At 00:36:12 on 29.12.11, nut_lover wrote:
well the time has come when i need you again :) nutmeg recently has been a bit of a handful to ride. she would pretty much refuse to canter unless we used a crop and isnt consistent with her gait. the other day i came up with a solution to keep her on her toes and listening to her rider by doing lots of transitions and lead changes etc. so today i went to ride her again and she was a huge bundle of energy and was more then happy to canter and half the time i was trying to stop her trotting when i wanted her to walk lol :D so anyway i decided to put up a small jump (approx 50cm) and she just kept refusing it until once again i brought out my crop. but it is strange that she has started doing that because just last week she was jumping keenly over them with no issues at all but now it is taking so much effort and i have no idea why. any ideas or solutions?? this is a pic taken just last week...

At 02:53:01 on 29.12.11, MsBeanie wrote:
Nut_Lover, it could be anything - I'm not at all a big jumper myself (haven't gotten to that point yet) but I'm pretty good with horse body language and by what you describe, maybe she's a little sore? And, she IS a mare and my own tends to have some modd swings here and there, she also could be acting up becuase of the weather. I hope I've helped at least a little, good luck :)

At 07:07:31 on 29.12.11, Reggyroo wrote:
I agree with Nut_Lover. How many days a week do you ride her and for how long? She may jut need a few days rest...

At 03:51:12 on 30.12.11, nut_lover wrote:
well recently i just gave her about 4 days rest over christmas and that is why i am so baffled! i am pretty sure it is not the weather because the acting up started when it was hot but today it was nice and cool which is nutmegs ideal weather. i am pretty sure she is not sore either as she is showing no signs of discomfort and is still happy to bolt of with me on her lol :D but yea...... she so confusing haha :) anymore ideas??

At 02:32:37 on 31.12.11, JessAndGrenville123 wrote:
How often do you jump her? She may be a bit bored of jumping (like me haha) grenville doesn't jump more than once every 2 weeks because although he LOVES it he will get bored and he just starts refusing and being a complete dink, also you said she was on her toes that day, maybe her concentration was off because she was too excited? If none of the above tell me and i will think up some more ideas ;)

At 06:41:07 on 02.01.12, nut_lover wrote:
it might be that she is bored of it. i only have one jump where i ride and it is always in the same place so maybe she is bored of the same thing over and over. i can jump her quite regularly cause i love it lol so maybe i could try switching it around a bit :) i dont think it is because she wasnt concentrating though cause she jumps best when she is flightly and stuff lol :D but anyway i hoping to ride tomorrow and test your theory :)

At 23:30:37 on 02.01.12, LegendHorses wrote:
make her routines more fun instead of running in circles. Try doing cones or zigzags. MAke it fun for the horse, not jut running and random jumps. make it run jump jump run pole bending etc

At 04:06:08 on 04.01.12, nut_lover wrote:
ok well i have good news :) i went to ride today and nutmeg was her normal self again! she was very energetic lol and i had to continueously pull her back when she wanted to trot but i wanted her to walk lol (typical nutmeg) and i put up a jump today but i put it in a different spot then it usually is and i also made it a spread. usually i get nutmeg to jump uprights. and also the place where it is has a slight downhill to it so it is more of a challenge for her :) i didnt jump it that many times as i think she got bored just going over it again and again so i only did it about 6 and called it a day :)