Horse with personal space issue in arena!

[Dumbo]

Has anyone else had a similar problem...?
Whenever I'm riding in the school at the same time as anyone else, my horse becomes a total idiot.
If I'm on the outside track along the wall, and a horse passes us at any pace, up to about a couple of metres away, my horse catapults in the air, grunts, rears, bronks a few strides then can carry on once other horse is far enough away!
I'm trying to pick my time so that I can ride alone but being on a big yard, there can be up to 6 of us in there at worse and then I just have to leave before we cause an accident.
Riding alone he goes like a dream. Anyone else and he's a coiled spring ready to explode the second someone gets too close.
I'm starting to lose confidence now. Any help?

 

[Nightmare before Christmas]

alot of young horses do this in the warm up, ignore it and ride through it. Some get better

 

[Exploding Chestnuts]

You could try lunging him while others are in the arena , so they use the other half of the arena and he settles down. I know my boy was frightened of the indoor school [scary echoes],and he got worse when some stupid girl kept running her horse up his backside in spite of being told to keep her distance.

 

[pinkypug1]

How does he behave with other horses during turnout?

 

[Dumbo]

NBC - he's 16! He should know better by now!
Bonkers2 - unfortunately not allowed to lunge in the school as we're fortunate to have a lunge pen too. Owner doesn't like tracks being made. Good idea otherwise though, thanks.
Pinkypug1 - he's quite playful in the field. Never used to be, used to be the boring old man but since we moved yard 6 months ago he's found a new lease of life and new play buddies. But his behaviour in the school is more like aggression than playful I'd say.

 

[be positive]

He is old enough to know better! have you had his eyes checked, it may be there is a real reason for it and eyes would be the obvious place to start.
I would spend time with him just outside the gate just standing watching other going past as often as you can, then if you can get another livery on side take time to really work him before they come in once he is tired and just walking round on the inside track while they go past on the outside, he may be reacting because he feels trapped between the fence and the other horses, being playful out in the field may have resulted in a minor incident where he felt threatened or got a kick and he is now trying to avoid getting hurt so going on the attack in order to get the first blow in, in the field he may know he can get away if he gets worried, sometimes as they get older they do feel more vulnerable.

 

[liz4949]

Some get better

Indeed, some do, but also some don't. My old dressage horse has always been like this in a warmup, he's just really scared if others come what he considers too close. We learned to live with it and humour him. Often our warmup is a walk round the lorry park if the warmup is too busy for him. He's now 18 and competed all his life so not likely to change now.