# Horse Known to Behave Bad in Shows



## StormWolf68 (May 7, 2015)

The mare I've been riding lately, and absolutely love is known to behave differently when shown.

This is the same mare I asked questions about in another thread. She has since began trusting me more and isn't trying to look around the ring as much, so I'm happy!

I'm progressing well with her, and one day I want to show her, but she doesn't show very well. She sometimes shows great! No problems, but other times I've heard (And seen) she refuses, spooks, and doesn't want to listen.

What should I do? Should I try to show her, or just ride her for fun and take he lesson horse I learned basically everything from instead? I would love to try and show Sugar (The spooky mare)


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## Saddlebag (Jan 17, 2011)

The more she learns to trust you, the better she will be at shows. It takes time. My mare got to the point that as long as I was there, no harm would come to her. But, at the shows I stayed with her as I was all she knew. This kept her relaxed. I took her to where she could have her hay between classes. I never just sat on her and chatted with others. We kept moving if a called class was delayed.


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## Western Dream (Oct 26, 2015)

Work on desensitizing and trailer out as often as you can. The more you expose her to "scary" things the more she will learn to trust you
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Jan1975 (Sep 7, 2015)

Maybe you could just go to a nearby show and ride around a bit. If it's a small local show they might even let you ride around the practice arena a bit. I don't know what it's like where you live, but at our county fairs and club shows, no one would even notice if someone was riding a horse around that wasn't showing.


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## Avna (Jul 11, 2015)

Also consider that she may be disobedient at shows because she is learning she won't be corrected the way she is at home. 

If that's the case, if it is allowed (I know very little about horse shows), you might need to enter some classes just to school your horse (not try to compete, just stay out of people's way).


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## kewpalace (Jul 17, 2013)

Avna said:


> Also consider that she may be disobedient at shows because she is learning she won't be corrected the way she is at home. If that's the case, if it is allowed (I know very little about horse shows), you might need to enter some classes just to school your horse (not try to compete, just stay out of people's way).


This was my thought as well; there were times when I have screwed up in a class because my horse was being naughty, so I used the rest of the class to school her. And sometimes, you just have to go in and school, knowing you will not place and having paid your fee. If the horse knows she won't be corrected in class, might as well write off doing well in any show & chalk it up to training.


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## Woodhaven (Jan 21, 2014)

I was showing a young mare for someone and she quickly learned that in the show ring I would not correct her or push her on. She would go through the motions but just very slow and lazy thinking I would do nothing to correct her.
The next show I told the owner that we were going to use the class as a schooling period and when she sucked back on me I got after her, I guess it was subtle enough that we still placed but she had to learn that she could not get away with this in the show ring.
This was a dressage class so I was alone and not interfering with anyone's ride, but in a class with other horses I would have made sure I was not spoiling anyone else's ride.


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