Large, strong horse tanking off in hand

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TropicalHorse

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Hi! I've got a 6yo Friesian x Oldenburg gelding who is wonderful in almost every way except that he is nearly 18hh and he knows it!! Every now and then he simply charges past me pulls the rope/rein out of my hands with the sheer weight of him. The first time he did this I had him in a flat halter and lead rope which quickly got changed to a Dually correction halter and lunge rein with gloves for me every time... And he still does it. Even a lunge rein clipped to the bit rings doesn't work, he just barges and goes! I'm an experienced trainer and rider and I am really at my wits end with this!! I've done lots if ground work with him and he was improving a lot... Until he remembers his party trick!
Today after a ride I was leading him to the field and he was a bit slow to move away from the gate, then tried to pull away a bit to snatch a mouthful of grass so I brought him up sharp with the correction halter and was doing some basic yielding and manners in the lane way to the field and I saw him think "I don't have to take this!" and he just whooshed past me and pulled the rope out of my hand. I went and got him, we continued the groundwork and he immediately did it again!! Argh!
I KNOW that the thing the horse most needs is to never ever ever get away with this trick ever again, but even with my precautionary tack, being prepared and having done lots of work getting him to yield his quarters and be respectful of the rope, he's still managed it twice today! Feel v frustrated! His former owner was a slight and nervous lady and he obviously got away with it with her. She was too frightened even to lead him to the field!
He's not a bad natured horse in the slightest, and he's lovely to ride, he just knows his own strength on the ground. Anyone got any tips for me??
 
I had one that did this. I used breaking tack with tight side reins onto the bit and a leather cavesson and lunge. If they cannot straighten the neck they can't ripe away as they are pulling against themselves.

It is pain the bottom to go to these lengths though ! Once I got to the paddock I would not immediately untack and release, I would work the horse on a circle both directions and then let him go.
 
My pony used to do this. The only thing I found that worked was keeping my elbow against his neck and if I felt he was going to make a run for it, trying to turn his head to me and push my elbow into his neck. If his neck wasn straight I had some control. I found it was all about that split second of catching him before he buggered off.

If he got his neck set there was no stopping him and I'd have to just let go (he never went far!) and he was only 14.1.

I tried lots of ground work etc and 9 times out of 10 he was fine. Before I lost him last year is got to a stage where I could happily lead him with my other horse with no problems. But if he decided he was off that was it. He was a funny little man who never grew out of it. And like you - I think it was down to him getting away with pushing his previous owner around.
 
Have you tried it with the lunge rein from the far bit ring, over the poll and then through the nearside ring so it works as a gag when you lead him?
 
My ID had a tendency to do this when he was younger. With him any attempt to control the front end was never going to work, he'd cheerfully set his neck & shoulder & carry straight on, but what did work was moving the back end. He was taught to swing his hindquarters away at a command or pointed finger & he'd do it automatically since it wasn't an attempt to stop him & didn't give him any pressure to lean into. Once he was going sideways in front of me it was actually easy to hold him - he wasn't pointing the way he wanted to go & it's difficult to pick up a lot of speed or pull when your legs are constantly crossing lol. He'd often stay in canter, but in this position the canter was at walking speed & if he felt like a buck then his feet were out of my way too.

The other thing that helped, & you may or may not be happy to do it, was always having treats on me that could be used as a distraction. And making sure that he knew he was being watched because if he was n that frame of mind the second he thought he hadn't got my full attention he'd be gone. But the best trick with him was sideways, and it works under saddle too.
 
My huge ID has a tendency to do this usually to get back to his field companion.
He is much better since he tried it with my OH who is an enormous strong farmer and couldn't get away, my oh did his own form of 'ground work' with him and the horse has improved significantly.
However I lead in a bridle or chiffney if I am on my own and doing something out of the usual routine.
 
Sukistokes2 said:
The only way I stopped my large lump doing this as a youngster was leading him with a Newmarket chain over his nose, attached to lead rein.
Click to expand...

Chain under the chin (works better for a horse that bogs off in-hand IME), like on a show halter and lots of in-hand training (which I see you are doing already OP). Plus drill the 'stand' voice command into their brain. Every time they transition from moving to halt, say 'stand'. For some reason I have found that horses that bog off, respond better to halting than they do to being asked to 'steady' or 'walk'. So 'stand' and then pause, then 'walk on' under control.
 
My welsh cob used to behave similarly - the day wasn't complete if he hadn't tanked off across the field when being led or barged out of his stable.

Turns out he didn't like how he was being handled by another livery (we helped each other) because as soon as I moved yards he improved 75%. Once I learnt to stop shouting at him myself (unfortunately got my first few years experience on a "shouty-hitty" yard) he became a total gent. It was all about respect and he can't respect somebody who tries to push him around.

Whilst you do need to try and stop the behaviour, it would be worth trying to work out the underlying reason for it.
 
I use a chifney with my Suffolk cross who has a habit of tanking off because he can. It's the only thing that will work. To be honest, he doesn't even pull when he has it in, just walks along nicely beside me wherever we are going.
 
I have one like this. On the ground, he'll even run through his bridle. He came with a Dually but it might as well be made of loo roll for all he notices it.

I have a dog chain (a choke) threaded through his regular headcollar which so far has done the job. If I'm putting him in a situation where I know he'll try bog off (e.g. leading him out to a new field on a windy morning) then I'll pop a chifney on him.

If he's looking feisty while bringing in, I get him to stop and back up at regular intervals or shift his quarters round and then ask him to back up so that we reverse out of the field and down to the yard.
 
Chifney work for us on an old horse. They soon learn it hurts and totally unacceptable.

Usually I would recommend using it over a headcollar and leadropes attatched to chifnney and the headcollar but seeing as he bogs off generally I would put chifney on (with or without headcollar) on a headpiece and use it straight. Should only come into action when needed.
 
I used a chifney for a short while when mine used to do this. He soon learnt that being cheeky was painful.

I had the rope completely slack, and if he decided to ****** off, he'd get a sharp shock once he got to the end of the rope. I could lead him with a rope around his neck once he learnt to be respectful.
 
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