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I have yet another question about my delinquent school horses. I love them all to death, but there is always a reason that they are donated to our program.

The horse I'm working with right now is Corky. Corky is about 16.2ish hh, some kind of Irish draught cross (I think, might be Irish sporthorse, but he kind of seems like a draft cross), fairly young (don't know his actual age, I'd guess like, 8?) and used to be fox hunter. Apparently, he embarassed the huntsman (don't know the story more than that) and that's why he was donated to us. He is now learning the art of dressage. Corky is very strong, very hairy, and very anxious. When Corky gets nervous, Corky runs on his forehand. In the walk, in the trot, and especially in the canter. And Corky gets nervous a lot. We've been working really hard on this, and he's made a lot of progress. I've had some amazing rides on him in the last week, actually getting smooth transitions without him freaking out and running away. We recently switched him from a plain loose ring snaffle to a french link with the big round piece in the middle (I've heard them called so many things, it's easier to just describe them.) and he's much happier in the softer bit. He doesn't get nearly as defensive about his mouth as he did in his old bit. He is an extremely sensitive horse.

Now, the running away, the anxiety, the tension, all of that, I can deal with. What I don't know how to help is his habit of head tossind and rooting. The head tossing gets better as he relaxes, and I think that's the main cause for that, is he gets nervous in his frame (he's pretty fabulous when he gets it together, but can't hold it for very long), but the rooting I don't know how to help. He does it especially bad when I'm asking him to stretch, and seems to almost get worse when he's relaxed, which leads me to think that it's probably not part of his anxiety problems, but I could be wrong. Does anyone have any suggestions for ways that I can work to correct this behavior?

As a note, this is NOT my horse. I do not own him, and therefore have no control over his management. The vet on staff at our school does not believe in chiropractic (unfortunately). He is perfectly sound. I ride him 4 or 5 days a week, and he usually goes in two other lessons with other random people. I've been talking to my coach, and she's trying only put upper level riders on him for the sake of his training, but sometimes crappy rides happen either way. I know that there are a lot of management things that you can do to help calm a horse's anxious behavior, but please understand that I am limited in what I can/am allowed to do. Simple groundwork that I can do in a few minutes I can do, but I can't change his turnout schedule, what he's fed, etc.

I am taking him to a show this Sunday, we're doing Training level 1 & 2 and I'm hoping that the nice relaxed canter that we've had the past week will continue over the weekend. If this show goes well, my coach is hoping that he'll be ready for me to take him first level in the spring. He could be a really talented horse, he just gets really nervous and tends to fly away when that happens. He does better the more he gets to know you because he learns to trust you.

Yeah, that is a new one on me. Is it maybe going behind the bit? Or putting his head down?

Haha, ok. My coach calls it "diving", kinda gives you the picture of the horses head diving into a pool or something, lol. I confused a few people before by saying that haha. I had that problem with Anna, but she had the personality type that I could just give her a kick, and she'd come back up, and she would only realllly pull me when I was being hard on her mouth. She did it a lot when I first started riding her and though was not new to going round, but still very green, and therefor not as sensitive as I should have been. With other more sensitive horses (and Anna when she's REALLY peppy) is to leg yeild or bend them or put them on some sort of lateral or bending movement. As you know, done correctly lateral movements make a horse use his whole body, and he has to come back to you and pay attention. If it's nervousness thats making him do this, this will help relax him and get his mind on something else. If it's resistance to the bit, it will make him work harder when her does grab the bit, which will make him rather just go straight. If it's resistnace or irritation to pressure, planting your hands isn't the greatest thing to do, because often horses will tend to just keep pulling.

My horse will do the rooting thing, but for him he is just being lazy, so a swift kick tells him to knock it off. But as you pointed out Corky seems to have a more difficult personality to work with. I agree with the lateral movements, i also think this horse sounds like the type that always needs something to do to keep his mind busy. (not a type I work well with because I like to zone out for several minutes at a time as we walk around =P) So I would suggest making sure there are lots of circles and reverses and pace changes while you are riding. Always give him something to think about so he can't make something up, or focus on something that is freaking him out.

He's been getting a lot better these last few days, actually. Yay! Right now he does it the worst at the walk, and especially at the stretching walk. He does it other times, but not as frequently.

While we're schooling I try to keep him very busy, like you said CosmicCrystal, and it works really well not only for the rooting problem but also for his frantic tendencies. He tends to get in this "ohmygodohmygodohmygod" mindset and can't get himself out of it unless I change something up for him. Changing direction usually does the trick, which is why serpentines are our BEST friend. Transitions tend to get him more worried, but we're getting much better about that too. The only PROBLEM with this is that although it works wonders while schooling, we're showing Training level dressage. While at higher levels of dressage you and your horse are kept very busy, at training level, you're just riding lines and circles. Kind of boring actually, but he's far from ready for anything more. We need to be able to do a canter depart I think before we're ready for first level. But while we're riding through our test, if he starts to get frantic, I can't do a circle or change direction or I'll get an off course. So I'm trying to figure out ways to work through it as well as prevent it from happening.

And we actually just switched his bit from a regular loose ring snaffle to a double jointed snaffle. I can completely understand why your trainer would suggest switching to a bit like a pelham, and for a lot of horses, that would be very effective. However, because he's SO defensive about his mouth, a harsher, more definitive bit like a pelham would not be the best option for him. If he were my horse, and I could borrow a pelham from someone for a ride or two, I might try it, but because he's not, I don't really have that option. We can't have any of the school horses going in two reins either, because not everyone knows how to ride correctly with them. Also, I'm not entirely sure about the legality of pelhams in dressage competition... Something tells me they're not, but they might be.
So although I understand your trainer's reasoning, I don't believe it's the best option for this particular horse and situation. But thank you and her for the input! I can always keep it in the back of my brain for future horses!

And I've never lunged him. We don't lunge our horses on a regular basis unless they're specific project horses and are being lunged for a specific purpose, and then on specific people can lunge them. A lot of our horses have soundness problems that could be exacerbated by lunging, so we generally shy away from it. I've given a few lunge lessons, but we have to be really careful about who we use for those lessons, and Corky definitly is not a lunge lesson candidate. He's not really a "learning dressage" kind of lesson horse, it's more "learning how to deal with a less-than-perfect horse in dressage" kind of lesson horse. I love him to pieces though. smile He could be amazing one day, we just need to work out a few... kinks first. biggrin

Well I am glad Corky is doing better. We have actually found the pelham to be a softer bit, particularly for horses uptight about the bit because it allows you to soften your hands, but as you said, you have no control over that =P Anyway, good luck with the shows!

Good job!! Yeah, my test scores have always been 59-68, but usually are 62-64. It's because we tend to get 7s at canter, which has the coefficient, and then get 5s at walk sweatdrop which also has the coefficient. Lol. The day we got 68, we got an 8 on canter (WOO) and a 6 on the walk coefficients, and thats what made the difference on the test with mostly 6s. Heehee, my favorite part is when you get a 7 for rider, lol. It makes you feel warm and fuzzy haha.