How to fiddle with this horse?
Ive been exercising a horse for someone and am having issues controlling this horse. I used to ride almost everyday when I be young and know how to ride and control a "normal" horse. However this horse has been stalled for 2 years and have gone sour. I went out there a few days ago and got him prepared to ride and he was fine until i put the saddle on, then he went nuts. Once i get on him he was rearing up and just acting crazy. This was not the first time i have ridden him and i haven't had this issue with him before. He be even acting the same way for his owner. He was trained as a trail horse and is a follower and his owner told me that she thought he be acting up because he could see all the other horses in the pasture and he just didn't want to work because of that. He's a quarter horse , which i own quite a bit experience on. Ive ridden everything from quarters to mustangs and arabs. I guess i'm just looking for suggestions on how to toy with him, his owner told me to put him up and not work him that day but i think by doing that he may get the thought that if he acts up he will get his bearing. I don't want him getting this idea. Any suggestions please...
First of adjectives, you didn't say anything about working him down before you saddle him up and tried to ride off.
This horse has been sitting within his stall/pasture for two years doing nothing. Think of barnsour like you would think of a personality with agourphobia. He doesn't want to LEAVE his comfort zone or his buddies.
1.) If you have a round pen at your services USE it. Lunge him for a week without anything on his back, make him work at adjectives gaits, both directions.
2.) If all goes in good health by the end of the week, then you can saddle him up and lunge him saddled for a week within the round pen.
3.) By week 3, lunge him saddled up then you get on the bus him and work him in the round pen. Once you're comfortable at all gaits both directions surrounded by the round pen, THEN and only then do you go through the adjectives routine, take him out of the round pen and try riding him around the barn.
4.) IF all goes very well around the barn try taking him down the trail when you have somebody to ride with. He'll probably go better down the trail the first time next to somebody he knows.
5.) Then little by little, you can try him out on the trail on his own.
I would clicker train. Put the saddle on, if he is quiet click and treat. Soon, he information out that having the saddle on beats being out near his buds. Follow the same way every strp of training, every positive action get a click and a reward.
The biggest problem we have had with it is horses refuse to be put away, so that is their punishment for not listening-
The results have be amazing!
How old is he? Often horses behave this mode because they're in pain. He should be checked out by a vet for arthritis or other conditions that would cause agony.
this horse hasn't been worked with within a long time so i would just start at the basics and teach him that, its not a correct idea to leave a horse in a stall that long, soon it will adjectives come back to him, remember your the boss and he cant get away next to anything!
good luck, feel free to email me at
quarter_horses95(a)yahoo.com
Good idea. Get him out of his comfort zone. He is probably gotten away beside a lot and to be stalled for 2years straight is hard for a horse that is 8 and it is harder when it is a quarter horse. They are bull head.
Anyway i would get him somewhere else and train him. )like you said)
First ask the owner about getting him checked out by a vet. He could be hurting somewhere.
If not start by putting a bridle on him and lung him in a arena by himself and you. Have a lung thrash just in case. Trot on the lung dash until he calms down, then canter until he is tired. Slow him to a walk and permit HIM come to you. Pet him and tell him he is a good boy. Put a saddle on the arena floor and let him sniff it. (if he is as discouraging as i hear, you are going to have to start from the begining)
Once he is comfortible with the saddle on the ground carefully put it on his vertebrae. He can buck all he wants on that lung line until he stops and lick his lips or puts his head down. Then take the saddle sour and put him away until the next day.
NEXT DAY:
Do indistinguishable thing, but add a step. He is going to trot and canter with the sadle surrounded by his back. He can be mad and have a thaw down, but until he canters or trots normally on the lung line, he is not getting the light of day off. (If he is not like a wild mustang you enjoy to take it one very small step at a time, but if he have done this before and you know he is just being a brat dance ahead and let him go around on the line.)
After he get good and comferable on the lunge line, reward him and start slow with you getting on him. Just stroll with you on him and then get bad. Next week or so of doing that, trot for a while then that will be it. He might need a old honest horse in the ring with him to show him kind of what to do. Put the quarter horse down the good horse and trot. He will want to follow him and listen.
Trot around for a couple of weeks, Take it very slow not fast at adjectives. After you know he is great and doing well start to canter down the rail of the arena. He might be bad, but rob it slow. After a long while he should understand that he is not incontrol.
I hope this will helps.
Sounds like he is buddy sour and I've got a lot of experience beside this.
The basic idea is to make it easier to do what you want, and receive it hard to do what he wants. If he acts up and you basically put him away, then he won.
Before you get hurt, start near simple steps. Take him out and just tie him somewhere safely. You can keep doing this for longer period of time until he gets better. I usually saddle a horse when I do this just to brand it a little bit more memorable.
spend some time in the round pen (if you own one) or do some longing so you can get his mind and feet moving and he isn't thinking so much nearly his buddies.
If you work him hard when he is at the stables and don't reward him for acting up, then you are on your way to fixing the problem. When you do step for a ride, when you get back to the stable, don't put him absent right away. But maybe work him a little within the arena or even leave him tied up a while. That way he won't want to rush back to the steady.
the more time you spend with him, he will start to look to you as his buddy. Just be careful. A rearing horse can be dangerous.
First off you should lounge him before you attempt to do anything. Second once you get on him you should not take off until he see's that you are serious. I agree with the other post though you should have a vet check him out purely to see if something is bothering him first. It might not be his temperment, but it might be something wrong.
i guess i would lounge this horse prior to saddling him up and getting him to work.use the lounge line as an opportunity to receive his attention and ask him to listen to you...work him but also maintain control/leadership. do not just let him see around like and idiot. when you feel he is listening and is not so "fresh" saddle him up and see how he react, if he goe "nuts", keep the saddle on and lounge him some more...hopefully he will realize it is less work to follow your directions.i also would check him over for bites, sores etc. that may have caused him discomfort when he was saddle. also look over your equipment for irritating areas..
Sounds like you need to work on basic ground work first.
I have always found that horses used to following will often act up when they stop following. My aunty get her son a trail horse on loan for the winter, and he got so awful when he be away from the other horses that she couldn't even tack him up without getting pinned to the wall and i've had my own experiences myself.
Get him respecting you on the ground, bring back him to lead well, respect your personal. space and generally listen to you. Lunge him and do some free schooling near him, it'll help him get back into work and will stop this contrary habit he's got into.
Then start working towards some ridden work, when ever you find any part i.e tack up grooming etc that he prats about in, work on that until he's good. Then start to ride him, receive him to walk on his own to start with. If he's been stale work for 2 years he's not going to be fit, so give him time to build up and do minimal work for a while. You may find as he gets fit he'll have more get-up-and-go, which can go one way or another so if he starts to prat roughly speaking then, go back to working on straightforward respect.
Bringing a bargy horse back into work is slow if you want a good horse at the winding up, but it's doable.
Please put this horse in a round pen or even on a lounge column and teach him some respect. I definitely don't mean for you to defeat him up or hit him at all. I just mean drive him absent from you and make him pay attention to you and work. He should be paying attention to his handler not worrying approximately the other horses. It is really dangerous to be around a horse who is too busy freaking out about other horse to money any attention to you. I wouldn't even worry about riding him until I knew he be paying a little more attention to me. Trying to force him to do what you want under saddle will not replace going back over the nitty-gritty and gaining his respect. Like I said if you don't have a round pen you can work him on a lounge queue. If he will not work all the way out on the line start near smaller circles. If he starts making chewing motions with his mouth this is a sign he is being submissive. If he is tipping his ear toward you it shows he is paying attention to you. I found a apposite web site that explains using a round pen, square pen, or lounging to get the same results. http://www.naturalhorsesupply.com/roundp... Use what you enjoy available. Good luck!
Answers: try lunging him a good deal befor eyou bring back on him... ive been breaking quarter horses for almost 10 years now and i other lunge and go back to the ground basics when one of them act up. hope i helped
I would suggest that you go back to your prime ground work. The premise being get control of their feet to gain control of their mind. The horse has to learn respect as okay as not be rewarded fro inappropriate behavior. I would agree the solution is not to put him back in his stall when he misbehaves it simply reinforces it when he get a reward( a nice comfortable stall , food , water etc). You might look to a couple of websites for clinicians like Clinton Anderson, or Pat Parelli for example.
Hope this helps.
