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misbehaving

20 17:29:12

Question

Azaria
hiya
I have got a exmoor mare who will not stop knapping, i Have only had her for 2 months but i had her on a month trial before and when i had her on that trial she was fine, the occasional knapp but she is only 5 so i wasn't that worried
but now She doesn't listen to my legs, my reins or my body weight, she also keeps yanking, even if her reins are like washing lines, at the moment though she has started to drop her head at walk and standstill but she hasn't made anymore progress in the last month, infact she has probably got worse.
I am only 12 so sorry if i have done anything wrong but please can you give me any tips on how to improve things.
Ellie

Answer
Hi Ellie

No  you have not done anything wrong at all!  Thanks  for getting in touch and I will try and help solve the problem.

Exmoors are not the easiest horses to ride, I used to have one............... stubborn is their middle name!

Ok you  have only had  her a couple of months, and   before that  on trial, and she was ok......... so we have to go back to the start and see where things  have gone a bit astray.

Firstly   do you play any ground games with her, or do any schooling in the  arena  with her at all?  If not then  do some, theres lots of helpful hints   and tips on the BHS website about  games to play  and this might be something you could do to reinforce the bonding process.   Thats whats needed  here first.

She knows  she has to trust you  and you have to be able to trust her, and thats  not quite there  right now.

As for ignoring your legs and hands  then  she hasn;t been taught these signals I doubt, thats something you can work on.  Some schooling would not go amiss here, and she is still a baby in horse terms, still learning her job, so maybe back to the start and begin again the way you want her to be.


She is a bit confused still about the change in surroundings, probably, think if you were taken away from home and put in with strangers, you would feel confused as well, thats her right now, it takes time to settle in.   

Just playu some games, some schooling and then start riding her oout again, I know it sounds boring, but  believe me this will pay off in the long term, time and patience you invest inow  will bring big rewards.

Let me know how things are going.