Should he stay or should he go? Dealing with a nappy horse

Our new ‘School Your Horse Help Desk’ has been busy. Lorraine received several questions along the lines of the one below and we also got yet another one on our Facebook page. Nappy horses can be the bane of owners’ lives and we ought to know as we’ve got one ourselves!

Reader’s Question: “My new horse is extremely nappy. On a ride he stops, rears and spins round. He’s good in every other way but it’s starting to frighten me. I thought having my own horse was going to be fun. Do you have any advice for me – I don’t know what to do.” 

The first thing you’ve got to do is give the horse the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps he is in pain so check back, teeth, saddle fit, the bit and anything else that might be upsetting him. Perhaps he’s nappy because he’s young, inexperienced and doesn’t like going out on his own. He should have a sensible leader horse to start off with – this is also safer for you, the rider. But years later ours will still try to nap if he thinks he can get away with it and one dressage trainer described him as ‘intelligent’! He is certainly cleverer than our other horses and learns quickly.

The disadvantage of owning a brainy horse is that he also learns bad habits (or what he can get away with) quickly too. Lorraine suggests in her answer that you need to keep a nappy horse moving forward at speed and this definitely worked for me on the road. When the gelding tried to stop and spin around, I pushed him into trot and kept him trotting until he was well past what he was objecting to. When he napped again, he had to trot again. It was much harder for him to stop and turn around when trotting. How do I know he is clever? Well, when he passes the half way point in the circuit of road, he goes forwards of his own accord without any messing as he knows he is heading home! No more napping once past that point.