15/06/2026
lovely well written article, we are often not aware of how our own bodyily injuries/tightness will affect the way out horses can carry us.
( meanwhile im off work with a tooth abcess so just the thought of riding is intolerable!! 😉)
Why Won’t My Horse Go Forward?
I’ll start by saying that the desire to move is inherent in a horse. Movement is essential to a horse’s physical and mental wellbeing.
A lack of desire to go forward is a serious problem, and usually a man-made one. Somewhere along the line, human error has entered the equation—even if we have to trace it all the way back to poor breeding decisions. I have met horses whose genetics seemed fundamentally incompatible with movement and athleticism, and to me that is both tragic and entirely human-created.
So let’s look at some reasons a horse may be unable to go forward—or may have lost the desire to.
1. Pain, discomfort, or equipment issues
The obvious place to start is pain: injury, hoof pain, saddle fit problems, dental issues, or other physical discomfort.
Just because a saddle fitter has evaluated your saddle doesn’t necessarily mean it truly fits. There are a lot of poorly designed saddles on the market that fit neither horse nor rider and fail to accommodate the horse’s movement. A horse that is uncomfortable has every reason not to want to go forward.
2. The rider is blocking
This is incredibly common.
The rider may be tight through the hips or back, restrictive in the hands, or braced somewhere in the body. You can block a horse with your hands even on a loose rein.
An uneducated seat can feel like a clothespin to a horse—pinching, restricting, and interfering with the natural flow of movement. When we block forward motion, the horse often becomes labeled as lazy when they are simply responding honestly to the restriction.
Which leads us to the next point.
3. A cacophony of confusing aids
Imagine the horse isn’t moving forward.
The rider squeezes and kicks with the leg, but simultaneously blocks with the hips, drives the seat bones backward, and lifts or tightens the hands.
Is that “go” or “stop”?
The horse is receiving a dozen conflicting messages at once. The rider becomes frustrated and increases the pressure until the horse finally responds to whichever aid is the strongest or most uncomfortable.
The horse isn’t necessarily disobedient. They may simply be confused.
4. Movement becomes miserable
If forward movement is always nagged, chased, and made into a chore, who would want to do it?
Movement should be therapeutic, purposeful, fluid, and enjoyable. Sometimes it takes a little elbow grease to get there, but we need to know both our why and our how.
What do you actually want the horse to do?
The reason matters.
“Go because I said so” feels very different from “Let’s go loosen your back,” or “Let’s go over there and accomplish something together.”
Many riders don’t provide meaningful guidance, a clear plan, or a reason that improves the horse’s experience. If I were constantly ordered around for no apparent purpose, I’d lose enthusiasm too.
Movement should improve the quality of life for both horse and rider.
5. The rider changes the question before the horse finds the answer
This one is becoming increasingly common.
The horse doesn’t immediately respond, so the rider assumes the horse “doesn’t like” the method and quickly moves on to something else.
In the process, one of the most fundamental principles of training gets lost: release is the reward.
Whatever we release on is what we teach.
If we cycle endlessly from aid to aid to aid and then release regardless of the response, what is the horse supposed to learn? If nothing consistently means anything, the horse is perfectly justified in tuning us out.
6. The horse simply isn’t capable of what we’re asking
Sometimes the horse is not fit enough, coordinated enough, balanced enough, or strong enough to perform the task we’ve requested.
In those cases, the answer isn’t more pressure. It’s finding a more reasonable place to begin and building the horse’s capacity over time.
Many horses labeled as lazy or lacking forward desire become completely different animals under a different rider—someone who is organized and fluid in their own body, has a clear training plan, and genuinely wants to help the horse succeed.
Good intentions are not enough. We need education.
Best to check ourselves before we wreck ourselves. 😉
