Dominant Qtr

Question
Hi,

I am working now with the most dominant mare I've ever worked with. She has such sweet ground manners, but a completely different story when your on her back. She is extremely smart as well! She loves to go out and work, but you'd better hang on. This mare is around 7 yrs, and I couldn't tell you what happened to her in the past. It's as if someone never asked her to stop. Yet, she knows so well how to back and it's beautiful and very willing.

We have been working with her as time allows, and have taken her from a very prancing walk to a very calm and trustworthy walk. We even made it to the point of a posting trot around a circle about 3 times before she bolts. The bolting is very bad - she could win a barrel race for sure and though we can now get her to stop after the bolt, we can't keep the bolt from happening.

Part of me just wants to throw a Western saddle on her and ride her until she's too tired to want to run. Problem is, she can out-run us for sure as she's in such good shape. Not to mention our trainer was helping and wanted us to finish Hunter / Jumper before moving to Western because she was certain that the western saddle was hurting her non-existent withers.

Everyone that sees this mare loves her, but I would love to be able to have a sane horse to ride.

My main question:  Now that we are in a bit of a posting trot with minimal success, what is the next step? Just ride her until she decides not to bolt? And when she does bolt, how many times do we keep on correcting her and starting over?

Thanks!

Kristy  

Answer
Hi Kristy,

First of all, thank you for writing in. From what I gather from your question you say the mare is fine on the ground but bolts under saddle. Riding her until she is too tired to bolt will probably not fix your problem. Most horses have much more stamina than we give them credit for. And most riders will quit and say THEY (the rider) is tired way before the horse does. On top of that, it would only build up the stamina of the horse much the same way a human runner builds up his stamina by running longer and longer distances. Does this make since to you? I hope so. The way I have handle this problem in my training is as follows. There are several exercises you use to train this mare to settle down and wait on your cue. I call it the "random cone course". You can use traffic cones or rocks, bushes or most anything you want. It doesn't matter. Place your cones randomly in the arena about 50ft apart. Don't have them in a pattern. Just scattered about. Do a posting trot toward one of the cones. It doesn't matter which one. Just pick one out and post-trot towards it. If she begins to bolt, do a one rein stop with her and wait until her feet quit moving and she relaxes. VERY IMPORTANT. She must do both. Stop moving her feet and relax. When she does that, continue on to the cone at a posting trot. If she doesn't bolt, just before you get to the cone, sit and put her in a tight circle around the cone. Do 3-4 circles around it at a sitting trot. If she drifts out from the cone use your outside leg to push her back in. If she fads in use your inside leg to push her out. Keep her trotting around the cone for 3-4 circles as I suggested. Then just look up and pick out another cone. Don't plan ahead. The first cone that your eye picks up will be the next one you post-trot to. Do the same thing over and over to all the cones. Never take your eye off of the cone that your circling. At first your circles will be ugly and out of shape. Don't worry about that. They will get better. This may take a while for her to pick up the concept but be patient. Keep working on it. She will find that she won't be in such a hurry to bolt off somewhere because all she will end up doing is turning tight circles once she gets there. Once she gets good at a trot, you can move it up to a canter. Do the same exercise. Canter to the cone, sit and trot around the cone in tight circles for 3-4 times. Don't move to the canter until she is very good at a trot.
The next exercise involves the rail. If at anytime during the exercises she bolts on you or moves into a faster gait, one rein stop her as described before. Post-trot her down the rail. Trot for about 5 paces, sit and slide your outside hand down the rein. Pull her head into the rail and stop. Do this over and over again increasing your distance between stops. When she gets good at that you can do the same thing but not stop. Just trot her and when her gait changes to a faster gait, sit, pull her head to the rail until she slows down and then move on at your requested trot. As before, once she is good at this you can move on to a canter. But do not move to a canter with either of these exercises until the trot is down pat. Remember, if you feel resistance at a trot, the resistance will be much worse at a canter. Sort of like a steering wheel shaking in your car. If it shakes at 30mph, then the shake will be much worse at 50mph.
I hope this has helped answer your question. Please stay safe. If you have anymore questions or having problems with these exercises please feel free to get back in touch with me. Or you can e-mail me at my facility. Yazoo Equine Training. The e-mail is blpdoc82652@yahoo.com
Let me know how it is going. I always like to follow up.
Take care and thank you.