# Suggestions for an excited trail horse



## reayve (Feb 10, 2018)

Hello!

I'm looking for some training suggestions for my mare. She's a rescued trail horse and over the last 2 years that I've owned her, we've come a long way in terms of riding together. She only knew how to follow and had no clue how to pick up cues for trot/canter. Now we w/t/c and just started galloping some of our trails together!

My problem is once we get going, she puts her head up against the bit and trying to get her to put her brakes back on is becoming a challenge. She's perfect at a walk but just gets so excited to stretch her legs and be a horse now. And on a side note, this behavior is only when we're on the trails together. In a ring, she's completely sour and trying to encourage her to trot/canter is a challenge all on its own.

Does anyone have any suggestions on ways I can encourage her to keep her head down? I've been thinking about using a martingale or tie-down but I'd much rather use that as a last resort. Thank you!


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## RedDunPaint (Aug 23, 2015)

I am by no means a trainer, but I can offer what I do with my mare when she gets excited or tunes me out. I sponge and gently play with the reins to get her to soften to the bit. Half-halts also help.


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## phantomhorse13 (Feb 18, 2011)

Start by trotting only very small amounts, so that you are back to walking _before_ she gets all excited. Praise the heck out of her for walking. Trot again, hopefully being able to go a bit longer (and that may only be 1 or 2 strides longer). Walk. Lots of praise. Rinse and repeat, likely over the course of many rides. Practice bending if you aren't already, so you can use that to redirect her when she wants to rush forward. Circles around trees can also be very helpful just to give her something else to think about. Biggest thing with a hot horse is to do your best not to let them get themselves all worked up to start with.


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## Fimargue (Jun 19, 2015)

Forget the head. Just focus on pacing her. Lots of trot-walk transitions to keep her attention in you. When she goes well in trot, keeping the same pace, you can start re-introducing canter. If you have any hills, I would active walk her up and down those hills.

Of course you could also let her run and when she wants to stop you make her run some more. Unless she can do a flat out gallop that goes on forever. And for this you need to be sure to have steering.


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## charrorider (Sep 23, 2012)

I have a rescue Arabian that, at first, wouldn't canter, he'd gallop. I cannot offer any suggestions for in the ring, since I've never ridden in one, other than a couple of times to try horses out. Of course, wet saddle blankets take care of many problems. But try canter on the way away from home, not on the way back. Make certain you are not grabbing with your legs. Sit deep in the saddle and put some pressure on one rein, like if you were about to do a one rein stop. That helped with my Arabian a lot. The only thing was that as soon as I released the pressure, he would pick up speed to a gallop, again. But eventually, he figured it out. Good luck.


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## reayve (Feb 10, 2018)

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone! I'll start doing some more transitions with her. I live in Canada and we just got a decent snowfall with a mild temperature so she's going to be working hard this week.

Luckily, once I get her back to a walk, she's well behaved again. She just gets excited when we first start trotting (she settles into a good pace pretty quick) and when we shift from trot to canter.


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## BlueSpark (Feb 22, 2012)

I ride mostly ottb's that are typically pretty hot. A couple things.

One, you need to soften your horse up and get her giving properly to bit pressure and stopping well at slow speeds, if she doesn't already.

Two, if she's very frisky right off the bat, start your ride with concentrated work. Figure 8's, circles, hip yields, use trail obstacles, like posts or trees, to weave at a trot. Doesn't take too long doing focused work at a trot and canter before taking a break looks very appealing.

Three, she needs to learn to stay at whatever speed you ask for. So start by asking for a trot. As long as she trots on a loose rein, leave her alone. As soon as she breaks into a canter, circle tightly enough with one rein that she drops back to a trot, then head off back down the trail. Try at a walk and eventually a canter. Breaking gait becomes more work than it's worth.


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## reayve (Feb 10, 2018)

Thanks again from your suggestions, everyone!

We went on a decent hack today. I wasn't sure how it was going to go since we haven't been on a ride in two weeks and we went by ourselves which we don't do very frequently. We have a looped trail in the woods near our barn that's shaped like a 'P' so we did a whole bunch of quiet walk/trot transitions on the way to the loop. We did some walk/trot/canter in the actual looped part.

We went to go do the loop a second time but my mare was pretty angry that I made her turn around instead of going home so at one point we did an accidental gallop in the loop instead of a nice trot. Oops. She came back under control pretty quick and we nicely walked ourselves home after that. 

Hopefully the nice winter weather sticks around because I'd like to do more transitions before the ground turns to spring mud.


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