How good are your brakes?

minkersmum

minkersmum

Active Member
Aug 4, 2009
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Scotland
So i took my loevly new 'share' pony out for a ahck myself last night. I had him out on Wed and his owner walked on foot with me and he was great, had a canter, all fine. Last night he was great too but when we had a canter he got really strong and i had to ask about 4 times for him to come back to trot, it took about 200 yrds from my first asking to him stopping.

I'm thinking a few things. Firstly that it was our first solo ride, he still has to get used to me and me to him. Maybe his owner asks him to come back in a different way.

Also we cantered on a long stretch and so there was no natural stop. Maybe i'll re think that next time. Also could be a bit where he normally canters whole stretch with his mummy.

Other thing is he is an endurance pony and his owner has had him years. She is much more experienced than me and told me when they hack out she kind of lets him 'dictate the pace':rolleyes:. She did say she knew this wasn't perhaps the right thing to do but she obviously knows him inside out and feels comfortable with that. He does have a reputation for being fast and have been told he can be strong in his canter so at least i was prepared. It didn't panic me at all, but had i gone the same distance again i would have started to worry:eek:.

Am i expecting too much that i would like him to come back at LEAST the second time i ask and within a short distance, say 50-100yrds?

Any thoughts and how good are your brakes???
 
My brakes are usually pretty good but that's only if I'm careful not to school Joy into not having good brakes when we are hacking.

The key with her is not to set up an expectation. Last time we were out on our mid distance fast ride she didn;t have good brakes and that's because I'd been neglecting the thinking side that goes with riding her. Previous rides had for a long time focussed on doing longer and longer more balanced canters so she naturally assumed that day would be no different.

So, next time we are out, it's back to working on transitions and changes of pace within a gait and we'll be doing that on stretches that we have been practsing our longer canters of gallops on ;)

She's a good girl who aims to please so the fault is purely mine and easy enough to fix :cool:
 
I think this pony is just trying to please too. He is a good sort and i didn't feel he was being naughty or tanking off with me. There was just a bit of a communication problem!

I have been thinking about what i should do to get him listening to me and help our communication. I did think lots of transition work would be good, maybe starting with walk/trot/walk and only once he is completely tuned in to me at this pace move onto canter.

He is lovely and his owner too, i really want this to work out.
 
Oh check you hacking alone, cantering away. I'm jealous!!
After the training yard, or homework is lots of schooling work, transitions playing a major part in teaching Flip and I that we have brakes and control. However as he's a bit of an 'all in wrestler' of horses, he does now wear a curb chain with a butterfly bit. It may be in time that we can trade down in bits but this is it for now.
 
Luckily although Victory is very forward going and excitable he is also very sensitive.

Ridden in happy mouth snaffle he always slows down/stops etc when asked thankfully.

Touches wood just in case after 11 years he suddenly decides to do otherwise :D
 
Yeap I am a lucky one with my boy he stops on the first ask......BUT that said we have done lots and lots and lots of schooling in the school and out hacking. I personally would never canter a horse (except for a RS horse ) out on a hack on our second ride. I would want to test the water over a couple of weeks. Learn what aids he listens too and we never canter the same place two hacks running and rarely if every canter towards home!!!

Good luck and let us know how you get one.
 
It may also be that you haven't quite found his buttons. Does sound like you're very much up against ingrained habits too. If he's the sort of horse that stops reliably where he should then I'd be inclined to go with it a bit.

Tess is a very forward going horse, if we get a head of steam up then it can take a little while to slow her down, but she always pulls up :)
 
Jen as a general rule has brill brakes.

Howver sometimes if she's feeling really good and we have a canter she almost asks to keep going. She never feels out of control just hesitates slightly on the first asking. If i carry on asking she does come back. I don't mind too much its nice to know that she enjoys our hacks :)
 
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