Pep up for in-hand veteran

[Sussexbythesea]

I’m taking my old guy to and in-hand veteran show championship in a couple of weeks. He looks amazing and is perfectly fine hacking out with plenty of stamina. However he switches off in-hand and can look like a half-dead nag as I trot him up.

So I guess there are two things, a short term booster to pep him up and maybe some in-hand techniques to get him moving properly. I’m a bit lame myself which doesn’t help.

Also for some reason he almost always coughs on the first trot around even though he rarely ever coughs at any other time, any suggestions on helping with that appreciated. I try to trot him about a bit before to loosen him off.

Many thanks.

 

[Sussexbythesea]

Bump

 

[conniegirl]

Do you warm him Up for the inhand classes? A proper inhand warm up should sort that cough and make him more forward.

I suspect the dead donkey routine is because he has never been taught properly for inhand classes which is different to teaching a horse to lead for everyday. I would go back to basics and teach him like he were a youngster.
Get him between you and the fence of the school (this will stop him going crooked), carry a long whip and then teach him to go forwards into a proper trot at the click of a tongue. No half hearted efforts allowed, he goes forward or you tickle him with the stick (same as if you were schooling from the saddle).
Side reins can be useful if he likes something to work into, set them up as you would for lunging.

 

[Sussexbythesea]

Do you warm him Up for the inhand classes? A proper inhand warm up should sort that cough and make him more forward.

I suspect the dead donkey routine is because he has never been taught properly for inhand classes which is different to teaching a horse to lead for everyday. I would go back to basics and teach him like he were a youngster.
Get him between you and the fence of the school (this will stop him going crooked), carry a long whip and then teach him to go forwards into a proper trot at the click of a tongue. No half hearted efforts allowed, he goes forward or you tickle him with the stick (same as if you were schooling from the saddle).
Side reins can be useful if he likes something to work into, set them up as you would for lunging.

Thanks for the tips not tried those extra things before just simply trotting up with a whip - sorry for late reply.