Impatient youngster

[flirtygerty]

4 yr old cob, was doing really well as a 3 yr old, just coming on in leaps and bounds, due to work, he's only been kept ticking over for the last year, (now for sale) basically just groundwork, longreining, feet picked up etc, but if I tie him up, he gets so frustrated he paws the ground, fidgets a lot, undoes the leadrope and comes to find me. While longreining, if I ask for a stand longer than two seconds, he starts the fidgeting and pawing, due to my current circumstances, I can't afford to ride and get hurt with this youngster, I praise when he stands still, but seem to misjudge when to ask for a walk on, I don't want him to associate fidgeting and pawing with getting his own way, he is a natural pawer, he does it when eating, waiting at gates, waiting for his feed, any suggestions as to how to stop this impatience, especially as I like things done yesterday, so know where he's coming from

 

[BethH]

Mine is & was busy in the head too and I do think he is better now that he has finally reached 15! I have always given him a hay net when tied up to keep him busy as that saved arguments and me getting irritated and it has meant he is an absolute poppet to handle, some people don't like doing that, but for me it meant he would settle quickly and be much more helpful, we lost the battling against each other and managed to get on with things. Halt has always been hard to. On the long reins I think it's timing. Do lots of transitions so that his head is having to think about something different eg, do a large circle where he has to do 6-8 paces of walk then trot 6-8 paces then walk and pop in a halt. The second he stands still ask for the walk again. If you allow him to have a very quick halt just for 1 second and then ask for trot immediately for example, he will start concentrating more and then you can gradually extend the time in halt. I was taught to not let him hang around as that would encourage the habit. On the ground I would do some in hand work in the school, ask for halt, if he fidgets ask him to step backwards a pace then halt again and keep doing it 'til he listens. Oh and as an owner whose horse was extremely troubled as a 4yr old, I bought the Kelly Marks "Perfect Manners" book, it has some fab exercises in there for youngsters which will give you other things to do with him, I found it very very helpful. It is an age thing don't stress too much about about it.

 

[flirtygerty]

thanks for that, will give it a try with transitions, I don't expect him to stand for long, just longer than two seconds, as you say increasing the time, he is such a character, will be really sorry to see him go