Youngster getting too excitable when asked to canter out hacking...

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Charla

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My rising 5 year old warmblood gelding has been hacking for about 6 months now and has always been well behaved, responsive and fairly sensible. Just recently he has started getting too silly and excitable when asked to canter though. He will either bronco, take off, bounce on the spot, rear etc. However, if just walking and trotting he will be completely sane and quiet. I have always tried to keep my canters with him very steady and sensible but am starting to wonder where I have gone wrong and how I can prevent or avoid this behaviour as it does get dangerous. Do I just stop cantering all together? His canter in the school is pretty similar, I don't do much canter work in the school with him as it's too small and deep. Any suggestions? Thank you.
 
It sounds like he needs to start doing more canter work is there a field you can use if the school is not suitable, once he is more settled and doing lots of transitions he should become easier again, youngsters often go through silly phases like this.

I would also get his saddle and back checked as it could be something is causing discomfort and giving him a reason to misbehave.
 
Ditto Be Postive's advice.
He's young and developing muscle, so check back and saddle as part of your on going programme in bringing a young horse on.

Different things work for different horses and circumstances, but things I've tried are not cantering until he's expelled some energy, vary the length of the hacks so he doesn't know how many miles he'll have to conserve his energy for.
If he bucks, ride him forward with ignoring as much as practically possible the baby high spirits. reward with praise when he goes well. Keep his mind on you when hacking to remind him that he's in work mode and not out having a jolly like he would in the field with his mates.
Canter up hill, makes it more difficult to buck. Vary times and canter places, (I'm sure you already.)
Give him a warning just before you ask for canter, so it doesn't take him by surprise, resulting in excitement or trying to organise his legs.
 
I have the same thing.
My youngster bucks going into canter in the school, although this is happening less and less as I push him on through the bucking, this can be difficult as our steering goes and it can be a bit of a roller coaster ride for me! I have even had to use my schooling whip behind me leg gently as he just used to do a massive buck and then collapse back into trot, pushing him back into canter ASAP soon made him realise that a big buck was pointless.
He is still bucking out hacking, but i try and vary where we canter so he doesnt expect it.
I put him out in front of any other horses at the moment and he canters first so I dont get him too over excited with the others going ahead of him. Again if he bucks i kick on but i dont make a fuss about it, if he does more than one i might raise my voice and tell him NO, and a slight back up with my schooling whip so he knows he needs to concentrate on the cantering and not the bucking.

All this is easier said than done I might add when you have half a tonne of horse underneath you hell bent on having a very over exciting time!!

Wish me luck as i'm taking him for a solo hack tonight (only his 3rd) and am going to the canter tracks. I need to be brave and just get on with it as it's the only way of getting on with it is patience and perserverence and canter practice! :)

Good luck with yours - i hope get good results soon.
 
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