Help with new horse planting..

Tarragon said:
It is tricky isn't it!
I think you have a couple of options, and which option you take depends upon your ability as a rider.
One option is to just spend a bit more time with him in hand, both in the field or school, as well as out and about, so you can get to know each other a bit more. When I was trying to bring on a young, green and rather stubborn Highland pony for someone, the best thing for her was to lead out and then get on somewhere along the route. We Would set off together on a variety of routes and initially I wouldn't get on until nearly home, and then I gradually got on earlier and earlier until we were riding from the stables. It was a case of building up her confidence is small stages
The other option is to ride him through the planting using any of the classic tricks of:
- positive riding before it happens
- not letting them stand still by turning in tight circles or getting them to move their front feet
- back them past the sticking point
- using a whip-wop
- riding in company (either someone on foot, cycle or another horse)
- riding lessons in the school
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I am happy to do whatever it takes to get us where we need to be, out and about enjoying hacks together. I think my first one I need to try is reading him better and getting to him first before he has the chance to actually stop... though not sure how far I will get with that, he is a very chunky cob and I don't know him well enough to figure that one out, so will just need to focus on paying his pace more attention.
I will try the turning a tight circle so his feet are moving, but will have to do that when not on the road.
Am going to ride in company this weekend and have two people walking out with me before that to see. I guess it was a win that although my friend had to lead him on a couple of times yesterday, we did get him round a route and he didn't go home.
He hates schooling so not sure that is the best option, but may look at it if all else fails.
 
paddy555 said:
use your schooling whip hard, really slam it down, not on him but on yourself. If you use it lightly you are just tickling him and it has no effect. If you use it hard on him you may think you risk him bucking which could be true and may worry you. What someone in this position could well do to resolve it is bring the schooling whip down hard on him the first time and accept the buck but it would bring it to an end. One single whack, a lot of choice words and he would get the message.
If you are not confident to do that bring the whip down hard on your leg. Make sure you ride in long boots or chaps in preparation. You are bringing the whip down to create a lot of noise and impact to shock him but it is not hitting him so there is no stimulus to buck.


I think you are being too soft, you are giving the benefit of every doubt and thinking of reasons why the poor little darling cannot do it. As Leandy said you are not expecting enough. I think you are overthinking the situation. There is no reason that seeing the old owner will confuse him. Don't try and put your thoughts onto him or use them to try and excuse his behaviour.

Horses see it in black and white. To his mind either you are the leader and he is the follower or vice versa. You ask and he does without question.
He is currently asking the question of "what if" and you are answering it by saying "do you want to, would you like your old owner, are you not feeling very fit, are you not settled in yet, not coming to terms with your new life" and every other reason.
All he wants is for you to step up, say I am the leader and get a bl**by move on. That will also make him feel more confident. He will know his place, he will have a confident leader who will not let him get away with stuff but who is confident enough to look after him whatever happens on the ride. He will feel safe, he can go back to being the follower in the herd of 2.
Whether you lead him, do in hand work or anything else the question in his mind is still going to be there. If I plant what will you do" Once he gets the answer he will be fine and a lovely horse.

Re your last post you are not a failure. You can be pretty sure that this has happened to everyone when they have got their new horse. The first time it happens you make a million excuses as to what you are doing wrong or how his new home is affecting him. The horse just sits back grinning at the situation. By the time people have bought their next horse they are well aware it is going to happen and are ready to nip it in the bud.
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I will try whipping myself on the boot to see if the noise moves him onwards, I have tried cracking him with the whip but he still doesn't move forward, so not sure how effective this will be. One of his plants, I did crack it down hard on him after legs didn't work, and he did put in a minor buck, but nothing major... but he also didn't move. I didn't want to keep cracking him with it and kicking him as then he would become 'dead' to this and we get nowhere? Hopefully this will work.

This bit of your post did make me laugh, for someone that has never met me, you have me pretty much down to a tee!! It is exactly what I am doing, giving him excuses and letting him do it just because, but on the other hand it is hard to argue with a 15.3 chunky cob who has decided he isn't moving. Just always thought me getting off and having to lead him would make me the weaker one of our partnership because he is again getting out of work by not carrying me? But as long as that will help with the 'we are walking this way and there is nothing to worry about so get on with it' attitude then I will try it! Will he get the answer that way or am I setting myself up for having a horse that thinks when he doesn't want to do something, I get off and walk?

It just makes you feel like it is only happening to you, I think people are laughing at me if they see me trudging along the road leading a horse that I have obviously had to get off, but guess I need to just not worry about that!!
 
I would really try not to deal with this by getting off all the time, particularly if he is large. You should be in a position where you have more control from on top than on the ground. He needs to respect your ridden aids. A horse is not a dog to be led around. Rather they need to respond to driving aids and go forward from them. I'm a bit suspicious of the assertion that he doesn't like schooling also, this sounds like the same problem to me, he is not obedient to the driving aids and prefers not to move forward from them. I think a few sessions on this point with a good instructor will help you unpick what is going on and how best to deal with it.
 
GG80 said:
I will try whipping myself on the boot to see if the noise moves him onwards, I have tried cracking him with the whip but he still doesn't move forward, so not sure how effective this will be. One of his plants, I did crack it down hard on him after legs didn't work, and he did put in a minor buck, but nothing major... but he also didn't move. I didn't want to keep cracking him with it and kicking him as then he would become 'dead' to this and we get nowhere? Hopefully this will work.
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I'm afraid you will need to start with doing whatever it takes to make him move. Do you not see that it is allowing him to not react to the legs and whip by letting him get away with it which will be exactly what teaches him to be dead to it? Really, you need to come down on him like a ton of bricks, being too nice will only make him more dead to your efforts. I don't of course mean you need to be abusive or unfair to him, but you do need to mean it and get the result you seek. Be absolutely clear about that. Then it will get easier, and soon he should go from a light aid.
 
Leandy said:
I would really try not to deal with this by getting off all the time, particularly if he is large. You should be in a position where you have more control from on top than on the ground. He needs to respect your ridden aids. A horse is not a dog to be led around. Rather they need to respond to driving aids and go forward from them. I'm a bit suspicious of the assertion that he doesn't like schooling also, this sounds like the same problem to me, he is not obedient to the driving aids and prefers not to move forward from them. I think a few sessions on this point with a good instructor will help you unpick what is going on and how best to deal with it.
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I don't want to do that, but if he just refuses to move no matter what I do, then surely this is my only option? I do agree with you in that respect though. I should have made myself perhaps clearer with the schooling comment, he has been schooled, and has been in the school etc, but his previous owner did have spurs on in the school. She said it just wasn't his bag, he didn't enjoy it and was much happier out hacking, which is what she sold him as, a happy hacker.
 
Leandy said:
I'm afraid you will need to start with doing whatever it takes to make him move. Do you not see that it is allowing him to not react to the legs and whip by letting him get away with it which will be exactly what teaches him to be dead to it? Really, you need to come down on him like a ton of bricks, being too nice will only make him more dead to your efforts. I don't of course mean you need to be abusive or unfair to him, but you do need to mean it and get the result you seek. Be absolutely clear about that. Then it will get easier, and soon he should go from a light aid.
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I was just going by advice I can find on the internet/books etc, that if you kick and kick and whip and whip and get nowhere from doing it, that they will just ignore it more because they know that you are doing this and yet they are still standing still, so kind of made sense to me to think that if I keep doing it, he just becomes dead to it?
 
GG80 said:
It just makes you feel like it is only happening to you, I think people are laughing at me if they see me trudging along the road leading a horse that I have obviously had to get off, but guess I need to just not worry about that!!
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It's happened to a lot of us, it certainly happened to me. I remember three months in having to drag a reluctant 650kg mare on foot around a five mile loop hack, barely holding on as we were on the home stretch. That wasn't much fun and fellow liveries did laugh behind my back, but now she's a great solo hacker. The next time she tried planting, she got two whacks on her rump and I growled like I was about to devour her whole. She hasn't napped since.
 
9tails said:
It's happened to a lot of us, it certainly happened to me. I remember three months in having to drag a reluctant 650kg mare on foot around a five mile loop hack, barely holding on as we were on the home stretch. That wasn't much fun and fellow liveries did laugh behind my back, but now she's a great solo hacker. The next time she tried planting, she got two whacks on her rump and I growled like I was about to devour her whole. She hasn't napped since.
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I know I am not the only one, but in the moment, it does make you feel like a laughing stock doesn't it. Thankfully I know and get on with most of the liveries round my way, but if they laugh, they laugh I can't worry about it can I. I have growled at him, but he just listened to it as much to say 'whatever, what are you going to do, I am not moving' I thought I had won a bit of the battle when we sat it out and then he moved after a while, but clearly not. I will try whatever it takes to make him see he can trust me as his leader and I won't let any harm come to him.
 
GG80 said:
I was just going by advice I can find on the internet/books etc, that if you kick and kick and whip and whip and get nowhere from doing it, that they will just ignore it more because they know that you are doing this and yet they are still standing still, so kind of made sense to me to think that if I keep doing it, he just becomes dead to it?
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That is quite correct, but this is why you have to up the ante rather than give up. If I were you I would definitely take up the old owner's offer to come and look and see how that goes. I think in any event you need also to have a few sessions with a good instructor. You need to do both these things sooner rather than later so this does not become a habitual way of going for both of you. And don't discount some sessions in the school to get him listening to your aids. Just short and sharp halt, walk, trot transitions over and over for 15 minutes at a time with zero tolerance for ignoring your aids. Pop a neck strap on if the thought of the odd buck etc puts you off. Instill that behaviour in the safe confines of the school and then take it outside again. Keep with it, I'm sure you can solve it, it sounds as though the previous owner did, so no reason you shouldn't too.
 
When they do this if a crack on the backside doesn't get them going then rock him from side to side with the reins. You are trying to unstick his feet and get him off balance enough that he takes a step forward, usually once they take one step, they will take more. Only do it for a minute or so and if it doesn't work then its time to up the ante

Thats when they get spun in circles. I bring them right round so they are almost bent in half with their nose pointing to their tail so they HAVE to move their feet and they go round a couple of times. I then ask quietly for them to go forward, if they don't, then round they go again and repeat until the penny drops that walking on is much the nicer option.

Change whips as well. Schooling whips are worse than useless in this situation and can actually hurt them if you do hit them with it. Use a short stick with a wide flat end. It will make much more noise if you wack your boot with it, and wont hurt him if you give him a smack on the backside.

This is such a cob thing to do. Its just so easy for them to down tools, so that's what they do. A strong rider can stop it before it starts, and is ideally what you would do. But if not he doesn't get to stand about gazing into the distance. Hes either walking on nicely or hes being made to do something unpleasant.

If he starts this on the road, get off and walk forward, fast and with purpose so hes really, really marching along and get him off road, then get on and start from the top.
 
Many years ago now I also had a nappy horse who liked nothing more than to plant or play chicken by backing up at speed towards any ditch/bridge/drop in an attempt to get his own way. He was a stubborn one and I'm not ashamed to admit many a tear was shed over his behavior in the early days as I just felt utterly useless that I couldn't get the little bugger to move.

In the beginning, I was beholden to his every whim as he was the sort who would throw his toys out of the pram if you challenged him and at the time I wasn't particularly confident so I spent the first few months only hacking him when there were others to go out with. The turning point for me came when I was moving house and had to move to a closer yard where I knew no one. I was determined to enjoy the horse that was costing me so much money each month and not have to make sure I had company each time I rode. I had given my one month's notice to my old yard and decided there and then that I would use that month to crack his nappiness, whatever it took.

The key things that worked for us were as follows:

Make sure you have plenty of time. A planting horse always feels way worse when you're on a timescale, it's vital in the early days that you have time on your side so you can sit it out if needs be or if you do end up back at the yard that you have time to lunge or school them so they don't get rewarded by finishing work early if they down tools.

Only pick battles you know you can win. For the first few weeks I picked a super short route that I knew we could get around in about half an hour so it didn't matter as much if we spent 45 mins waiting it out as I still had the time to get around the route. It also meant being prepared, so watching out for that split second moment when I felt him backing off and being willing to tell him to get on (and meaning it!) before we full-on planted. An instructor once told me it was much better to give him one proper boot and whip and mean it, than a little tickle multiple times. Easier said than done in our case, as using the whip often resulted in a buck but essentially it was a case of telling him to get on rather than asking him (obviously by this I don't mean beating him, more a case of making sure you're giving aids with intent rather than half-heartedly).

Make the right option easy. This was one of the main things that helped me crack the planting. Basically it's a case of making it easier for them to keep moving than to plant, so keep the feet moving by any means possible....it doesn't matter if that's left, right or backwards you just need to keep them moving. For us I found tight circles helped, so literally pulling his head right round to my knee if needs be so he was forced to move and then getting on at him as soon as he started to move...again watch out for that split second before they plant as I found if I timed my aids right I could prevent him planting.

Stay present. My current boy is amazing and I can merrily daydream on our hacks, but this wasn't the case with my old horse. He needed a rider that was active and present at all times, else he'd take matters into his own hands and find monsters to spook at or reasons to plant. I suspect deep down this was probably due to a lack of confidence, but essentially it meant I had to always be one step ahead of him and was actively riding him rather than just being a passenger and keep an eye out for those telltale signs that he was about to plant.

Persevere. Weirdly (or perhaps not so weirdly) once I changed my mindset to think "we will get through this" he started responding better. Also the fact that I forced myself to consistently keep going with the same route day in day out meant I could buoy myself on by thinking "you did it yesterday, so you can do it again today" and each good day started outweighing the bad. There was a time when I came back crying from every ride, either because he'd been a total pig, I was relieved to be home or because we'd finally started to crack it and made it round with no stops, but eventually those "good days" became our new norm.

By the time I sold him years later, we still had the odd sticky moment (I think naturally he was quite backwards thinking) but these could be ended in a couple of seconds rather than an hour-long battle of wills, and I'd managed years of happy solo hacking with him by that point so I didn't care about the odd nappy moment.

I'll caveat all of this with what works for one horse may not work for another, but in our case repetition and consistency won out in the end.
 
I have a special whip for this!! And I do appreciate that it probably makes me sound like a horse abuser ... I promise I’m not, but a short black&white lesson followed by happy families is usually far more productive long term for the horse.

Take one schooling whip. Wrap in a layer of gamgee and vetwrap. Cover completely in duct tape. Voila, one long, springy, heavily padded whip that catches their eye, makes a nice whoosh yet when you make contact doesn’t have that sting that they are generally (understandably) resentful over.
 
GG80 said:
I was just going by advice I can find on the internet/books etc, that if you kick and kick and whip and whip and get nowhere from doing it, that they will just ignore it more because they know that you are doing this and yet they are still standing still, so kind of made sense to me to think that if I keep doing it, he just becomes dead to it?
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yes that is correct. If you have a lazy horse that just plods along with the minimum of effort if you keep kicking and kicking you will just make his sides dead, he will no longer listen to your legs and it will be pointless.

Yours is a different situation. He doesn't wish to move, you have to do something to get him to move. A good crack from the whip is not going to make him ignore the whip forever. You are using it hard, once. Same with your legs.
This battle will have to be resolved from on top but you will need to lead him to somewhere safe to do it to avoid a fight on the road. Once he plants it may well take 30 minutes, perhaps an hour to work out of it. Don't get off, just stay there and keep going until he gives in. It won't be quick. If you are worried have someone go in their car to keep an eye on you. It doesn't matter what other people think if you are leading. You may have to do several different things to break him out of the plant. It will be your persistence, determination and will power.
If he is going to buck and you are unhappy about it if you use the whip behind try using it on the shoulder. My haflinger liked to plant. I would turn him round and back 10 steps in the direction I wanted to go, I would then turn round and offer him the chance to walk on nicely, when he didn't we turned round and backed further and kept repeating it until he realised life was so much easier if he just plodded along without arguing. This works with some, a more flighty horse may think about standing up, you just have to try everything.

When you have lead him off the road and to where it is safe to work try and find somewhere that has space so you can move in all directions. If he won't move forward then OK send him off sideways, it doesn't matter which way he moves just that he moves.

FF makes some very good suggestions and in fact you have 650kg of cob throwing his toys out of the pram.

I think your success will depend on yourself building yourself up. It is your mindset that is needed. Have a drink if necessary, whatever it takes to get you mad and really ready to deal with him. Your determination. He is not your friend, your partner, your soulmate, the horse you have always wanted, that loveable little lapdog or anything else. He is 650kg taking you for a ride (or not in this case.) Get mad, this is no time for crying, being unhappy he is being difficult, you are mad, no, you are simply furious at him for doing this and it is going to stop NOW.

Finally, it is not failure to get the old owner in to help. In fact it is very sensible to ask for help as to how he liked to be ridden and how she dealt with him being naughty and who better to ask?
 
Can you train him that the way to go home is to go forward. Let me explain. just go out of the gate a little way then stop. Ask him to go forward and as soon as he does turn him for home. You can go past the gate - don't turn back in. Keep repeating. If he plants and ill not go forward try turning him 360. The idea is that he gets it into his head that if he goes forward you will turn and he will return,. If he plants he does not get to go home.
 
FestiveFuzz said:
Make the right option easy. This was one of the main things that helped me crack the planting. Basically it's a case of making it easier for them to keep moving than to plant, so keep the feet moving by any means possible....it doesn't matter if that's left, right or backwards you just need to keep them moving. For us I found tight circles helped, so literally pulling his head right round to my knee if needs be so he was forced to move and then getting on at him as soon as he started to move...again watch out for that split second before they plant as I found if I timed my aids right I could prevent him planting.
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Exactly this. Make forwards the easiest option available to him. My youngster went through a phase of planting in hand. As soon as he planted he was made to move sideways and as soon as his front feet were moving I made him go forwards. I only ever had to move him sideways a handful of times in one go, he very quickly cottoned on that forwards was easier! We haven’t had an issue since :)
 
Sorry I haven’t read through all the other responses, but from a fellow cob owner, these are very clever animals and will do anything to get their own way. He’s training you ! I’m afraid he needs tough love right now - no excuses - zero tolerance. You’re not exactly asking much of him so he will do as asked ! If you lay the law down now (firm but fair) you’ll have an awesome relationship going forwards (scuse the pun). If you don’t, and he doesn’t respect you, he may become rude and jolly hard work.
 
I quite understand that you will be wary of arguing with your horse on the road, which is why I suggested having a strategy of intending to lead him until you get off the road. You really do not want your horse to pick up that he can make you nervous, you need to be in charge. I agree with other posters about you needing to be firm with him but you also need to be safe which is why I would deliberately lead him until you are off the road, because I can guarantee that you will feel able to be firm with him in traffic.

And I will say again, he needs a companion *at home*. Tbh, I am surprised that the owner who took so much care to find him the right home was prepared to allow him to go to a single horse home. I certainly think you should take the previous owner up on the offer of help
 
Pearlsasinger said:
And I will say again, he needs a companion *at home*. Tbh, I am surprised that the owner who took so much care to find him the right home was prepared to allow him to go to a single horse home. I certainly think you should take the previous owner up on the offer of help
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Because horses everywhere on yards up and down the country live in single turnout paddocks. If hes got horses on all sides then it sounds like a standard livery set up to me. Mixed turnout is rarely the case anymore.
 
This is just a story of old and not what im suggesting you do. My old pony would walk to the neighbours driveway and no further. I mean NO further. He got there, he would try to spin and when blocked he would just go backwards at speed and when the only place to go is into a ditch on both sides going backwards until he goes past my own gate was NOT an option. If he was blocked and made to spin he would just rear. My road was way to busy to stick it out and it just got unsafe so i just gave up. He was needed for an event and the lady who was going to use him wanted to hack him out to see how he was with vehicles and i said he is fine with them but he won't hack past X spot. This lady was ballsy so she tacked him up, got on and before he even took a step she gave him a wallop. That woke him up for sure, and when she took him out of the gateway she gave him another for good measure. He didn't even think about stopping at the driveway and i couldn't believe it. After the event, i rode him and he again would not go past the spot.

The point being, the horse knows your intentions as soon as you sit your arse on that saddle.
 
^^^
The subtleties of that maybe not evident to the onlooker were that she knew the horse was nappy, so she walloped him for not instantly responding to a leg aid. Then backed it up the nanosecond he dropped off it again. It might not have been ‘randomly for good measure’.

In these situations, escalating aids - leg, harder leg, kick, tap, wallop is the worst thing to do. One aid only. (With the caveat the horse does actually know what the aid is)
 
Leo Walker said:
Because horses everywhere on yards up and down the country live in single turnout paddocks. If hes got horses on all sides then it sounds like a standard livery set up to me. Mixed turnout is rarely the case anymore.
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There is plenty of mixed turnout in livery yards round here! And this horse lives at home, so OP is relying on neighbours to provide the horse with companions
 
We had one. You couldn't give him an inch. If you went in hard the second he even thought about backing off your aids he would give no more trouble and not even try anything again for months. If the rider wasn't quick enough to catch that first thought of napping he knew and would be a real awkward nappy devil for that person.
 
When I first had my boy we hacked in company until we were both comfortable with each other. I then started hacking alone and although he never planted, he was a bit sticky. After a couple of weeks, I decided enough was enough and went armed with a schooling whip in each hand and a determination I’d never felt before. I deliberately chose a route that meant he’d be turning away from home several times and was ready for the battle. It never came and it never has from that day onwards in the 14 years I’ve had him!
 
Pearlsasinger said:
There is plenty of mixed turnout in livery yards round here! And this horse lives at home, so OP is relying on neighbours to provide the horse with companions
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Where has she said hes hes kept at home? She says about touching noses over the fence and surely if you had your horses at home you would keep them off the boundary fence if they could touch random neighbours horses?
 
ihatework said:
^^^
The subtleties of that maybe not evident to the onlooker were that she knew the horse was nappy, so she walloped him for not instantly responding to a leg aid. Then backed it up the nanosecond he dropped off it again. It might not have been ‘randomly for good measure’.

In these situations, escalating aids - leg, harder leg, kick, tap, wallop is the worst thing to do. One aid only. (With the caveat the horse does actually know what the aid is)
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I have done exactly this many times, fairly recently I had a livery here that always left the yard without a backward glance but used to nap at various points on every hack so I was asked to take him out to deal with his napping, as we set off the first time he did not go instantly off my leg as well as I expected so got a sharp reminder and he didn't hesitate at any point after that one slap, I did several different routes with him and never had a single moment where he even thought about stopping and never needed to remind him after the very first time.
They sometimes require a short sharp shock but the timing must be correct if it is going to have any real benefit, a half hearted tap will often make them more hesitant and question what the rider is asking.
 
100%. As a 13yo i didn't have that skill, hence pony didn't listen. My current boy can be backwards on a solo hack esp after a break but i learned very fast i needed to be gently but firmly on top of him and get him on and we have never had an issue ( i had to put this in practice today cause i have not hacked him around the fields in a while but arena was being leveled) but i do believe someone who is not experienced would struggle to get him to go on without him starting to spook or trying to turn around and starting to prat about pretending he doesn't know what the reins or legs are for. He would never buck, rear or bolt he would just act dumb. I don't believe he has ever had the type of rider who would give him an inch, so he just does what he is told even if he doesn't think its a good idea. He is a total beginner ride in the arena, but i would never put anyone i didn't think was a strong rider on him for a hack. I can be nervous, but im bloody stubborn and i also know he is safe so i am comfortable enough to push on with him cause i know him so well now, his way of going on a totally new horse may unnerve me lol
 
I feel your pain-my mare did this after about 6wks of ownership. Her trick was to walk backwards at speed or just stand stock still-all 16.3 of her. What worked for me was a combination of my getting tough and my trainer behind her who gave her a couple of cracks with a schooling whip when she shot backwards and in between lessons me making sure that we ALWAYS did a circular route, no matter what, so no turning back and if I had to lead her I did. The first few times I lead her out I walked pretty much the entire hack, I’d get on and she’d go forwards, but if I stopped for a car (tiny narrow lanes) she’d get sticky again and I’d have to get off. I gradually got on earlier and earlier I til one day we managed to make it out of the yard. The other thing that helped with me was to trot out of the yard gates and be really forward, much harder to plant from a forwards trot than a sluggish walk.

It took us around 2 months to sort it, she had a brief blip when we moved yards but a combination of walking past the apparently scary object and then getting tough the next time we past it worked in around a week.

I would also echo the above posters who say you need to really concentrate and pick up that stride before when you just feel them falter-that’s the time for a crack with the stick, far more effective than when they’ve already planted
 
GG80 said:
Not necessarily my intention to lead him until he is off road, it was more if he plants on a road, I could get off and lead him until we are off road, hop back on and then deal with the planting somewhere safer than a road. I am just going to have to try and be more alert to his paces and try and get in there before he does with planting, by pushing him forward. He is at home with me, so not on a yard.
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Leo Walker said:
Where has she said hes hes kept at home? She says about touching noses over the fence and surely if you had your horses at home you would keep them off the boundary fence if they could touch random neighbours horses?
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That would be the bit in red above and yes, we certainly keep ours away from our boundary walls with electric fencing.
 
I think with horses like this you need to be very firm. He sounds like he is taking the pee tbh. Its probably his party trick he uses when he wants to get out of work.

How much road work do you have to do? One thing I would do ( if its safe) is to get him in to a smart trot straight away, really ride him forwards and dont give him a chance to plant. Also if he does plant then you need to give him a good crack with the stick but make sure you are not hanging in to his mouth.

If you dont feel confident doing this then you can sit it out. However, this should not be easy for him, you need to either circle him or my favourite thing is to play 'Sticky Feet' where you pretend his feet are going to stick to the floor and you need to 'swing' him from left to right to get some movement.
 
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