Young horse problems

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Barefoot Endurance

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Hi, we recently bought a 4 year old Arab gelding. When we tried him he hacked out very well in very heavy traffic and was extremely quiet on the yard. He was ok for the first couple of weeks we had him, then they changed fiends and he has gone a bit wild! He's a nightmare in the school just looking up to his field and feels like a bottle of pop waiting to go off and then today we took him out with my extremely perfect well behaved mare and not far so not to blow his brain we had a little trot but walked the rest, on the way home we were just walking along behind my mare and POP he went off. Bucking, bronking and even reared :(

I have been riding for 28 years but for the past 11 I have mainly only ridden my mare who wouldn't dream of lifting her hooves off the ground unless asked to jump!

It really shook me up to be honest. I have an 18 month old boy so the thought of getting injured was just too much to take. :'(

On the ground he's pretty good, gets a bit lively going to/from the field but nothing very bad.

I'm thinking it was just too much for him? Our hacking is over really rough terrain up down hills with varying ground conditions and I think this was actually too much???

I was ready to sell him earlier but my husband doesn't want to as he's meant to eventually be his endurance horse...

:(
 
Ah no, he's just a baby - honestly my safe young cob Shy can have a tantrum with the best of them, but an Arab baby will be pretty sparky.

fwiw, my advice is to keep calm and carry on, maybe keeping calm with a calmer - ooo and can we have picks please ??
 
We've got a 4 yo at our yard and I've never met a youngster like him! He sounds similar, it may just be a case that he's young and an Arab. When I tried my horse I hacked him out and he was solid hacking, got him home and the first few hacks I took him out on I thought I'd bought a different horse, looking at things, spooking, trying to outrun scary things, but I just kept at it with him and he settled down. Sorry cant offer much more advice!
 
He's 4. He's unsettled from the move. He's probably also testing the boundaries. Is there more grass in the new field? If he is that much spookier after a field change, I would also consider a magnesium inbalance.
 
When my arab was 4/5 he spent a lot of time bucking, rearing and spinning.....he's totally different now he's 7. Stick with it, stay calm and confident and he will settle and trust you. Oh....and if you stop an arab going forwards, they tend to go up lol. Keep your leg on and ride him quietly forwards. Good luck :)
 
RE the terrain. I once got carried away while leading my two year old arab out on a walk in-hand. We ended up doing a two hour route over some pretty tricky stuff. He coped far better than I did. ;)

Your horse is only four and in a new place, he will get better. Maybe you could try taking him out in-hand before riding the routes? Is he better when in front of your mare?
 
Stop faffing about when you are riding him and get some work into him. Don't spend the ride walking but give him plenty of trotting to use his energy and make him think about what he is doing.

When they are full of fizz keep them moving - preferably up the steepest hill around.
 
agree with the fizz keep them moving forwards, if they are travelling forwards its very difficult for them to rear!! and also thinking, if he has a tantrum again i would put my leg on ask for lots of forward movement, trotting will do him no harm at all and may just take the sting out of his tail aso to speak.. not sure how much schooling you have done but i would also start to introduce some light questions to get him thinking this could be introduced in an arena first then repeated out on your hack, i have a 4 year old WB some hacking i use as a schooling session, good luck and stick with it, does get easier :)
 
He had his saddle fitted by a society of master saddle fitters fitter on Wednesday. He was being ridden bitless and he is barefoot (always has been) so as far as I'm concerned nothing should have been hurting him.

Thank you for all your advice, I lunged him this morning and he was (for his age) good :)

Time and patience I'm sure will pay off! (Oh and a quick smack soon gets his attention!!!)
 
When I brought my young arab in march, she was foot perfect for the few couple of weeks, then one day she decided to have a little testing match with me in the field. She reared three times with me, then proceeded to be a right little maddam for the next 20 mins. Upto this point, I had been riding in the fields, so decided it was time to take her out to see the world with my sister on foot. We did several different hacks, she was great, we then went out in company with another horse, again fine. It was now time to hack solo!! She was great, for a week, then the napping started. No worries about traffic, she just didn't want to go where I wanted her to.
I became rather disheartened, thinking that I had brought the wrong horse, comparing her to my old mare, who, although a complete hothead, was completely trustworthy.
I decided that I needed to just get on with it, I hadn't really ridden for 3 years so needed to get my head back into gear, so we just worked through the napping, and one day it was like the switch flicked and we haven't looked back. If she is feeling a bit fresh, she can sometimes do the arab head flick so I know this is a sign that she's having a thought about being naughty, so she gets growled at and pushed on into a trot.
I think arabs like to stand on their back legs though!!
Don't give up, I'm sure he'll come right, they are very intelligent and need time to settle into a routine. Once you have their trust, they will do anything for you.
 
It sounds like he might benefit from getting going a bit more. Obviously he should walk nicely when you want to but getting him going forwards more and tiring himself out a bit may well help.
 
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