How to get my horse listening when in company?

[1Lucie]

My horse has recently become 'a bit of a follower'. When riding in the school if there are ny other horses i feel as though he is not concentrating on me. He wants to follow the other horse, cut across the school towards them. Speed off up to them and is generally not paying attention!

Alone he is fine and works nicely although, he has become a bit nappy hacking alone. This is a fairly recent thing, probably more so since the weather has been bad. He has previously been in a riding school for a v short time and this may explain some of it (although i have owned him for 18months now).

Any ideas how to get him listening and not constantly keeping an eye on the other horse? As it is becoming v annoying and a bit of a battle when in company!

 

[Morland]

Bear in mind horses naturally like to follow each other, mine is very gregarious too! I sympathise with your situation. I haven't any great solutions for you, but maybe spending as much time with your horse as possible (eg when not riding), really attending to him and interacting with him, will help. There are lots of in hand 'games' you can play to strengthen your relationship too. When riding, if you can concentrate on him (without being distracted by the others in the school) then he will be more likely to concentrate on you.

 

[chattygoneon3]

My 5 yr old cob can be like this ,I have found the best thing to keep him focused on me is to keep him really busy. I do loads of transitions .circles,serpentines,changes of rein etc and this seems to work. Also I give him plenty of praise when he goes past or near another horse and listens to me. He too is good on his own ,so I make sure I ride him in company as much as I can ,the more we do it the better he is getting.In fact sometimes I find the more horses there are the better he is as he can not seem to decide who to follow ,too much choice ! Also I put poles on the floor to just walk or trot over and this keeps us both really focused.

 

[Tilda]

My horse is generally quite good riding in company in the school but sometimes at shows in the collecting ring he can get a bit distracted by the strange horses or if he is with a friend he wants to be with them. I basically keep him moving doing lots of circles, lateral work etc and get him working on the bit so he is concentrating and this really calms him down.