I'm confused - horse leading problems

[helm]

Ok.... I know horses take great pleasure in frustrating us but I can't get my head around this. My horse is 100 per cent sound, safe in the schoool, safe on a hack. To introduce him to competitions I've been taking him in hand to the local riding club. He's been very excited when there and we've had one or two incidents but he's done incredibly well with 1sts and 2nd.

After numerous hours getting him ready for todays comp I started to lead him round. He can often be rude when being lead but we have made this journey before without any hiccups ( I don't have a horse box so this is how I get there)

Basically every 4 steps he kept rearing, lashing out, trying to drag me over, diving for grass. Being totally OTT. In the end I had to turn back and give up. All that hard work and money out the window - It was a championship today and I'd been working towards it for a long time.

Because he can get very excited I gave him some of that super kalm equine paste - could that have had the opposite effect. Also any tips on how to sort out these leading problems that seem to be escalating? I've tried calming, I've tried firm no, tugs to bridles, smacks, ignoring it. I'm a bit lost really. And I don't do rearers!

I know I should put it down to one of these things but I'd like to try and solve the problem. He really is a cracking horse and does behave better when ridden but I've had knocks to my confidence before and when he behave like this it just upsets me. It's just so odd - usually he's the chilled out on on the yard that you'd trust with anyone (bar when being lead)

Yours perplexed

 

[CracklinRosie]

I know it's not the answer to your problems but why don't you ride to the competition?

 

[liveryblues]

sounds abit like my youngster! at first i made excuses for him because he was a youngster.... youthfull enthusiasm i put it down too!! Then he reared and really hurt my shoulder. I decided to put a chain across his head collar & the nxt time he did it i gave an allmighty yank... he didnt know what had hit him!! but he did decide that rearing was not a good idea. he still gets abit excited sumtimes but now instead of rearing he jogs a little..... that i can deal with.

 

[Marchtime]

My TB was previously a bit of a nightmare in hand. He hadn't been handled much when we got him and he became very difficult to turn out. We first tried a bridle but I found he had little respect for it so I swapped to a stallion chain. The stallion chain worked well but now he is in a chiffney as it's easier to use and the yard I am at have a lot of them in headslips. I'd try leading him in a chiffney - when he rears give a firm tug. My horse only ever went up twice in it before he learnt not to.

 

[BethH]

Sounds to me like some groundwork training would be useful. My horse who can be very full on works well in a pressure halter, I like the dually best, he respects the pressure across his nose but when I tried the "Be nice" which exerts poll pressure he completely flipped out.

The key with dually is pressure for bad behaviour but a quick release when he does as he is told, there is a good book by Kelly Marks called Perfect Manners which has some very useful exercises in it.

One other thing I would say is that Ryans bad behaviour always escalates quickly, it starts off with being a bit cheeky and trying to say pinch food as he is walking along i.e., diving for the grass verge or nicking a leaf of a tree branch and if he gets away with it 1 time, he has a much harder try next and so on until he is utterly pushy and bargy so nipping his behaviour in the bud immediately, no matter however slightly bad it is, is enough to keep his respect.

Hope that makes sense and good luck, it really is horrid being on the receiving end and I have had my boy do to me exactly as yours did today, it is highly unpleasant and very scary but at least the groundwork helps them learn to respect your personal space and also to remember you are there, you could also try Bach's remedies, if you think anxiety is causing the problem they do one for courage!