The Big Arena Problem

The Big Arena Problem

Ellen has been having some trouble with Dante in the arena.  Not dangerous trouble--but annoying trouble. 

It started showing up last spring before she started trail riding, again.  Dante was stalling out.  If he was walking, he would stop.  If he was trotting, he would slow down to a walk.  Then, she had trouble getting him going, again.  Talk about frustrating!

Well, in the last few weeks, he took it to a whole new level.  I rode with them in the indoor arena one morning last week, and it seemed like she was fighting with him the whole time.  They couldn't even trot a full lap around the arena.  Now, Dante is always worse if Cole is with him--he likes to stall out whenever Cole comes close to him.  I tried my best to stay away from them, but Dante still kept stalling.

My sister was really blue about it.  We walked Ranger after this horrible ride and did some brainstorming.

I had ridden Dante a few weeks ago, and I didn't have a trace of stalling out.  Now, it could have been the novelty of having someone different ride him at a different time of day and with a different saddle.  Sometimes when you change things up--horses' behavior's will change, too. 

Ellen was all stressed and anxious about it.  Was she doing something wrong?  Was Dante ruined?  Does this mean she won't have any good arena rides with him this winter?  Is it going to be a long winter of frustration?

We needed a plan.

First, we decided that I would ride him the following evening.  She would ride him the next day with me on Cole.

I carried a whip on the ride--something we haven't been doing in the arena.  Basically, the only time I use a whip these days is to keep bugs off Cole's neck and belly and to discourage him from eating branches on the trail. 

The plan was that I would ask him to go forward nicely with my legs and seat.  If that didn't work, I would boot him with my legs--and if that didn't work--I would give him a firm; but not painful--pop with the whip.  If he stalled when I was already going forward--I would jump straight to the whip to discourage him from doing that.  Clarity and consistency--that is what it was going to be all about.

I started the ride at a walk; asking for walk/stop/walk transitions.  They were sticky--so I did what we planned.  I think I only had to resort to the whip 3 times.  After that, I still had to give him a solid boot a few more times.  Then, I started to get decent transitions.  I didn't click him and give him a treat--I just rubbed his neck.  We did a lot of them.

When we moved on to the trot, he really did pretty good.  I only had to use the whip a couple times before he realized that it was better just to keep going.  I trotted all about the arena.  Towards the end of the ride, I practiced transitions and clicked him for the good ones.  This was not the same horse that Ellen rode the day before.

The following morning, I told her all about it.  To help her out, I let her ride the first 20 minutes without Cole in the arena as a distraction.  She did exactly as I did, and her troubles just vanished.  Once I brought Cole in, Dante continued to behave like the well-trained horse he is.  Ellen was able to reward him for good behavior, again.  Finally, she was getting it consistently.  The next day, we did the same thing with the same results.

We decided the whole problem was--as it usually is with horses--operator's error.  Ellen was too slow to correct and not consistent with her corrections.  Dante was confused and did what he did the best--nothing.  When Dante would stall out, Ellen's brain would flash all kinds of things--he was being bad.  He will always be bad.  Is he sick?  Maybe he is hurt, and on and on and on.  She would then miss her opportunity to correct Dante and poor Dante probably thought that he was doing what she wanted him to do.

I didn't have those thoughts in my head.  When I ride, I have very little inner dialogue.  I just ride.  Actually, I think that is one of the reasons I like riding.  It clears my head and puts me in the moment.  It is just me, my horse and what we are doing together.  Ellen is very different than me, and it worked against her.

Once we set the rules, he changed his whole attitude.  He just needed to understand what we wanted.  After all, Dante loves to trot--there was no reason for him to want to stop trotting.

Ellen was so happy!!!!

I asked her what her final sum up of the whole experience was.  I was hoping to get something thoughtful and insightful from her.

Instead, she sighed and said, "It's going to be a long winter of boring arena rides.  I had a problem to work on for a while, but now that's gone."

So much for thoughtful and insightful!  But, it is great that the problem vanished in only 2 rides.