How do you deal with excitement?

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My horse is 9, loves life and has a “quirky” personality. He’s forward going and sometimes can totally lose his head to excitement.

When he gets a little bit excited I work him (this is always out hacking, he’s perfect in the school) and do lots of lateral stuff, changing of bend, and will have a trot if the ground is ok to release some energy. But sometimes he just loses the plot. The other day he got so excited he bronced and shot off sideways. I just can’t get him back from that, and there’s no reasoning with him. He tucks his head to his chest so I have nothing and will jog sideways then explode. And he winds himself up and it just escalates and become dangerous.

He has bolted 3 times in 3 years, so not a lot but he’s capable of doing it (I’m talking flat out bolting, not just shooting off a few strides). Broncing is his thing, he puts his head on his chest, broncs and then tanks.

I do a lot of groundwork with him, one session a week is dedicated to it and every day I’m working on it just in our daily life (he used to be bolshy and rude but I’m on top of that by staying on top of it). We do liberty work and in the school he’s like a dog both inhand and ridden. He can get a bit excited at shows but he uses the energy wisely and it doesn’t affect his work.

It really frustrates me though, he goes weeks where I can hack on the buckle, then boom, this out of nowhere. There are a few factors which I know can escalate it, so I try and keep his triggers to a minimum (no hacking with more than 3 others for example).

We rarely canter out hacking, I only do it when he’s in a relaxed, calm state and I know he’s listening to me. I can’t canter him if he’s remotely excited, he loses his head even more.

Any tips? I have a lot of lovely, supportive people on my yard who have worked with me for years to try and help tame the beast. And whilst he’s much better than he was, it’s still an issue.

I have two instructors, one for dressage and one who does groundwork/liberty/behaviour and I’ve worked with her on this and will continue to do so. I just wondered if anyone else had any experience? Or do I just have to accept I have a slight nut case?!

I was told by my old riding instructor (back in the 80’s) to trot my mare and when she’s had enough, trot her some more! Not to let her canter as it’s too easy for them.

With my ex racer, he was getting more and more excited the more we did out hacking so I took him back to just walking him on hacks to bore him to death, it appears to have worked until a couple of weeks ago when he went back to full on racehorse mode and buggered off with me. So I’ve gone back to boring him to death again, although to be fair to him, we had a lovely controlled canter yesterday with a steady friend.

You have to find what works for you and look at what you are feeding him. If he has that much energy and is a good weight, he probably doesn’t need much more than hay.

Thank you. That’s the approach I’ve taken with him, bore him. I spent about 7 months just walking him out hacking. It bored me too . Trotting him loads does work, he fights his adrenaline and will only blow out and relax after a significant amount of trotting. However my hacking isn’t the best and unfortunately I have to make do and judge it on how the ground is. I also don’t trot him on the road or any hard ground due to arthritis. You’re right though, I just have to find what works, and accept it!

He’s actually a traditional cob, a short 14.1 tank who thinks he’s a race horse. He lives out 24/7 and is muzzled the entire time. He comes in once a day to be ridden and has a haynet on the yard. He has breakfast every day which is a small handful of happy hoof so I can get his arthritis/joint meds in him and also some salt. But that’s literally it.

He was recently scoped and is clear of ulcers.

Thank you.

Actually I recently put him on a senior balancer which has glucosamine in it, maybe he’s just feeling a bit well He’s always been like this though, my friends say he has a personality disorder, he’s like jekyll and hyde!!

You're doing all the things I was going to suggest.
Have you looked into Connection Training? They do quite a lot around the horse's emotions which you might find interesting. Hannah Weston and Bedingfield have a book of that name and an online group.

I haven’t heard of Connection Training, I’ll look into it thank you. I do find stuff like that interesting, including behaviours (I could easily waste a day away watching herd dynamics and analysing it )

I’ll check it out. Thank you

I'm same OP! Did you have a chance to look into it? Would love to hear what you think..
I also enjoyed Kelly Marks' book Perfect Manners

I have a traddy who would behave like yours. It began about 3 months after I started him at 5yrs. We had done hours and hours of groundwork and he was pretty much perfect in hand. Riding was a little more unpredictable but as he was just been started we made a lot of allowances.

One day, after yet another eventful ride, I googled his symptoms and became aware of PSSM1. I did the genetic test and he was positive P1/P1. I was devastated. There is no treatment per se just managed by diet and exercise but now 5 years on he's a different pony.

The Pssm1 genetic test is done by hair strand and is around £30 to do, I used Animal Genetics. Many Traditionals have this disease, even though many breeders will deny it, some are symptomatic many are not.

The symptoms he is showing are classic. Have a look on You Tube (PSSM and MFM awareness) and also Facebook. There are an awful lot of knowledgeable people around who deal with it on a daily basis and have had really good results.

Good luck OP, I get how hard this is for you, if you need anything happy to PM

I have an ISH who sometimes shows this sort of behaviour although not quite so extreme. Usually very dependable but capable of quite unpleasant “outbursts” from time to time. He was usually much better In the school until a few months ago he had a serious go at bucking me off - it really came from nowhere. Anyway we started investigating any physical causes and a lumbar X-ray showed some dubious-looking changes but the behaviour hasn’t been repeated for the vet, so he wasn’t able to give a definitive diagnosis of kissing spines which is what I suspected.
We are currently working with a physio to change his posture and build up his back and core strength. However the kiss is never far from my mind and it did occur to me on reading your post and especially the sporadic nature of the behaviour that there might be something like that going on (sorry - I realise this must come across as very pessimistic).
Otherwise you are doing everything I was going to suggest! Our groundwork trainer was very keen on keeping the head below the level of the withers in any spooky situations so that endorphins are released. She also recommended leg yielding as a particularly good exercise for disengaging the hindquarters if you suspect there is going to be an explosion.

Yes I briefly looked at connection training on their website, I struggled to find what it is they actually do though! I read about who they are and what their goals are, but not how they were achieved. Maybe I missed it, I’ll look again!!

That’s interesting Glasses. He doesn’t display any of the main symptoms of PSSM, he doesn’t tie up, sweat excessively, have sore muscles etc but I’ll definitely keep it in mind if things don’t improve. He’s a rescue so I have no idea what his breeding is. Might be worth getting it checked out anyway just to rule it out. Thank you.

He has physio every 2/3 months and whilst I appreciate she’s not a vet she always says how strong he is through his back and how his muscles are all built up correctly. He works well from behind and is a dressage diva when his arthritis isn’t failing him!

He has a naturally low head carriage and works great long and low, so when we’re hacking I take advantage and school him in the field, for reasons that you mention Celia. He has a very good natural outline and is light in the mouth, he works correctly and has self carriage. He just can’t keep a lid on it sometimes!!

Thank you all for your advice and input, it’s been taken on board and I’ll look into it all x

When I say he doesn’t display any of the symptoms of PSSM, I meant physically. But behaviour wise it’s definitely something I need to look into. Sorry thought I’d just clarify what I meant!

Sorry me again

So I was sat watching him yesterday bite and tear chunks off a salt lick. He has one tablespoon of salt a day, it used to be two but he stopped eating his feed as he got the smallest of handfuls of chaff (he’s over 500kg). So I’ve upped him again to two tablespoons to see if that satisfies his salt cravings. He gets balancer now and slightly more chaff so hopefully he’ll eat it.

I did more research on salt and minerals and it seems he has a lot of the symptoms of magnesium deficiency. I’m quite into nutrition and over the years I’ve done a lot of reading on the subject so I know how magnesium splits the horse world! I’ve bought some magnesium oxide to try (the 98-99% stuff) so will see how that goes. If it sends him even more crazy I’ll know it’s not that but it’s worth a try. I don’t know how much blood tests cost to check his levels, so I’ll just take the risk! If it works it works, if it doesn’t it doesn’t!

Sorry I got confused, the Mylee ones were the mid range I think, not the cheapest!

There’s so many

Wrong post, ignore me

The sense of loss of control can be so scary...I recall a lesson where I was riding a horse that wasn't used to being in a school, and got more and more excited, and finally just took off in canter. There followed a session of fast canter around the school, that felt like hours and hours to me, but probably only lasted a minute or two, with the instructor bellowing at me to keep him cantering (and into the outside rein: "why is the inside rein not hanging like a washing line yet?!!") at the point when the horse wanted to drop to trot...the point was that in the end, we were cantering, and deciding not to canter any more, on my terms, not his.

The idea was, if the horse takes off in canter, take him up on it, and insist he keep cantering, even if he'd rather stop now. It's bloody scary! And my instructor did warn that it took a safe space, e.g. big field, in which to do so, and overcoming one's inner desire to stop, in order to give that initial "Wahey! You want to canter? OK, let's do it! FASTER!". But...it worked. After a few circles of mad canter, he started listening again, and then it was indeed on my terms. It was an important lesson...the follow-up point was: "If you never ask for the top gear, or allow the top gear, in training, how will you build in brakes or control there?"---so build it into your training, by deliberately finding a place to ask for it. I favour slight up-hill slopes, with a slightly unfit horse.

One suggestion was to start by galloping half way up, then stopping for grazing, then continuing: a big field doesn't always mean run like mad. Or two exercises when going out with companions: 1. in a big field, canter away from the group, and walk back. 2. on a track, leap-frog: canter past a walking horse, and then walk while it canters past you, and repeat. You can start either of these in trot, and build up speed. I learned it in the context of training a hunter, but it applies equally well to an Endurance or hacking horse: to be able to be passed, and to pass, at various speeds.

My cob mare is like this. Also 9 and 14.1/2

What works is working her all the time. I mean I treat every moment as if I'm schooling her. So we are always leg yielding always doing transitions in the pace, turn in the forehand - wherever we are. I have to make her think all the time.

Shoulder in - never straight lines.

A true leg yield (with legs crossing) is so useful for her. Even better than a circle when she goes into bog off mode. Means I nearly always ride with contact and inside bend - even out and about as this seems to switch off the part of her brain that says I'm in charge around here and will do as I please.

Tires her brain out as if I let her trot on and canter as much as she wants (which I do sometimes) I'd be typing this from her back!

Yesterday she was freshly clipped and in turbo mode so I sent her in in canter. And on and on. And when she decide she'd had enough gave her a tap and said on you go. She was outraged and we had a few proper turbo moments but then she relaxed. And then I carried in with leg yields and extended/collected walk and she was a pleasure rather than sitting g in a powder keg.

From those multiple typos you'd be forgiven for thinking I am indeed typing from her back.

I'm not.

I sit quietly and gulp sip gin