ridecamp@endurance.net: [endurance] balking gelding

[endurance] balking gelding

Raina Hodgson (srponies@seanet.com)
Sun, 30 Jun 1996 07:07:13 -0700 (PDT)

I'm posting this problem for a friend, in hopes to make our rides
together better for all. Her horse -- an 11 year old, recently gelded (1
year ago) Polish Arab, will *not* lead on the trail. He will follow other
horses through, over, or around anything but if he is put in front of
another horse he simply stops. He doesn't appear afraid, or try to turn
around, he simply doesn't move forward, or after much encouragement he will
walk, but only a few strides before he stops again.
On our last ride, we tried to have him lead for a little while and
then just as his rider felt like he was about to stop, she would ask him to
"whoa" and then praise him and try to go forward again. If he did a stretch
of trail well (this happened primarily on the way home) she would stop him
and let my mare lead for awhile, then we would switch back. These methods
were tried with and after traditional methods (leg aids, crop, tree branches
etc -- which did not help at all).
At no time during the ride did the gelding show any signs of back
pain, leg pain, or fatigue... In fact, throughout the "walk a few steps and
stop" phase of the ride, his heartrate stayed in the 60's.
My friend has done a few limited distance endurance rides with
Allah, and hopes to do more, but this problem seems to be getting worse
instead of better and can really slow down training rides :>
Any and all suggestions would be appreciated, please e-mail me
directly. Thanks! Raina <srponies@seanet.com>