advice please! young, green horse...

[S_Farrah]

The horse I'm riding at the moment is very young. He's a lovely little chappy and a dream on the ground but when under the saddle is very green . He gets very exited when everyone is cantering round the school and tears round, completely out of my control . How can I keep him calm and under control?

Thank-you!

 

[Fuzznugget]

I would do lots of bending, change of rein, transitions, etc. to keep him focusing on me. I know it can be tough when you have a green horse who would rather party with the others rather than listen to his rider, but with some persistence and a lot of patience you'll get there!

 

[S_Farrah]

thank-you, i'll give those a try

 

[lochpearl]

as above, lots of circles, bending, transitions, figures of eights, serpentines, learn to halt. Anything really to get him focusing on you. One of my horses can be like this and he is green for his age, if we do boring walk trot and canter in the school he turns off, finds something to spook at, chases the other horses or generally loses focus I throw more advanced moves at him to make his mind work harder. Obviously depending on his age there is a limit to what you can do, but to teach him bending and also to work off the leg with a little yielding might help.

Other than that - practise, practise, practise. the more you take him in there, the more he will see it is normal and calm down.

 

[margaret_ann]

Are you able to ride at quieter times with fewer horses until your horse gets more confidence in crowds?

I also agree with circles, transitions, etc. to keep your horse focused on you, rather than everything going on around him.

One more thing, keep your training consistent and develop a warm-up routine that the horse becomes familiar with. It will give him confidence and make him very quickly and easily understand what his job is.