Have a few questions...

I am riding a 14 (I think) year old TB gelding who has a few issues. He was never raced and has had the same owner his entire life (though he has been leased out a few times). He is trained weird, like I'm not used to how he is trained. I am still trying to figure him out and he is getting easier every ride. He is really out of shape right now, but I will be riding him more now. Anyways, here are the things I need help with...

1. When I'm riding he does this thing where he tries to yank the reins out of my hands by stretching down. He might be doing it because it feels good on his back and such, but I'm not sure. Whenever he does I pull up with my inside reins (this is what the owner told me to do). He does it more at the trot then at the walk. It gets really frustrating because it hurts your arms.

2. He has days were he is super spunky and days where he is really lazy. Yesterday he was SUPER lazy. I was asking him to trot and no matter how hard I asked, he wouldn't go. I got a thin branch (with the leaves and all) off of a tree and even then (I was smacking him with it and he didn't even blink), he would barely go. He got better with time, but when I dropped the branch, he went back to being SUPER lazy again. So I got another one and he was "fine". Next ride I will see if I can ride with an actual crop.

For not that is all the questions I have. I will post some more if I think of any. I am hopefully riding him tomorrow so I'm sure I will have questions after that.

Thanks!

Bump...?

He sounds like he might have back problems, or is in pain. My friend's mare did the head thing and turns out she needed her teeth floated. I would have his back and head looked at, rule out pain before you go punishing him.

If it's not pain, do anything you can to get him going. Use spurs and carry a crop, but DON'T use either unless necessary and don't over use either. For the head thing, if its ABSOLUTELY not pain, you can use a stronger bit, or use one rein and jerk his head to one side. Pulling both reins against his head will only make him pull against it, and he'll win. If you pull his head to the side, you'll be bringing his head up and he won't be pulling against the bit. Even if you're trotting do this. Spin him a lot every time he does it (and make sure its energetic spinning, not lazy - use a crop on his butt and spurs to turn him faster if he's ignoring you) and don't let him stop without you telling him to. After you spin a few times, urge him forward into an energetic trot, if its not the right amount of energy and willingness you want, urge with your legs, if he doesnt wake up, click, then smack with the crop. Don't just hit automatically.