We have been trying to puzzle out Ace's behaviour when under stress and a few things occurred to me.
First, that Jazz was a very aggressive horse and that things are so much quieter since he has gone. Whilst Ace respects Radar as a leader he also challenges him, whereas when Jazz was here Ace was odd man out and firmly bottom of the pile with two horses above him.
Second, that Ace only behaves badly under pressure and that a 5 minute dressage test is no time to try and sort it out. But if that is the only time he really does it, it can't be corrected except by months, possibly years of conditioning.
Third, that having to do things at set markers is stressful for him and I have not routinely done this at home, which has been a mistake.
Fourth, that I might have made too much of a friend of him, because he is a quiet introvert and I have not wanted to upset him. I now think that there is a possibility (see point one) that Ace requires a dominant leader in order to feel secure.
I have decided to try a more dominant approach, both on the ground and ridden. I have never really insisted that he gets out of my space, because he is so quiet and gentle when he is in my space. I think that was a mistake and I am correcting it, making him move away whenever I come close to him. I have done some in-hand work too, making him move over and back up. He tried to run me down rather than back up, which got a sharp correction and then he backed up quite easily.
Ridden, I decided to provoke a reaction to the things he spooks at when tired. I did it two ways, first by insisting on movements at set places that I had decided in advance. So if I decided that I wanted a trot walk transition, I made him do it right at the marker, no matter how scrappy it was. This really irritated him. I rode him through his irritation and he got some sharp taps with the whip.
Then I gave him free walk on a long rein, and headed towards the exit, which made him think that he was going to stop. Making him start work again made him very angry and he started to spook big time at the barrels and poles I keep tucked away on one side. I made him pass it in walk and trot without spooking at it. Then I did a line towards it from the other side of the arena and turned either left or right at the barrels. That drove him wild and he tried to get me off at least three times. But he did what I asked eventually.
At that point I was suspicious. I didn't think he was really focussed on me. I thought that what was happening was that he was picking up on which diagonal I was on and turning based on that, but that his mind was still on the blue barrels and not on me.
To test it, I trotted him straight towards the barrels and asked him to halt in front of them. You would have thought I'd asked him to shake hands with a lion. He went bananas. Needless to say, We repeated that exercise, alternating it with turning left or right, or riding alongside the barrels instead.
I definitely won, and I am hoping that he learnt something about who is boss. More, am hoping that it actually makes him a more confident horse by having a clear boss. We'll see!
C
Interesting that he tried to barge over you in hand. That does tend to support your theory that he needs to respect you as the leader.
ReplyDeleteWell done with all the challenges. As for the barrels, I do suggest the back and forth with the barrels at the side, again, always turning towards them at the end of a line. Each time you get closer and closer.
My Toby has a dreadful spook, but after using that exercise just a few times, if he is afraid of something and I have room to do the exercise (sometimes it's impossible on a narrow trail) all I have to do is start one pass and you can feel him heave a sigh and say, "OK, I get it. Done with that nonsense."
Like the approach you took, the idea is that regardless of the spook, the horse has to work at something and does not escape from effort by spooking.
I think you are on the right track in curing Ace's "attitude." As for being a friend? Horses always respect the herd leader and from what I have seen, most of the time also like the leader. There is a certain sense of security in knowing that someone else is in charge.
Jean he's not remotely afraid of the barrels when we start work, only once he has got stressed. I can't cure that with Kenny's method, I've already done it numerous times. The only way I can cure it is either with massive amounts of time, which might or might not actually work, or by creating the issue and then making him focus on me instead of on them. Nothing else is going to work inside a dressage arena except years of "allowing him to grow up". His other behaviour suggests he may actually prefer to have a more controlling rider, so I'm going to try that for a while.
ReplyDeleteAt the risk of sounding racist it does occur to me that he is a German horse, who has been bred by a nation which tends to like rules and who normally expect to ride in a very controlling manner. He may actually like it, we'll see!
C