nervous horse at show problems

[horsemad\\]

this is my first forum on here so please excuse in advance if this turns out horribly wrong...
so in February i recently purchased a new pony a 14.1 8y/o new forrest gelding. after taking him out competing i’ve noticed that he is rather excited/nervous, he won’t stand at all, jogs on the spot, you can’t leave him in the trailer as he’ll bang and work himself up and you can’t leave him tied up because he’ll just pull back, snap the lead rope and run away.
he also gets very strong on the ground at shows (yet he’s not strong ATALL to ride) after getting on him and walking him and putting him to work he’ll calm down but he just has so much energy!! at home he’s a total sweet heart and is practically a donkey.
any advice would be great as it just ruins the atmosphere of shows making it stressful and not as fun.

 

[oldjumper]

The best way is to make the whole process less exciting. If he only goes to shows/events when you use the trailer, start travelling him regularly to non exciting things. Go on quiet hacks, to see friends, pop to shops, just drive round and home again. Anything to dissociate the travelling experience from somewhere high adrenalin. If he's very relaxed in trailer but just gets fired up at the show: take him to as many events as possible with no intention of competing. Walk him round in hand (in bridle if he's hard to hold), lunge if there's room and it's allowed, graze in hand. At first, don't stay for long. As he starts to get calmer, stay and spectate for a while...When he is relaxed about the whole experience, ride him around but still don't compete for the first few times. Even when he's calmed down, it does no harm to throw in some non exciting trips out from time to time! Good luck.

 

[scats]

Take him out, lots.
Hire arenas, arrange to meet a few friends there so he’s coming off the box and mixing with other horses. Box him to Farm rides, hacking etc.
Take him to as many little competitions as you can and make it something that you just do as part of your normal routine.
If he’s better worked, it might be worth getting up pretty quickly and working him at the showground and once his brain has engaged a bit and he’s a bit mentally and physically tired, then get off and see how he is on the ground, tying up to wagon etc.

 

[Bernster]

Following with interest. Mine isn’t quite as excited as yours sounds but he does get more fidgety to handle at shows. My only tip to add to the above is that the more we’ve gone out the better I am at working around his fidgeting, as well as working on getting him to settle down. So yours may well improve but also you may just find ways to reduce the issues.

In my case, I leave him on the box as long as possible as he’s quiet on there. I put his bridle on inside. He doesn’t get hay outside as he’s taken to trying to paw at it or scratch himself. It means we’re both happier and less annoyed at each other! Once I’m on, he settles down pretty quickly.

 

[paddi22]

i had one and i had to take him off the box immediately, lunge him and then walk him round. as soon as he had got his initial energy out in the lunging, and had a good look around he settled down