Teaching youngster to trot in hand!?

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becksten

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Any ideas? He is my 2nd youngster and had no problems with my other one. This 2 1/2yr old is the calmest, dopiest pony ever!
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He will walk at the side of me, but trying to get him to trot, he wont untill i run in front of him! Ive tried a whip (to tickle him with) and the end of the lead rope (flick behind me) and my OH has tried clapping at the back of him. . . .But all he wants to do is walk! Bless him! Any ideas?
BTW he hates whips! I found out a week ago, he was abused.
Thanks
 
Will he walk quicker if you ask him to? I have been teaching my yearling to trot up, and I just started off by asking her to walk faster and faster until she started trotting. (over several weeks this was.....) WIth Flo it was just keep trying and trying until we got there. I now have the opposite problem and she thinks cantering while I am running along side her is absolutely hilarious!!
using a whip is the last thing I would recommend just simply because with something like this your youngster should be doing because he wants to do it with you, not because you are making him.

If this makes any sense at alll...... LOL!
 
No he doesnt walk faster. Hes got one pace........And that is 1mph! lol. The only time he's ever walked faster is when the others chased him round the field, and he managed to TROT away from them!!! LOL
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Ah bless him!!! There will come a day when you will be really grateful for his attitude being like that!! Not like my yearling who now just thinks that the faster you go the better!! haha!!

The other thing I did with FLo when I was starting was to hold a treat in one hand and leadrope in the other (i don't normally like treating - but it was useful in this instance). I led along keeping her interest in the treat and this did help to keep her moving forward and right up along side me.

I haven't had a lot of experience with baby babies like this - this is the first foal that I have bred - but this is just what I have been doing with my little girly! But i think that she seems to be quite cooperative with me at the moment!

Good luck with the trotting!!! LOL!
 
No, hes fit and healthy (except for being underweight) He has the farrier for a trim every 6 to 8 weeks, he's recently had the chiro and dentist, and vet gave him a full check up about 2months ago
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You could try getting a little jar, and filling it with pepples, or some such rattly thing, and getting someone to rattle it behind your youngster when you ask for trot.
 
Whips aren't for hitting horses, they're artificial aids to fill in when you can't give the appropriate aid with your body!

I must confess I've not tried using treats to get horses to jog (is that term used in the UK?) and working in a show Arab barn put me off rattles for life (plus I don't think that's a very accurate aid, and it needs two people so horses can end up very "situational" with their jogging) so can't comment, but I've always taught reluctant joggers to move up with a tap from a whip.

Some jog off fine just from pressure but some get a bit freaked when the handler starts running and get backed off so to help those ones understand a whip can be a great communicator. I usually start with the horse along a fence line (important - many horse pull off to the right when they start to trot and that can be the beginning of a real problem of the horse pulling away) and use a "schooling whip" (long whip for schooling horses from the ground) or a short longe whip with the lash tied up. I then walk briskly forward a few steps then incline my body forward, jog a few steps and at the same time use whatever voice aid I'm going to assign to "trot" (a click for me, since it will be the same on the longe and under tack but use whatever you like) and GENTLY tap the horse on the thigh or hocks once or twice. I much prefer doing this myself rather than having someone else do it but if you're finding the coordination tricky use a helper. DO NOT hit the horse with the whip as it will then spring away from you and/or might kick out - totally not what you want!

I jog a few steps, congratulating the horse with my voice, then use whatever aid I want for walk, walk around to the same spot again and repeat. When the horse is trotting away smartly at that same spot I repeat the procedure somewhere else along the fence. Most horse take only a couple of passes to nail it down perfectly.

I then try to work in a practice now and then when I'm just leading in the normal course of things so the horse understands it as an aid, not just situationally. Sometime in the ring a tense horse will "freeze" and lose it's training a bit so it's necessary to make the skill a habit.

By the way, I think this is an essential skill for ALL horses. I can't tell you how many times I've struggled with a vet examination because the horse won't trot in hand properly!
 
Thanks for all your advice. He abosolutly hates whips, even if you pick one up from the ground and hes about 20ft away, he will run away from me, so i cant use or even carry a whip with me. Ill just get trying some different things. Thanks all!
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