# Mare sometimes refuses to canter



## CharlotteThePenguin (Apr 2, 2016)

Hello all! I've been having a problem recently. Occasionally, my mare is really lazy and refuses to canter. She's also hard to get trotting, but I can make her trot. But she will not canter. 

Most of the time, she picks up the canter fine and we have no issues. But occasionally, she flat out refuses to canter. She'll pin her ears as far back as she can, put her head in the air, and just trot faster and faster and nothing I do will make her break into a canter.

My trainer won't let me carry a whip and spurs are not an option at all (sometimes she's really forward. I can drop a crop if needed but I can't just take spurs off very easily).

It confuses me that she only does this sometimes. She'll canter on the lunge most of the time (although sometimes we have this issue on the lunge as well). I feel like if she was in pain she would be doing this every time we canter.

Could it be that she's in season (or heat, whatever you want to call it) and that's why she doesn't want to canter? I didn't think mares came into season this late in the year, but maybe I'm wrong. She did just get moved into a pasture with her 'boyfriend', however, they've been pastured beside each other for a few weeks now (only separated by a fence). She was 'showing off' for the gelding when I went to catch her... 

If it is because she's in season, do you think she would be in pain to canter, or just be moody and not want to? 

I'm just paranoid that she's in pain and I'm ignoring the signs. If it was everytime she cantered I'd have the vet or the chiro out, but it's not that often that she does this.


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## redbadger (Nov 20, 2017)

Aside from this being a recent (weeks, months?) issue, is there anything you can think of that might be a commonality in the refusals? Something you're doing, something different, ring conditions, weather, construction nearby? Has the trotting also been a recent issue or has that been going on over time?



I agree if something was hurting her, she'd probably be refusing more consistently, and also not just "trotting faster and faster", because that would probably hurt her too (if running hurt, would you decide to jog fast instead?). That leaves two option: A, she's testing you/being lazy, and/or B, there's some external stimulus that she's responding to. (and/or "C", a combination of the two)


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## CharlotteThePenguin (Apr 2, 2016)

I don't remember her flat out refusing to canter like this until we moved barns, back at the beginning of July. I haven't been paying enough attention to when she does it to know what the weather's like, etc. I do know what it was like on Sunday (when she did this last) - we were with two other horses and the BO was mowing. The weather was cool but not cold. 

I do know that it has also happened when we've been in the arena by ourselves, so I don't think it has anything to do with the other horses.

The general laziness has slowly been forming for probably a year now. I had to start carrying a crop probably last October (2017). My new trainer took it from me a couple months ago (not literally, but told me to stop using it).


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## carp614 (May 24, 2016)

I just thought of these questions reading through:


How much time do you spend working with her on the ground before mounting? 


When you changed barns did her diet change? Different farrier?


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## beau159 (Oct 4, 2010)

CharlotteThePenguin said:


> Most of the time, she picks up the canter fine and we have no issues. But occasionally, she flat out refuses to canter. She'll pin her ears as far back as she can, put her head in the air, and just trot faster and faster and nothing I do will make her break into a canter.
> 
> My trainer won't let me carry a whip and spurs are not an option at all (sometimes she's really forward. I can drop a crop if needed but I can't just take spurs off very easily).



When your trainer is watching you while this happens (she just trots faster and faster) what feedback does your trainer give you?


Are you are accidentally pulling on her mouth (cueing her to slow down), while you are trying to make her go faster?
Are you accidentally unbalanced (making her not confident to pick up the canter), while you are trying to make her go faster?


What do you do to try to make her go faster? Kick? Squeeze? Cluck? Kiss?


I would say that most of the time, it's just learned laziness. However, it's never a bad idea to rule out pain if you think that might be the cause. 

Have you ever had a chiro look at her?
Has she ever had a lameness evaluation with flexions?
Has she had her teeth looked at?


If it is indeed learned laziness, I would have your trainer get on your horse to see "what it's going to to take" to get her to respond appropriately. Have you trainer school the horse a bit, and then have you get on and coach you through it. In some cases, a whip really is best. You never want to "nag" with your leg because then they just learn to ignore you. I usually ask nicely twice with my legs, and then if I don't get what I am asking for (in this example, picking up a lope) they will get one swift hard smack with the whip. However, I then pull the horse up after they've cantered for a few strides, because I want them to lope off from a GOOD leg cue ... and not in response to my whip. You never "end the lesson" with the whip cue. Always end with a positive reaction to your aides (legs).


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## CharlotteThePenguin (Apr 2, 2016)

The brand of food she's fed changed, and she did get a new farrier. Her teeth were done in August and the vet said then that they didn't really need to be done, so I'm fairly sure her teeth are not an issue. She's had a chiro out once back in the summer and she said that she's stiff going one way (which we've since worked on, and she's much better). She's never had a lameness exam. But, why is she only doing this sometimes? 

I don't really do much groundwork before riding most of the time, but I do lunge or free-lunge (liberty, whatever you want to call it) usually once a week, and we work on general lunging (walk/trot/canter) along with things like turn on the forehand, backing, etc. 

This has only happened once in a lesson, so this is the first my trainer's actually seen what I'm talking about. Unfortunately, my trainer is quite old (but experienced!) and can't actually ride herself anymore... but I'm taking what I can get and we've improved a lot with her. So asking her to get on is not an option. 

One thing my trainer has been telling me to do is start cantering with really loose reins, because I tend to get a little 'rein happy' and have my reins super short (in my defense, that's how my old trainer taught me to ride :icon_rolleyes: ) so I'm also pretty sure I wasn't pulling on her mouth.

I most certainly could have been unbalanced. I'm not used to having to ask so hard for the canter, so maybe in my squeezing and kicking (if she doesn't pick it up the first time), I'm unbalancing myself and therefore also unbalancing her. 

Usually all it takes is squeezing my outside leg and slightly raising my inside rein for her to canter. My 'asking' cues are squeezing and clucking, and my 'telling' cues are kicking and kissing. She's not good at walk-canter transitions without trotting in the middle, but she does understand that outside leg/inside rein = canter, and after a few trot strides will usually canter. She never struggles with leads either (knock on wood again!). 

I think that maybe she's lazy for the sake of being lazy, but when I start to have to work to ask her to canter, I get unbalanced like beau said, which in turn makes her even less willing to canter. That makes sense to me and goes along with things I've experienced.


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## SteadyOn (Mar 5, 2017)

Does she canter when she's loose in the field?

Will she canter on the lunge line with no rider?

I also find it really strange that you're not allowed to even carry a whip. If anything, most coaches I've had have pushed me to carry one when I didn't want to, not the other way around. Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.


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## CharlotteThePenguin (Apr 2, 2016)

She'll gallop away sometimes in the field. And with the lunge it's the same thing when I'm riding - 85% of the time she'll canter just fine, but the other times I have to ask and ask and ask and sometimes that doesn't work. It's easier on the lunge cause I can kinda 'run' after her and she'll canter then. It's gotten to the point that she ignores me smacking the lunge whip on the ground (I do not touch my horse with the lunge whip), when that used to make her take off immediately. 

I don't see an issue with carrying a crop because I can just drop it on the ground if something goes wrong. But, my trainer has seen Pepper be really high-strung and buck and I guess is afraid of that happening? I really don't know why she won't let me carry one. I used one for a few weeks and then she told me I didn't need it.

I do remember her making a comment that Pepper seemed to be afraid that I was going to hit her with a crop that I didn't have one lesson. It wasn't this past lesson, but a few before that. I don't think I'd even have to hit her with it, just a light tap on her butt that says "hey, I've got this" and she'd pick up her canter. She also seems to think that Pepper was abused before I got her, which I don't really think was happening. I mean, our previous barn had a lot of flaws and was pretty bad, but she wasn't getting hit or anything I don't think. I mean, anything is possible I guess. 

On my lesson when Pepper wasn't cantering my instructor just told me to bring her back to a nice trot instead of trying to canter. Then we turned around and cantered the other way and it took a lot of asking but I eventually got like six canter strides from her. I was irritated that my instructor didn't make her canter (or make me make her canter, rather) because I don't want her to think that she can get away with this. 


I'm (hopefully) riding today and we'll try to canter and see how she goes today.

ETA that my trainer doesn't have an issue with crops in general because both of the other girls in my lesson carry theirs every time they ride, so it's just me for some reason


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## MalNielsen (Nov 2, 2018)

It can easily be hormonal, if it's only sometimes. Moving to a different stable can cause hormones to go mad. It can be uncomfortable for the mare. Difficulty cantering, but not trotting can also be related to tensions or pain in the Croup.


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## CharlotteThePenguin (Apr 2, 2016)

It was too wet to ride yesterday but I rode today and she did it again.

At first, she cantered both ways without issue. A few minutes later I tried to canter again and she refused. She pinned her ears and put her head up and the more I asked the madder she got. She started trying to rear a little bit and it kinda scared me if I'm being honest so I got off and made her work on the ground. She cantered okay on the ground so I got back on and then she cantered fine.

That made me think she's just being a mare and testing me. She's never really been 'rebellious' like this before though, so that worries me too.


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## loosie (Jun 19, 2008)

If you've had the horse a while, only had this prob recently, then I'd be thinkig it was physical. Yes, horses are stoic & can still do stuff sometimes even if it hurts them, due to prior training. Also cantering puts a lot more pressure on different areas than trotting, if it happens to be a saddle fit issue.


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## CharlotteThePenguin (Apr 2, 2016)

loosie said:


> If you've had the horse a while, only had this prob recently, then I'd be thinkig it was physical. Yes, horses are stoic & can still do stuff sometimes even if it hurts them, due to prior training. Also cantering puts a lot more pressure on different areas than trotting, if it happens to be a saddle fit issue.


Thank you! I think I'm going to get the chiropractor to look at her next time she comes (which I think is Tuesday?). And check saddle fit as well.


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