Banana Shaped Jet Propelled Angloarab

[stranger]

Everyso often she thows a 'tantrum'--and when she does she 'bananas around my left leg (always the left leg) and the whole of her right side, from ear to tail says

'Shan't/can't/wont  and so there'

and her mouth is open and she is hanging right with everything shes got and as hard as she can. She can perform this feat at walk trot and canter, in the arena or out in the open when hacking.

Teeth 'back' and tack have been 'cleared'--so its either her rider (me) or her brain.  

I have had, schooled, ridden,   retrained and saddlebroken LOADSA naglets--and never met quite this degree of 'resistance' before.  I have tried 'hanging on and pushing' from the right and I have tried 'letting go and pushing from the left' and I have even tried ('naughty admission here') a good old fashioned 'yank in the teeth' which DID make her let go-temporarily but which obviously aint the answer.

She is in a hollow-mouth German snaffle (in which she is perfectly happy most of the time) which is the right size and is fitted correctly and a treeless saddle.  She does it it the Ansur and the SBS and if its possible I do not want to resort to 'add-ons' in the tack department.  

Yes-she is crooked sometimes-but she can be crooked and 'non-banana' and she can also be crooked and controllable.   I have been told this is an 'arab' thing-but I can't for the life of me see why it should be-and she's not my first arab/PBA by a long way.  

Can anyone come up with some ideas on how to deal with this aggravating evasion and a half?          
 

[Elska]

Everyso often she thows a 'tantrum'--and when she does she 'bananas around my left leg (always the left leg) and the whole of her right side, from ear to tail says

'Shan't/can't/wont  and so there'

It might be an Anglo Arab thing, my friend has a similar thing sometimes with hers.    

Have you had her pevis area checked. Her mare got worse when she pulled her Sacoillic (spelling??) Joint out.  

I'm afraid I am not sure what the best way is to sort it out if it is purely an evasion and not a physical problem.

Abi

[Elizabeth1]

Well, this sounds exactly like the issues I have with Promise.  She's a TB mare and I think it is now a habit that is going to be very hard to break.  I'm sure most of her problems have been caused by a harsh bit and stong hands.  She has been showjumped by teenagers for many years, so everything is accompanied by serious head flipping.  As an 18 year old with arthritis, we are looking to give her a life as a light hack.

I am riding in a Dr Cook bitless bridle and an SBS saddle, which she seems to prefer.  I am concentrating on trying to keep everything as calm as possible, as it seems to be over excitement that cause it.

After a lot of experimentation, I have found that I have to move my right hand out to get her straight and place slightly more pressure on my right seat bone, she will come straight and give me a chance to calm things down again.  If I pull, she gets worse, so everything has to be very gentle.

I can now manage about six strides of canter on each rein, without things getting out of hand again.  I started with three, and built up gradually, through 4, 5 and now 6.  It doesn't only happen in canter, but that seems to be one of the main causes of the excitement that I have some control over.  At least I can deal with it in a controlled environment.

I will be watching this post with great interest for any more ideas.

By the way, my Arab never behaves like this.

[nhbarker]

Elizabeth, Promise sounds very similar to my 20 yr old Ghost   :blink: and we think his behaviour has been caused by similar treatment in his early life...

I am riding in a Dr Cook bitless bridle and an SBS saddle,

This made a big difference to Ghost  - he is still strong but most of the "conflict/angst" is defused.  Having said that, he is also a go-faster adrenaline junkie, and even though he will now do lovely canter transitions (also thanks to barefoot which has enormously improved his movement) they accelerate  - I have never managed 6 nice strides, I don't think, as we get into speed negotiations at about stride 2 and a half...  

Good luck with Promise - I love hearing about oldies getting a new lease of life  

Nic

[cptrayes]

Mmmm. Not nice, Stranger. It's not an unusual TB evasion, but yours has it down to a fine art, doesn't she   .  Has your bit got full cheeks on it so you can actually still use it when she's got her mouth wide open to get her neck back in front of her shoulders again? Then when they are in line, you  have half a hope of getting the back end to follow the front, maybe?

C.

[stranger]

Unfortunately she was allowed to go her own sweet way and had learnt to unseat her previous rider whenever she was 'crossed'.  

She now realises that I don't 'unseat' that easily and so is trying out some new stratagems.  

I do have a full cheek snaffle.  I'll swap it in tomorrow and see what she makes of that.  With or without keepers?      

[cptrayes]

Without keepers is my preference. My own feeling is that the keepers make the joint stick straight up into the roof of the mouth when the reins are taken up. Without them it works just the same as a jointed snaffle but you can steer using the side bar to push the head around.  

Be careful ! My own now 6 year old had a habit at 4 of doing this banana thing and opening his mouth, so that as you tried to get him straight again the bit would slide through his mouth. Once the bit ring was inside his mouth, he used to bolt.
When I put full cheeks on him he was absolutely hopping mad. He plunged around and twisted and turned to evade it for several minutes. Then when he realised he couldn't beat it, he settled and it works really well for him and he has never bolted since. Good luck!

C

[stranger]

Unfortunately my full-cheek snaffle is 5'5inch and too big for her-but I found a 5"  D ring 'racing' snaffle and tried that instead.  Needless to say she behaved like a baby angel today-so the jury is still out on that one--but she did like it.  Its a thinner mouth piece and she seemed happier with that.  I will keep her in it for a while and see what happens next time we 'cross'.    

[shoveltrash]

i hope that the solution for you is *as easy as* a simple bit change!!!
i'll keep checking in to see how things are going....
good luck!
Trish

[stranger]

I rode her back in the Tom Thumb snaffle this morning--she actually seems to like that better than the snaffle 'ordinaire'--and I am quite glad I did because some 'joker' has put a flock of ostriches and some rheas in a field down one of our regular tracks--and she was not at ALL sure that these were what a highly strung Anglo Arab ought to be dealing with singlehanded.  

She NEEDED me though--'AU SECOURS MAMAN-c'est plus des monstres'  (shes french bred you see, and speaks it fluently-especially in moments of crisis) so there was no 'fighting'.  A bit of minor 'panic'--but we were definitely on the 'same side' over this issue.   She grew a hand or two and went terribly 'light'--JUST what I want really--but I don't think I can take a flock of ostriches around with me whereever I go.

[sandpiper]

:lol: Now that would be a sight to see!  Perhaps you can tape record them (do they make a noise?) and play it to her whenever she tries her tricks again ... trouble is you'd have to take a tape recorder around with you  :blink: