Does Anyone Else have an Unpredictable Horse??

sjp1

Well-Known Member
Sep 14, 2009
7,004
462
83
Tobes is unbelievably unpredictable!! I think this is what caused me a year or so ago to have such a confidence issue on him.

He can sometimes be bomb proof and sometimes can double barrell at cars/trucks/tractors etc.

He is not at all scared of traffic, he just gets annoyed if it passes too close or too fast. We have gone past low loaders with whacking great machines on the back, great logging vehicles, trailers, boxes, you name it.

But on certain days, only decided by Tobes himself, he is in FULL ON spooky mode!! Like this morning. Birds flying out of hedges, ghosts around every corner, but a load of sheep having broken out onto a lane was fine, as was flashing lights from a truck at 7.20 am this morning because we have this HUGELY annoying Ironman Contest in this area.

He certainly keeps me alert!!
 
Mine isn't too bad, he can have the odd spook in him, and can get very strong occasionally. My favourite hacking partner is very unpredictable, he can be in donkey mode one day, a spooky mess the next day (and his spooks are fairly dramatic) and a loon that tries to take off every chance he gets the day after that!
 
Yes unbelievably unpredictable. Today for example I went for a hack round the fields. Womble was a nightmare and looking for an excuse to gallop off. Shying, throwing himself about.

2 days previously he had hacked out like a diamond and we had a fantastic hack. I never know a ride will pan out :( doesnt make me enjoy him any less. Just uber aware of our surroundings
 
Yes but to me that's predictable? If you know your horse is either a or b, then that's predicted.

I know somewhere on any hack she will have a startle at "something"
She is very green its expected, its little birds as it goes, or parked cars.
If mine so much as lifted a hoof at a car she would get corrected with a tap down the shoulder. I do get a head toss if we have had to pull in, yet again, for traffic to pass. I am on the very narrow lanes, if she did anything to kick I would tap.
Sometimes I may spin, sometimes I may shoot forwards, horses do even the bombproof ones.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Trewsers
Not this one no, she does have her moments but I can always tell when she's going to have one.
Oscar on the other hand was a different kettle of fish, he would be calm and safe and quiet and them bam out of no where and I really mean no where, he'd be like a different horse and I could never know when it was going to happen, it was like someone flicked a switch in his lovely head, even my best yard friend who is a very competent and not nervous in any way wouldn't ride him because of it.
You can't say he was predictable in that you knew he was unpredictable as by it's very nature being unpredictable in itself is exactly that, you just never knew when he would.
 
Jess is 98% of the time really good, we have met fire engines with full blues and twos, army trucks in convoy and all manner of scary things on the road, we regularly go down the high street, cross rivers, level crossings, go under tunnels and go off roading where she has to make her own path. She will sometimes kick at cars bikes or anything that comes into her space too quickly but that is since we were nearly taken out by a car and a load of racing bikes on seperate occasions.

However, saturday we met some scouts in the forest, being very polite they were all walking quietly in a line so we could pass (head on to them) and the little witch spun and tried to tank for home...twice! The scouts all stood waiting very patiently after the 2nd spin and she complied with passing them but had to canter past sideways, half up the bank, snorting. In the same ride we crossed the river, a cart had been through before us and on the outward bank there were....tyre tracks!!!! :eek: we froze, snorted, and when i gave a bit of a pony club boot, leapt diagonally up the bank smacking me in the face with a tree, all because they might eat her :rolleyes:
 
Ginger is 98% excellent the 2% when the halo slips are OK just a horse being a horse really nothing out the overly scarey just plants and can jog a little takes a pull when cantering behinh but actually really good.

Chanter is completly different and I love him for it. But both are very good in traffic and thats my main concern
 
Yes but to me that's predictable? If you know your horse is either a or b, then that's predicted.

I know somewhere on any hack she will have a startle at "something"
She is very green its expected, its little birds as it goes, or parked cars.
If mine so much as lifted a hoof at a car she would get corrected with a tap down the shoulder. I do get a head toss if we have had to pull in, yet again, for traffic to pass. I am on the very narrow lanes, if she did anything to kick I would tap.
Sometimes I may spin, sometimes I may shoot forwards, horses do even the bombproof ones.


Yes I would also say this means predictable - and that's what worries me about hacking my Storm, she is daft at times and will spook at some point - and I can almost predict her reactions to certain items.
 
I took the cob out today and she was on spooky snort as soon as we set off. The farmer has cut the fields for hay adjacent to the yard.
Collapsed grass-spooky
Open gate-omg I will die spooky
New tarmac-spooky
Pigeon flapping spooky.
Two scooters-scary anyway!
Pretty much anything was included.

She is either a barely spooks chilled out calm little ploddy, or she really makes the effort to be on another planet. Predictable.

 
  • Like
Reactions: Trewsers
I think most horses can be spooky at times and plods at others, often because of diet or because something at the start of the ride sets them off and they stay on high alert for the rest of the ride, or maybe something has happened during the day before you've ridden that's wound them up, such as a nearby field being ploughed, shooting in the next field etc.

However I get the feeling that with Toby it's a bit more than this - I get the impression that that horse very much has a mind of his own and a very active mind at that. I think he does have genuine 'moods' and whilst most horses will go for the 'quiet life' option Toby is always ready to argue back!
 
I think most horses can be spooky at times and plods at others, often because of diet or because something at the start of the ride sets them off and they stay on high alert for the rest of the ride, or maybe something has happened during the day before you've ridden that's wound them up, such as a nearby field being ploughed, shooting in the next field etc.

However I get the feeling that with Toby it's a bit more than this - I get the impression that that horse very much has a mind of his own and a very active mind at that. I think he does have genuine 'moods' and whilst most horses will go for the 'quiet life' option Toby is always ready to argue back!

How right you are - sigh!!!

Lovely retired lady at my previous yard who doted on Tobes and his everchanging moods and thankfully brought him in for me nightly because I was back too late from work, and he was naughty for lots of people to bring in, often commented on his 'moods' She said that she would say to him 'what has happened in your day to make you so cross' and just dealt with him beautifully.

He is very much a marmite horse I think. He very much likes YO's 12 year old daughter. Is not very keen on YO, so is naughty and difficult for her, but on Saturday OH and I had no help on the farm and one of the lads who works for us rides point to point and we had promised we would come and watch him, Saturday was the last P2P of the season so we had to go, and had to go to a party in the night, and I had the lambs and the eggs to do as well, so asked 12 year old if she would get him in from the field on Saturday evening, give him his supper, take his fly mask and over reach boots off and I would pay her.

Text YO to check all had gone well as was concerned he may have been naughty for her as she is a little waif of a child, but no, he had been excellent, this had impressed her friends who were staying for the weekend as apparantly he 'has a reputation'!!!

I so would love an easy horse, but would be dreadful as a dealer because I just become so attached to them and could never move him on!!! The words of the dealer that I bought him from often ring out to me with the tone of surprise in her voice 'he really likes you'. At the time I thought it was a load of flannel from a dealer, but as time goes on, I am not so sure!!!
 
I can't say mine has moods-unless you count the in season grump, though sometimes she is very very friendly with you shall we say.
When I viewed her I was told if she didn't like me I couldn't have her. If she likes you, she will work with you. Those on the yard who don't like "cobs" she doesn't like them and actively enjoys following those nervous of her.
But, she has been led in by a 80 year old granny and shuffled along behind like butter wouldn't melt. She adores children. I find her easy to deal with but she isn't to everyone's taste.

P.s we need some pics of the lovely Tobes :)
 
I think most horses can be spooky at times and plods at others, often because of diet or because something at the start of the ride sets them off and they stay on high alert for the rest of the ride, or maybe something has happened during the day before you've ridden that's wound them up, such as a nearby field being ploughed, shooting in the next field etc.

I remembered you mentioning this. On the day mine was on high alert I put it down to the hay cutting.
Later it came to light we had blues and twos after a rider fell. This was four hours before we set out. She has been fine since.

If we are in the middle of changing fields and we go out, again she is on edge-but what horse wouldn't be.
 
Well, yeah, mine was ridiculously unpredictable to the point of being unrideable! Except by someone who had aspirations to be a rodeo cowboy/girl anyway. Mind you, I could tell from the moment I got on her whether she was going to be good or bad (if she was broncing me off, it was definitely the latter! ;-) )
 
But didn't yours turn out to have a physical reason? I can't recall what the latest is.
My friends who used to bolt/buck had kissing spines.
 
But didn't yours turn out to have a physical reason? I can't recall what the latest is.
My friends who used to bolt/buck had kissing spines.
Nope, no physical reason. All tests and Xrays, they showed up nothing. Purely behavioural (as far as I know, anyway, there may have been something underlying but nothing the vet could ever find.)
 
Agree! We don't see enough of him.

I hope you don't think I was being rude about Toby SJP1 - he's one of my favourite horses on the board and definitely one of the biggest characters!

No, of course I don't think you were being rude, he is a right stroppy git quite often!!

And MUST try harder on photo front NF!!
 
newrider.com