Ground... Mismanners

I am a huge stickler for ground manners. For me, that is the first thing a horse learns. This new haflinger has actually been confusing me.

BIGGEST PROBLEM: Someone taught him that when he doesn't want to do something, back up. He can haul backwards.

Vet check clean. Feet good, overweight but working on it. 5 years old, 1 year under saddle as a trail horse.

When I am hand walking, I have tried every halter/lead combination I could think of. He's good at stopping when I stop. Sometimes he doesn't want to walk forward and goes backwards. Sometimes he's fine.

Most times, if I even speed up my walk to get him to trot, he throws his head and tries to grab the lead to chew on it. If I refuse to let him get it, he settles down nicely. But we have that fight every time.

He's better under saddle, I went from a d-ring snaffle to just a halter, he likes it better. Any good manners training exercises-- sorry but please no parelli. I no his stuff and im not a huge fan. I've tried a lot of those games with him and nothing helped. Thanks.

Well, I do follow Parelli, but I'm not going to give you my thoughts (even though I have worked with horses like this before) if you don't want them. I'll just say it might be a good idea to get him responding better to steady pressure, since when he feels it on his poll he goes backwards.

I would try a buggy whip, you know the ones that are about four feet long. As soon as it feels like he is stopping or going to back up I would say walk! And give him a pop with the whip. When he moves forward give him a pat and say good boy. Hope this helps and good luck with him!
Mine was the opposite. He would walk infront and pull me along. I started to swing the lead in circles and let him walk into it, smacking him in the face. It was his choice not me who smacked him.

I agree with you. Get a long whip or if you have a long lead use that. If he starts to act like he is going to go backwards tap him to encourage him to go forward. If he ignores it tap him again, eventually if he is a smart little pony he will get the message.

Yup, I third the buggy whip. Hold it in your off side hand and when he stops or tries to back, stay looking forward and flick the whip behind you so it taps him on the rump. When he moves forward again, pat him and tell him good boy.

Have you tried simply asking him to keep backing up when he decides that's what he wants to do? Sometimes 'reversing' the role, and making it your idea can change the horse's idea really quickly. Backing is not something a horse likes to do naturally, so that he is doing it on his own is not really comfortable for him; make it even more uncomfortable by making him back up even more, and possibly even quicker, and put some direction to it, and he may change his mind about going foward very quickly.

When he stops, and plants his feet (before he starts backing), you could simply start asking him to yield his hip too, or put him into longing; it doesn't really matter 'what' the direction of his movement as long as you are the one controlling it. Make movement (in whatever direction) your idea, and he will soon figure it out that balking is not the easy way out. It's not so much that someone 'taught' him to back when he didn't want to go somewhere, it's just that they didn't make going foward the easy thing to do. Make balking and backing up 'hard work' for him, and he will quickly change his mind about those two antics.

Thanks guys. Yea, i've tried backing him up when he wants to. That was my first thought but he will back up till the sun goes down... or his butt hits something.

We've been working with a whip and he's learning quickly. I'm not sure if he understands how i'm tapping him while still being at his shoulder but it's working :)

WTG

Thanks for the update.

Hey Piper...
I think I would work on yielding the hind and forequaters...This will let him know your the leader and you get to direct his feet...not him...
He has prbably gone throughout his life just "doing" and just "being" The whip can easily be used in this type of excersise...CA has some good ones but I have read your posts and comments and you can figure out something that will work best for the two of you.
HP