Advice on letting someone else take the lead on hack?

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luckyjac

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Hi, looking for everyones opinion on when hacking a young horse and they are frightened of something up ahead whether its a lorry, a wheelie bin etc, and it puts the brakes on and in genuinely frightened of said object, should we really make a point of making the horse lead on quite a busy road? or let a more confident horse quietly take the lead past and not make a big deal?
Thanks
 
There is a time and a place to have a battle, and on the road is not one of those places.
On a young horse I'd always allow the nanny to take over - to continue building the trust and confidence
 
Never put a young horse in a position where it will lose confidence. You take gradual steps to ensure trust and respect. I ride a confidence giver horse and lead out new young horses with me first a number of times before ever having a rider on them. By the time the rider takes over the reins our youngsters should be quite confident with anything they come across out on hacks.
 
just wondering whether they then 'learn' it as a tactic, but I suppose that would depend on the horses attitude. This horse is not nappy Im but just so paranoid I will cause myself problems, but again I suppose problems can be caused either way, especially by a nasty accident that was unnecessary. So just after the general consensus :-)
 
Agree with others that hard tarmac with traffic isn't the best place for a youngster to be full stop, let alone "learning" and/or being placed in a position where it has to be lead horse.

Best thing, IF going onto a busy'ish road, is to have two other horses and sandwich the youngster in between so its got a good confident horse as lead and something steady behind.
 
I would let the younger horse stay at the back and gain confidence on the road and then in a few weeks/months time when its built up confidence, then I would let it lead :)
 
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