Scooby is a 9 y.o. Azteca (QH X Andalusian) pony who needs some re-working. He has beautiful groundcovering movement when correct, but hollows his back and skygazes like crazy when not. He's gotten gate-sour and also has gotten into the habit of balking during up transitions, throwing his head down and taking the reins, rounding his back like he's going to buck.
I made sure I had a good saddle fit, as I was suspicious of back problems. I also need to take a good look at his bit--he's in a D ring snaffle that seems too big and seems to be putting pressure on the roof of his mouth. Will try a couple different bits tonight--mullen mouth or a french link snaffle.
The behavior seems to be a learned response. He was JUST starting to learn framework last year when he was off for the winter. His owner is a hunter/jumper and has been riding him occassionally during the winter break. When he's good, he's very good, but when he "acts up" he seems to try to intimidate his rider.
Getting in the saddle, however, I had a different feeling altogether. I felt pain or pressure somewhere. Hocks, back, or teeth. My bet right now (as I made sure of saddle fit) is on the teeth. A bit change/trying without a bit tonight will confirm this. He seems to have gotten into a habit of expecting to be stopped when being asked to trot. I lunged him (and he was very responsive and sound) and then mounted and re-established the cues for framework--head down, then "nose in") He was very heavy on the reins and was locking his jaw against my requests to soften. I worked on him in small circles, breaking him at the poll, and when he was reliably soft again I started working him in straight lines. Once he was working well in the walk, I started working on transitions. He seemed genuinely surprised that I wanted him to continue on when he balked the first time (no tail swishing, just go-STOP!). I only used the shoulder bat I had once (not going to use a long dressage whip on a bucker, thank you very much!). It surprised him into the trot and he dove his head down almost to the ground, trying to pull the reins out of my hands, and then moved on. As he moved, he went from nose on the ground and pulling to inverted and skygazing, running in the trot. He was highly resistant to returning to a frame (or any semblance of a "normal" rein) and we went back down to walk. In walk, he was heavy on the rein again, but softened.
I gave him his head in the trot transitions, only blocking him when he pulled the rein down, and asking him to continue forward through the balk. Once I got a pattern of reliable transitions when asked (with no balking---only took a few repetitions) I started working on getting him to soften at the poll in the trot too. He tended to go from WAY to high, inverted and running, to WAY too deep and round, rounding his back and feeling like he was going to buck, but moving beautifully. I think that feeling of "buckiness" that he gives has been "yanked up" so many times that he really only knows two ways of going now--too deep and round or skygazing with no contact or control. Trusting he would not buck, I started "putting a floor" on how far down his frame was during his "deep" moments and "putting a ceiling" on how far UP his head was during his worst skygazing. I praised him heavily for every trot stride he did correctly and ANY softening of the jaw he gave me, no matter how tiny, in the trot. I basically gave him "parameters" of how to travel and rewarded him heavily by lots of petting, and letting him stop and walk after contigeous steps of correct trot.
I also started reviewing seat command with him, as he gets VERY fast and downhill in his trot, making you feel like you are rocketing around the ring and should have a sulky strapped behind you. He gets very fast going towards the gate, as expected. I rewarded him very heavily for his response to seat commands in walk/halt and then trot/walk transitions. He was starting to be able to stop almost reinless. When I started trying to sit him and get him to shorten his strides (when he trots he TROTS and marches all around the ring in HUGE strides) he got very resistant and unraveled, hollowing his back, inverting his head and chopping up and down in his trot. This could be because he was working his lumbar in ways he's not used to and me sitting on him, no matter how softly, hurt, or that his hocks were bothering him. It seemed to me to be hocks, but it's hard to tell right now. I really get a feeling like he understood what I was asking, but I was asking him to work through discomfort or pain. I haven't ruled his back out yet, but even before I had gotten on him I did muscle tests for back soreness, stretched his lumbar out etc and he didn't show any sensitivity. Still doesn't mean that's not the problem though.
He did "come back" to me after asking him to move forward and trot on. He leg yeilds nicely, moves his shoulders with indirect rein nicely, and was finally working with a lowered head and more relaxation by the end of the session again. I'll be doing more "detective work" tonight, along with correction work, to see what the cause of his back hollowing/sky gazing problem is. I can train him all day to hold himself the way he's supposed to, and if he's willing to do it through pain he will, but it's not fair to ask him to work like this if pain is causing the problem. I did get him to give me really nice trot transitions off of very light leg very consistantly at the end, though. He happily jumped right into impulsive trot strides from the walk, which was nice to see and feel.
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