caught in the middle.....

Why don't you jsut shut the gate so he can't leave the arena? When he gets to the gate work his guts out right in front of the gate. Then when he is tired and breathing hard and really wants to stop ride him to the back of the arena and let him rest. If I were riding him and he wanted to stay by the gate he could but he would be at a canter in a circle untill sweat dripped from his nose then I would only rest him away from the gate.

He doesn't canter on a line. I've had an English trainer, a western trainer, our BO and myself all try, and as soon as we ask him to pick something up faster than a trot he stops and turns in to face us. you can see it in this video


btw thats not me, thats our western trainer.

And any time there is a horse in the arena, the gate is closed. But he'd stand there all day and wait for someone to open it no problem. I've sat there on top of him and fought with him for fourty five minutes, circling and backing and sidepassing any way but forward or standing still and he still will NOT move back into the arena. But as far as working him that hard....thats how he made a living, that was his whole purpose in life was to work up that kind of sweat, so in this case I don't think that would make a difference

Just an update, I tried again with the crop today and he was MUCH better behaved that he was without it. I tried over exaggerating our 'whoa' (heels way up by his shoulders, seat way back) and he responded very well to that, also had much smoother walk/trot and trot/walk transitions. The only thing he wouldn't do were the three groundpoles we had laid out (he'll do a single pole, and he'll do two poles, but he actually dropped his haunches almost to the ground and backpedaled when I tried to make him walk over three) but even things like the tossing of his head were better today.

I'll still try and get that video though!