help with this horse I ride

I need some advice about this horse I ride sometimes. Its my BO horse, he is an 8 year old gelded Quarter Horse. He gets a lot of beginers on him who just walk or go for a trial ride, he is bomb proof nothing spooks him, very easy going. However in the arena I am having issues with him Im hoping you guys can help.

I can get him to walk with energy no problem. The first time I rode him I couldnt get him to trot for the life of me, I felt so silly I was actually laughing, I felt like I was 5 agian and was having flashbacks of this big fat pony named Popcorn I use to ride who I could never get to move forward, lol. Anyways after working with him for sometime in the arena the first time, I was able to get him to trot around the whole arena. His problem is he will start to trot if you can actually get him to do it, but then randomly stops dead in his tracks, nothing you can do can prevent it. So finally I got him going, I got him to respond to my voice and he was responding better to the crop. But forget about the canter, he would go 3 strides then stop dead, nothing I tried would get him to keep moving forward, I kept my leg on him and was tapping him with the crop.

I rode him yesterday and he was fine trotting, must have remebered our last ride together, he did stop once or twice but not nearly as much as before. But cantering is still not happening, he goes into it and I keep my leg on him and tap him with the crop if I feel him slow at all, yet no matter what I do he will stop dead!

The BO said that even though he is 8 he is still green, he has never had any real formal arena training, and when she puts kids on him in the the arena, its just for walking.

Im not sure if he is just lazy, doesnt know, or is just unwilling.

What can I do to get him to move forward without that stopping? It is so abrupt it throws my balance off and I fall a little forward in my seat. Im not a trainer but Im I would love to be able to get him to move forward around the whole arena without stopping.

Any suggestions?

Could you lunge him first of something
I don't really know what could get him going.
Has your BO had him since he was a foal Or brake im in ?? If not maybe the Person that raised him or broke him in abused him ??
Am just randomly guessing so Im probley wrong.

I just know a horse in the same situation but it was because the old owner abused her.


Hope I helped sorta


X

Sometimes that happeneds to my 5 yo horse.
He'd getting WAY better with me being tough and riding him almost everyday. I don't know if you would be able to do so, but maybe try spurs if nothing else works. And lunging also helps.

Sounds like the first issue would be lack of physical ability! He is out of shape!! If he only has walk riders on him, prior to you, he has no muscle or stamina to be able to do more than that. That would be the first problem! Think if you had not done more than a walk anywhere in years, and someone told you to run...you would get winded, breath hard, muscles hurt, feel horrible. Same for this guy. Work him into shape first and the not going should actually go away. If not, then there are many ways to fix not going forward, but start there, and give him the ability to do what you are asking of him before he gets in trouble for physically not being able to do it. Hope that helps.

I agree with Rubonsky. I would like to add that make sure he isnt physically hurting. I would have an equien massage therapist come out and make sure his in align. Once you have established he is not physically hurting, I would slowly start working him into shape. Lunging works great. What I find better is roundpenning if you have one and taking him out on trail rides. Take him to the hills and make him walk up nad down hills. This really helped my 23 yr old gelding get his staminal abck after last winter.

He is probably slightly out of shape, however that doesn't mean he can't trot for 5 minutes, so I would blame most of it on him ebing a beginner lesson horse.

If that is all he's really done, that's all he's going to want to do. He knows his job -- take care of the dead beginners and plod around the ring. Beginners usually have no real sense of stearing, so a lot of the time the horse makes his own decisions and the beginner praises him anyway. The riders probably don't take much authority and he's been ridden this way for so long that he assumes this is how it goes when you're ridden. If you want to stop, you stop. His job is to take care of his rider, and some trainers prefer their horses stay that way. I used to get on the dead beginner horse about once a month to give him a "real" work out where I used to work, but I rode him how the beginners rode him. If I needed to move him to the rail, I pulled my outside rein instead of using my leg to push him over. The idea was to have him respond to the basic commands a beginner is able to give, but if they get too tuned to the correct aides they are no longer a dead beginners horse.

::shrug:: it depends how badly you want him to be ridable by more advanced riders. The beginners probably think he is amazing and does everything right, so it's a confidence boost for them. It's good to have a horse like that at a lesson barn.

He could also be bored of the ring. I've been on many horses that were worked mainly in the ring that you would really have to push to keep moving, but were great out on the trail were there was more to keep their minds busy.