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Thread: how to correct a pacer that pulls

  1. #1
    Junior Member Foal Cindy will become famous soon enough
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    Cindy Molyneux
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    how to correct a pacer that pulls

    Our pacer has a nasty habit of pulling and not wanting to stop when doing a training mile. Looking for suggestions to correct this nasty habit. Thanks

  2. #2
    Senior Member Stallion Danno is a jewel in the rough
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    Dan Gibson
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    G'day Cindy,
    that question is one of the most commonly asked, with a similarly sized plethora of possible solutions.
    Many will tell you to try this driving bit or that piece of headgear, and sometimes some of that will help, however that usually depends on how long the horse has been in the "habit", cos more often than not, the habit was formed early in the horses working life and has gotten worse rather than better with time.

    I have found greater success with trying to firstly understand what situations have triggered the onset of the habit and then designing strategies around re-skilling the horse...ie; allowing him/her to learn different reactions to well known situations...this is not guaranteed to work...however if you are patient, observant, open minded and in tune with your horse your chances of success are greatly enhanced.

    One example is a horse that came into my yard, who was trained previously by the people who bred him, was well cared for by those people and they had raced him quite successfully down to a tight mark in the country, however his pulling habit meant he was not competitive in Sydney ( sorry I'm in Aus) where the competitiion is quite a bit harder.

    The horse used to fire up when another horse worked near him, so rather than avoid that situation we worked him every day ( to start with in his slow work) with at least one other horse right up against him, when he started to relax with one horse near, we brought another horse or two in and gradually over about six weeks of jogging the horse is jogging around very relaxed with all his new buddies... we then took it small steps at a time with his faster work, while we were building him up to race fitness, sure there were some little triggers that we had to avoid along the way, and that's all about observing the horse and understanding what is setting this off, but hey! we gave him his first start and he ran a great race in beating all but the winner and then off he went and was a great horse to us winning several times in Sydney against horses that were leaving him for dead previously, in fact MANY people asked the question "how did you stop him pulling?" and my stock answer was "worked on his mind a little bit". that horse was only one of quite a few we have turned around...you just need to listen to the horse, he will tell you what is setting him off if you take the time read him.

    cheers,
    Dan

  3. #3
    Junior Member Foal Cindy will become famous soon enough
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    Cindy Molyneux
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    Thanks so much. We have a horse trainer working with our horse. He is trying to re-train her and go back to basics. She will now walk around the track in both the race way and jog way of the track. my husband is training her and once she starts to jog she just wants to go, however over the last couple of weeks she has been responding to cues for stopping, backing up and turning. Also, we have had a chiropractor work on her and also some accupuncture has been done. The vet suggested that we give her a Chinese herb for twelve days. He also thought that perhaps her liver may not be functioning 100% when she is training hard or racing and will be looking into that next week. Thanks again for your insight. She has shown a real desire to do well and so we will have to be patient with her recovery.

  4. #4
    Senior Member Stallion Danno is a jewel in the rough
    Real Name
    Dan Gibson
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    Hunter Valley NSW Australia
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    Driving 175:1 winners!
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    1,153
    Horses
    No Stars
    hope you have all the success you can with the mare Cindy, if you are listening to the horse your chances of allowing her to reach her potential are greatly enhanced.
    Cheers,
    Dan

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