Leading :|

I've been away for a little while visiting some relatives and my parents were looking after my horse. I don't know what happened, but my horse is now impossible to lead.. When you take him out of his stall, he heads straight for any hay he sees and it's hard to stop him. I also cannot put him on the crossties easily. When you ask him to stop, he just keeps walking.. I don't really understand what happened, but does anyone know how to stop it? He also won't back up..

Do you use a rope halter?

No matter what halter you are using you have a basic lack of respect that you needs to deal with. You need to plan ahead when he goes for the hay and not let him turn his shoulder away or stick his nose out and walk off. Get at a 45 degree angle to the horse and when he starts to leave, give him yank. Knock him off balance slightly and make him face you not the food.

You can use the food driveness to you advantage by backing your horse to the food. Just a thought.

The cross ties I don't know I hate them. I don't even tie my horse. I want my horse to be respectful enough to stay where I place them and so I ground tie or use the round pen to teach them to stay while I mess with them.

Essentially your horse is showing that you are not incontrol. I would on a regular basis get that horses feet moving and lunge the horse with a few changes of direction teach moving the front end and the rear end and show the horse that when you are near you control where the feet go. I would work on my consistancy and expectations for the ground manners on this horse.

If worse comes to worse, you could use a chain over his nose for a few days as a "reminder".

Try first getting a crop, and using it as an extension of your arm to "block" him. It may also aid you to back him if he still bull dozes over to the hay. I would ask him to back, and if I get no response, ask again, and if you still get no response, give him a little pop with the crop and demand him to back.

You might find some free lunging to help establish more control. Use a lunge whip as a last resort, and try to use your body position to control him through transitions and changes of direction. You'll be amazed at the difference in how he leads after only 10-15 minutes.

No, I do not use a rope halter. I just use a regular nylon halter. He usually has a chain over his nose, and I think he's desensitized to it by now because he just ignores it completely.

I've never tried a crop before, but I think that it might work a bit more. I'm a very small person so I definitely couldn't add much physical force into the mix. Unfortunately though, for the crossties, they're pretty much the only way to tie up a horse in my barn. He doesn't tie at all because he pulls too much and ends up scaring himself and breaking the leadline or whatever is tying him.

The key thing with horses is to out maneuver and out smart. You're never going to win a war of strength - NOBODY will, big or small.

Your horse is probably not desensitized to the nose chain, but maybe you have not used it in a quick and firm downward jerk. Even your being a small person with the nose chain it should be of some help in controlling your horse, but then a rope halter would also you more control than a flat one.

For a horse that "sits back/ pulls" when tied can be helped by double tying it. When I first got my mare she would "sit back" when tied until it was suggested to me to double tie her. What I did was put a neck rope on her that had a very tight slip-proof knot in it. The loop was just big enough to slip over her head then I put her halter and lead rope on her. I tied the lead rope first then tied the neck rope only slightly longer. When she sat back/pulled if she broke the lead or snap the neck rope still had her tied. After a while she stopped sitting back and pulling altogether.