Addicted to turnout!!

Give him time and a routine and he'll settle.

Look at it from his point of veiw: he's been stuck in a deadly boring cage for weeks and weeks with no friends. He's now finally allowed out and has made a proper friend, in a new and scary place, and now you're trying to steal him away?! I'd have a hissy fit too!

Get your ground work sorted both in the field and at the yard: he needs to respect your space and stay out of it, plus move away when asked. Having a full on battle as he's being brought in isn't the place to do it though!. He needs somewhere where he's calm enough to be able to concertate and learn.

I'd leave him out 24/7 if possible for a couple of weeks, so he's settled and calm outside, but take him up to the gate every day to be fed (build an electric fence corral if ness), progressing to outside the gate before taking him up to the yard (with bribary if required). Try and make it as calm and nice as possible, removing him from your space when he pushs, ignoring any silliness and praising calm behaviour.
 
My 4 year old did this, and if in and the others go out he goes mad. I now ignore him and let him get on with it, he wants his own way as if he goes out alone he doesnt give two hoots where the others are!

Ignoring him and not giving in has done the trick and hes not kicked up too much of a fuss since
 
Mine was like that when I first got her. I solved it by leading her in a stallion chain and halting her everytime she jogged. Eventually she learnt she had to wait and go in at my pace and is now a dream to bring in. It might be a good idea at first to take someone with you to do the gates so you have less to think about
 
Have dealt with quite a few of these - definitely use a lunge line so you are not getting dragged under his feet if he rears. Plus hat & gloves unless you like A&E and rope burn. :-)

Distraction is your friend. Try to keep him in an "inside bend", ie bend towards you, this on its own will make it harder for him to come across in front of you. Also use the pointy elbow technique as described above to further control the shoulder.

Walking a wavy line and doing a couple of small circles is useful, especially if horse is finding stopping/backing up too exciting. Horse is having to think "what the hell is she doing now?" instead of focusing on his friends.

If he does rear, I'm sure you know to take the pressure off the lunge line until he comes down. Any groundwork exercises you can find on youtube will help - Kelly Marks's ones are good, if you practise on the yard then you're instilling better manners in the field.

If you can secrete a handful of feed in a bucket outside the gate, without the other horses getting excited, that does give him another reason to want to get to the gate with you. Think you are right not to do treats if he can be nippy, especially not in the field with other horses. A chifney may help as an emergency measure but to my mind he needs to learn to come with you of his own accord when you ask, not just when he knows the chifney is on - so would try to deal with it via training if you can.

Sure he will settle with consistency. You sound like you'll get it figured out. :-)
 
Ive used clicker training on my boy to stop him nipping and being bargy I found it really teaches them to control their own emotions, keep lid on their own boiling pot! But I agree, the very first thing I'd be doing is whacking a chiffney on and with regards to what length rope, I wouldn't use a lunge line, way too much you could get tangled in but there are those fantastic lead ropes that are a good couple of feet longer than the norm... These are fab, it's all very well saying you've got to fix the cause, but this needs to be done in a controlled safe way, a chiffney would help, perhaps in time you could step down from that to a bridle or dually. Whilst I know that at some yards it's common practice to lead everything in a chiffney, there may have been a specific reason for this one. Someone said their horse actually seems to be happier with a chiffney in, I have found similar with my boy, first we had to try a chiffney after his balls dropped and he started all sorts of shenanigans, but once in use he didn't even try to misbehave, he'd never worn one before so I was confused, u then tried a normal bit, still good, take something out of his mouth and he was a git, so we continued with a lead rope threaded through his mouth, again a saint but for about 18 months if I took his 'comfort blanket' out of his mouth all hell broke loose, then one day he started pushing the rope out of his mouth with his tongue, so I introduced a clicker just for those moments when his attention got caught on something and his energy lifted, as soon as he relaxed and walked on, he was rewarded... Now he is an angel
 
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