advice re youngster

[welshied]

just wondering if any one has got any advice re youngster. He was backed last year and then re backed this spring and he had a bit more attitude about everything, but lately he just keeps throwing me off, last week he bronced me off so was advised to lunge everytime before i ride him to take the edge off and this week he was going really well did 4 days work in a row and then gave him one day off, next day lunged him and he was nice and calm so got on and he was going well just asked him for bit more trot and he took off in flat out gallop with me and did about 5 laps of the school with me then finally got him to stop and tried to calm him and then he took off again and did sharp turn and off i went, i have had all the health checks done and he is perfectly fine!
I do keep going for regurlar lessons but everytime i feel as though we are getting somewhere he does it again, so is it something i am doing wrong or will it just get better eventually?

 

[Foxhunter49]

Cut out his hard feed and give him a lot more work. Do not always ride him in the arena take him out on hacks. In an arena young horses will often think of trouble to get into as they get bored.

When he took off with you instead of trying to stop him you should have kept him going for at least ten laps around the arena, then he would have realised that doing it was harder work than he expected.
Always have a neck strap on him and if he tries to buck grab the neck strap, shove your feet forward, lean back and kick him on HARD and make him work for his living.

 

[TopTotty]

Cut out his hard feed and give him a lot more work. Do not always ride him in the arena take him out on hacks. In an arena young horses will often think of trouble to get into as they get bored.

When he took off with you instead of trying to stop him you should have kept him going for at least ten laps around the arena, then he would have realised that doing it was harder work than he expected.
Always have a neck strap on him and if he tries to buck grab the neck strap, shove your feet forward, lean back and kick him on HARD and make him work for his living.

Ditto above.....5 days in the school is a lot for a young horse and very boring. You need to keep things interesting and have quailty not quantity when schooling. His muscles will be getting tired rather quickly and if you school him everyday probably sore at some point. This could be what he is trying to tell you. Make life interesting and make sure his muscles are not overworked if you can. Do you have a body worker in your area to give him a once over? Good luck with him

 

[Equilibrium Ireland]

Personally I would send him to somebody or have somebody that comes to you who can help. Not a knock on you but if you don't get this sorted you will ruin him.

I echo what others have said with feed and arena boredom. But are you confident in yourself to give the horse the confidence he needs to ride him out of the arena? If not could be dicey.

Terri

 

[shadowboy]

Personally I would look at teeth, back and saddle first- is the saddle the same as he was backed in? if this has already been done - I would take out any sugar or starch based feeds- if he needs feed go for a simple systems type feed I also dont see the point of lunging before each ride- you are effectively making your youngster fitter each time and therefore not really dealing with the issue- have you tried long reining out before riding? Are you always riding alone? I found my TB mare was much better if she had another in the school with her untill she had grown in confidence.

 

[mturnbull]

As mentioned above if he is all fit and healthy I would try this if you feel experienced and confident enough to do so. When I had trouble backing a friends horse due to him trying to get you off we used a 'dummy' rider. We warmed him up as normal then rather than myself getting on we would put the dummy rider on him make sure everything was secure and send him out as usual, except the difference between me and the dummy rider is no matter how hard he tried he couldnt get the dummy rider off. The first time we did this he really did try with all his might then after a few days he just seemed to accept that no mater what he did he couldn't get someone off so we slowly introduced a rider again and he accepted it a lot more willingly and despite a few hiccups was as good as gold!