on horses unless necessary & I think it may be that it came with him from the riding school as something for the kids to grab hold of round his neck rather than him actually needing it? He does throw his head around a little, but nothing major & I think that having the bit yanked down in his mouth when he jerks his head up probably isnt helping matters :hmm:


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## miss_ferret (Feb 4, 2010)

im not the biggest fan of martigales, used correctly there fine but iv seen a lot of them being used just for the 'look'. try him without but be prepared for the eureka moment when he realises he can throw his head about, he shouldnt keep it up for long. good luck : victory:


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## Postcard (Aug 29, 2010)

Kelly88 said:


> Excellent, thanks for all the suggestions!
> 
> He also has a running martigale at the moment, any advice on that? I would like to get rid personally, as I dont really like using things on horses unless necessary & I think it may be that it came with him from the riding school as something for the kids to grab hold of round his neck rather than him actually needing it? He does throw his head around a little, but nothing major & I think that having the bit yanked down in his mouth when he jerks his head up probably isnt helping matters :hmm:


If he has a tendency to rear & spin, I personally would leave his martingale on for sure. It's important that it's less easy to get his head right up in case he uses the freedom to fall over backwards...

I would, however, loosen it so it only came into effect when his head is "taking the p*ss" high rather than "I'm loving this hack" high.


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## Kelly88 (Apr 17, 2009)

So, I heard from my sharing buddy today after her ride. Apparently he was an absolute angel when she took him in the school today, yay! We may be making some progress! 

Although I'm still prepared for an argument with him when I go up on Thursday, just in case :devil:


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## gecko lady (Jun 26, 2010)

I dont know if u have found a solution or not, but i have a horse who is extremly nappy he will rear, buck, kick at other horses, he is very dangerous at times. But in the last couple of days he has seemed to improve, I have been a fan of montey roberts the horse whisperer and been to a few demos and have tryed his method "join up" a few times if you dont know what this is try looking it up how to do it on youtube, anyway i did this and then got him backing up through an L shape of poles and showing him round the school to gain his trust. Its really good fun aswell  maybe try it and see how it goes? Make sure you wear a hat!


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## Kelly88 (Apr 17, 2009)

Thanks Gecko Lady - "Join up" was actually something I looked at, was going to do some more research I have seen when to do in practice, but wanted to look into it a bit further & get more of an understanding of it before having a go.

However, it turns out that even though his back was "fine" she hadnt actually got anyone to properly check it, & after having the back lady out on Friday - he does have a problem there. Not sure what it is yet as he doesnt lunge so she can't get a proper look at his movement without anyone on his back... So Jack is out of action pending further investigations! 

He never really worked properly from the back end, but I had put this down to laziness tbh. I feel bad now knowing all that time he was just in pain, not just being a stubborn git! 

Hopefully its something they can sort out for the poor guy :sad:


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## gecko lady (Jun 26, 2010)

Aww bless him  hope everything works out alright


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