walking off and stopping completely

Question
My 23 year old appaloosa mare tends to completely refuse to respond to any of my commands after about an hour of riding.  I have already taken into account the chance of the saddle being uncomfortable, her back being weak or poorly aligned, or that I possibly overworked her.  Her saddle is fine, as is the saddle pad, her back is strong, along with being perfectly aligned.  And I tried walking her for an hour with the same result.  When I get off her to check the saddle after this period of time, she will always walk back to the barn (I ride in the pasture, don't worry there are no other horses except April who is always being ridden while my horse is), which is extremely frustrating.  How do I stop this behavior?

Answer
Hi Jessyka!  You have a VERY smart horse!  She is saying, "What is the Point?"  She needs a REAL job.  This is the same behavior that arena horses develop...BORING is what they are saying!  Pasture or arena anything that is the same old thing has very little to offer to your horse.  Go any where!  Just get out of the same boring place or set up some trail horse obstacles.  Bridges, walk overs, tarps, small logs to jump, water, trot poles, Lilly pads...use your imagination!  Go crazy! Find some cows to work, or the neighbors dog, or the kid next door!  Get her really comfortable with a flag, tarp and a slicker and then ride with them.  Go get the mail, check fences, gather up trash, pick berries...all horseback!  Think of all the things your horse will have to do to get this done!  Sidepass, back up, leg yield, haunch turns, forehand turns...on and on and on!  This is real work and your mare will know it.  

Jessyka, I want you to treat these things like a real job too.  You will have to ride with real purpose and meaning.  Your horse will know if you feel this stuff is fake.  Do real jobs that help out in the barn.  My horses will move bales of hay.  I get down my rope, rope up a bale and drag it out to the pasture to be fed.  I load up my saddle bags with a drill and fencing supplies and fix fence horseback.

I'll bet you big bucks that this will make a real change in you and your horse.  Give it a try.  Keep me posted.  Oh, almost forgot, my website is now up and running.  I'm doing it myself and I have lots of work to do, so bear with me.  I'll have lots of good links and training diagrams and pictures to share so give it a look.  Laurelmountainfarms.com

Smiles and Miles!  Denise