Trail Rides Okay, Arena Work is Not

I took a phone call from Cindy who wanted some ideas on how to approach a solution for her horse problems. She said her horse is good at trail rides, settling in calm walk along the shoulder of a county road, up on the top of a long water culvert then into a field and trees, and return to the barn. Cindy said her horse doesn't spook even when birds fly or rabbits jump out of the bushes near her. But going into the arena is a whole other world. She describes her horse as antsy, tense, and nervous saying her horse sometimes seemingly try's to anticipate what she is asking of her. She also said if she has to dismount to fix something, the horse makes it a little difficult with re-mounting by moving a step forward or a step sideways or both. This is kind of reverse from people who ask me what do about their horses okay in an arena, but on the trail they have problems.

Hey, here's an idea. To whoever is reading this, ask yourself what you would say to Cindy about fixing what she is talking about, before you read on.

I asked Cindy what she was doing in the arena and she replied different things, just training her horse....going over ground poles, backing serpentines, doubling on the fence, trotting small circles, doing figure eights with simple lead changes and such. Cindy also said that she is sure it isn't a buddy sour issue with her horse's stable mates being within sight of each other, and they are not a magnet for her horses when in the arena.

My advice to Cindy was it may be that her horse associates the arena with work,.....a lot of work, and that maybe she should try something different to see if she can get a change. I recommended that just take her horse into the arena and walk in a big lazy pattern around the arena, lazy turns to go the other direction and stop once in a while and just pet on her horse. Maybe even dismount and rub on her then stand quietly by her and see how she does. Does she take a big breath and exhale? Is she licking and chewing? How is her head set, ears and eyes? Is her body less tense? Will she soon cock a back leg and rest the toe of one foot on the ground? And that Cindy doesn't even have to re-mount at this point. If her horse seems less anxious and relaxed, then just take her out of the arena, brush her and put her away. Do this several times without "training" her in the arena and see if that brings about a change. If so, then maybe re-introduce some work in the arena, but with a lot of pauses.

I also asked Cindy to look at how she is asking her horses to do all the things she wants in the arena.  A horse being ridden always in contact with a rider asking just too much of a horse that is not quite ready to give that could be a source of anxiety in the horse.  The anticipation issue is sometimes the horse moving in anticipation and avoidance of pressure on the bit.  I think I'm guilty of that and am getting better at checking myself, slowing down and remembering slow is smooth, smooth is fast.       

As far as re-mounting, it may not be an issue after getting her to relax in the arena. We talked about making sure that she is not over bending the horse's head when she mounts, or mounts with her body aways from the horse and in effect, pulling him off balance. Those issues she was aware off and she assured me she mounts clean. So what I used to do when a horse moved when I was trying to mount, was first, do not throw a leg over if the horse is moving, and if he did I would jip the horse around with energy a few circles then stop the horse and offer it a chance to stand quietly while I try to mount again. But, for the past maybe ten years or so, I don't jip a horse around in circles if the horse was moving while I was mounting. I'll back him from the ground for or five steps, then ask it to stand quiet so I can mount and I think this works more effectively without raising the horse's anxiety level. Secondly, if I did have a leg over and the horse started forward movement, I would check it and back the horse. On a green horse it would be a pretty slow back. On a seasoned horse, I would back with a little more energy.