Horse wont stand still!!

[Samantha008]

My horse, who ive had about 4 months now, has a terrible habit of not standing still. He walks out much quicker than most other horses at my yard and so alot of the time we have to stand to wait for them to catch up. Until recently, he would sort of pace a little bit, maybe just take a step backwards and then walk on, but the past week hes taken to rearing. You cant ride him with a whip as hes a complete wimp and wont even let you get on him eith one. If you do manage it, he just freaks out. So i dont know how to discapline him to stand up. Ive tried giving him rein, not giving him rein etc etc. The feeling i get from him is that he just doesnt want to stand still, like hes too eager to "wait".

I think the rearing is due to the grass coming through after the recent rain, theyre all on their toes a little at the minute on my yard and he is jogging when he doesnt usually either. Ive also bought him a new saddle (fitted and checked by 2 saddle fitters) as his old one was hurting his back. So im thinking he might be feeling very good.

Is there anything i can do to help this? Groundwork doesnt work as hes a saint on the ground and will stand for hours!!! Im not afraid of a challenging horse but one that rears is dangerous and i wont stand for it.

Thanks for any help!!!

 

[Suziq77]

I've had one like this - it takes time, patience and confidence, unfortunately there's no "quick fix". Assuming you've had all back/teeth etc checks done I suspect he may be rearing because he is wound up (due to "having" to wait) and the more on edge he gets the more wound up you get and so you transmit it between yourselves. If he has a nice well developed back end then conformationally he will also find it easier to sit on to get his point across. It's not easy to stay calm when they start rearing, I found that maintaining a contact, breathing out, relaxing my seat and walking in circles helped address the issue. It's much better if you can stop the front feet coming off the floor in the first place though - does his head go very high and his neck tense? If so this is their "getting ready for flight" stance in the wild and it sends adrenaline pumping round their bodies. If you can work on keeping his mouth and neck soft and relaxed and his head low(ish) and listening to you then he should forget about "having" to wait. Lessons in the school to work on developing riding him with your seat should also help slow him down, pulling on the reins in this type of situation has little effect in my experience. When he starts getting would up you can then say to him (with your seat and hands) "no, stop worrying about them, listen to me and just chill out".

Hopefully you have a good instructor - maybe they can watch you in one of the situations you describe? Having someone on the ground can be invaluable, however good a rider one is.

A few drops of rescue remedy (for you and him) before you set off can also help.

Best of luck