Exercises to help horse stopping rushing?

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Any ideas!!! Back, teeth and saddle all checked and fine, and 95% sure no vet issues (had enough crocked horses to have a pretty good idea when vet is required!)

Horse likes to chuck all sorts of evasions at me when we are doing flatwork. One of the latest tactics (and is recurring in between others!), is to trot at whatever speed we want, generally increasing as we go along. "Normal" aids don't really help much, half halting, sitting to the trot, slowing rising down, horse just keeps on going at the speed he feels like. Does it both bitted and Bitless.

I would generally "leave" a horses head alone in a scenario like this, but this doesn't work, horse uses head and neck as a brace and to run through the bridle, so it is a necessity to ask the horse to soften through the neck.

Today's response to the asking for a better rhythm and softness was to stick head in the air and canter off. So I thought if horse wants to canter it can. So we cantered around the school for at least 20 minutes. Horse decides he's had enough of cantering so started trotting, I then asked for another lap of canter, and the did some trot work, which was massively improved on the first attempt.

I've got a lesson at the weekend which I'm going to work on this issue, and see what my instructor thinks. I really don't know what to do with the horse, apart from maybe trying draw reins for a couple of sessions to help him learn that head and neck are not there for a brace, or to give him a good canter before we do any proper work
 
sounds like horse is taking the P*ss. Forget about draw reins and softness until you get basic obedience in the paces. It makes no sense to let a horse canter for as long as it likes and then choose when it wants to trot. Would you let the horse drive your car and you just sit as passenger? Because thats what you are doing now.

Are you confident your instructor is giving you enough tools to deal with each situation when it occurs? You need a good instructor to look at you and the horse and give you a toolbox of stuff to do when each issue arises. So when horse increase pace in trot, maybe you know to circle until you get the pace you want. If horse canters when you don't want it, its brought back to trot immediately etc. If horse is bracing and tense, maybe you do stretchy pole work until it relaxes.

Its really hard schooling a tricky horse when you are on your own. So you need to have a toolbox of responses in place to cope with each scenario, So you need to sit down with your instructor and ask "what do i do when i feel the trot going faster?' what do i do when he canters and i don't want him to? what do i do when he braces his neck?
 
I would do exactly what you did with the canter. Use the horse against itself. For example my mare takes counter flexation to evade on one rein, so I put her on the opposite rein and ask for counter flexation. She gets to do what she wants but in a manner which achieves what I want. She finds it harder as it is the weaker bend on her stronger side so is happy to then go straight when we change the rein again.

With a horse that jogs on hacks I would make them trot. With one that naps I make them stand until they are bored, with one that cuts corners in the school I make them circle as soon as they start to do it. When they decide they will behave I make them do it a little longer so I am asking them rather than them just stopping. It's all about making what I asked the easier option...

Keep at it - it sounds like you have started on the right track and are on the way to nipping it in the bud
 
EQUIDAE said:
I would do exactly what you did with the canter. Use the horse against itself. For example my mare takes counter flexation to evade on one rein, so I put her on the opposite rein and ask for counter flexation. She gets to do what she wants but in a manner which achieves what I want. She finds it harder as it is the weaker bend on her stronger side so is happy to then go straight when we change the rein again.

With a horse that jogs on hacks I would make them trot. With one that naps I make them stand until they are bored, with one that cuts corners in the school I make them circle as soon as they start to do it. When they decide they will behave I make them do it a little longer so I am asking them rather than them just stopping. It's all about making what I asked the easier option...

Keep at it - it sounds like you have started on the right track and are on the way to nipping it in the bud
Click to expand...

This.

I had one who all he wanted to do was canter and the arguments we had about that were stupid so one day I just let him canter, round and round and when he wanted to stop we still cantered round and round ti,l i wanted to stop. Took abour a montn or so but he learnt not yo take tbe pee
 
Another useful trick is to put horse on a 20m circle and ask for an inside bend on a long rein. This won't work immediately but I have found with most horses this is pretty effective after a few minutes they will stretch down and establish a rhythm.
 
You cannot hope for success in training horses if you allow it to dictate what happens when you ride. That is the horse training you, not the other way around. Just giving in and letting it canter because it "wants" to is not going to teach it anything other than to disobey, even it you thought it was better afterwards. If the horse is too fresh for you, then lunge before you ride (and don't just let it canter around then either, make it work), but if you say "slow down" then it must slow down, WHEN you ask and as slow as you ask, otherwise you are not really riding, you are just a passenger.
 
I would make it canter til it was about to drop then make it work in canter a lot more for a good few days. I did this with a canter nut I had and it really worked. She then wasn't that fussed about cantering any more than trotting. I then did millions of transitions (6 strides between them!) and that made transitions just something we did, too.

Don't let it do what it likes make it do what you say.
 
Why is the horse rushing?

Does he find the work difficult and is trying to get away? Is he evading because he doesn't enjoy schooling? Does he understand what you're asking for?

I would stop him as soon as he starts rushing. Complete halt, then ask him to trot again like nothing has happened. Mine used to need a little 'time out' moment of walk in between to avoid panic, but they soon get the idea :)
 
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