Rodeo!!!

Question
I have a 6 year old Welsh Cob sec C mare, 13.3HH. She is turned out through the day with one other cob, but many other horses surround them so not on their own together, she is stabled in the evening. I bought her wild as a 4 year old and broke her myself slowly.  She has been wonderful and kind natured througout 90% of her training.  She has now decided to rebel.  She has progressed positively throughout all her training, but we have come across our first stumbling block which i have been trying for over 6 months to tackle myself.  Basically she wont canter, occasionally i'll get half a dozen strides, other times i'll get full blown bronking rodeo all the way around the arena.  She does it outside on hacks too.  I cant understand why she is so wonderful in all other aspects but canter, and I'm getting thrown off most times and fear i will loose my confidence.  She is exercised 5/6 days a week. hacked 3 times mostly, and lunged or long reined once, the rest of the time i school her.  We have taken part on a few dressage tests where only walk and trot are required and we get very good feed back, making progressing very frustrating as she wont now.  Can you help me?

Answer
Hi Jennifer!

The first thing you have to decide is the mare acting out of fear, pain, ignorance or defiance?  Because you know her best, you should be able to diagnose this.  If she is cleared by a vet (so it's not pain) then you simply have a training issue.

I would recommend hiring a professional trainer to come out and evaluate you riding her and point out the problem areas you cannot see because you are busy getting thrown off.

While you are longeing her is she cantering correctly?  Off voice aids?  Is she stopping on command?  These are vital exercises on the longe so they can be trasferred to the riding part.  This would cover fear/ignorance or gaps in her training.  

If you think it is out and out defiance...that's another matter.  In this instance, you just have to ride through it and correct her while in the saddle.  Pushing her through this will be very hard and again, you will want to hire a professional....particularly someone knowledgable about ponies.

This is a common problem and it has escalated because she learned she could get you off and ponies can be wicked sometimes.  You need to fix it immediately and safely.

A professional can help and guide you through this with specific plans and exercises to make it safe and permanent.

Good Luck and remember to always wear an ASTM/SEI approved helmet!

Solange