How to improve concentration and submission whilst hacking - help pls

[smallgirl]

Can I have some help pelase.....

I hack out about 4/5 times a week and try to use some of it as schooling for my horse, this is great for walk, I can get him to stretch long and low no problem, he is very relaxed. All I am after is the same in trot to really get his muscles stretching.....

However when we trot he tenses, spooks can become quite strong when I take a contact to push him up to, I have tried some many different ways of getting him to relax and come back to me:

1 Very slight contact and pushing him through with the leg - this seems to end up as rushing, with no better submission or relaxation

2 Leg yielding to get his concentration back - this seems to get him to tense and ends up with him dropping behind the leg

3 Getting a good active walk with submission before our transition to trot - this usually gives me 3 or 4 strides of ok trot, then something will catch his eye and his heads flies up and he is tense again.

I am just about at the end of my tether with this, I used to wear spurs, so perhaps I could pop those back on to get him more respectful of the leg. If I carry a whip he uses that as a excuse to get tense. He is a sensitive horse who does watch and react to everything that goes on but this is getting to the point that I will loose my temper with him soon and I really don't want it to come to that.

I'm all ears for advice on this, as I can see no justfiable reason for his disobedience.

 

[LEC]

Draw reins.

They are great for this type of thing. My horse was being an arse hacking a couple of weeks in draw reins and he remembered his manners. You do not have to use them until you lack the submission. My horse is lazy off the leg but spooking and throwing his head about was an excuse not to go correctly hacking. After probably two weeks he was very polite and much nicer.