Overcoming new obsticles

They may outweigh me but I use my brain instead of brawn. Weight really means nothing.

I don't beleive the flight thing. Alot of horses don't seem to be afraid of much.

The positive experience I want is for him to realize I am his master.

Respect and trust?? He respects me and will follow me anywhere. again like the lost puppy that comes running the minute he hears my car.
You've got the wrong idea of what builds respect and trust

I repeat. There is nothing that I know of that will stop my horse. He will move forward over, under or past anything I ask him to.
Last week I went into a big farm yard and I found 1000's of tires spread all over a large section, they were getting ready to cover the pits where silage is kept. It was scary having the ground covered with all those tires. Rio walked without fear, without undo concern through them with hardly a grance.
He is fearless, the ones before him were fearless and every single one of them fought me at one time or other.
It's like 2 horses in a herd fighting for dominacy. One beats the other and becomes leader and the other horse falls into line. He respects the superior horse. The stronger one anyway.

I never carry a whip or have one available. I am no good with them anyway but I do wear spurs as do the majority of people in higher disciplines. I do ride with a mild snaffle bit with extremely light hands but I do not back down, the horse never wins and I will not tip toe around an issue.
I am a strong rider and have years , decades of experience so what I do works for me and probably doesn't for most.

I agree with you, I do carry a whip mainly because where I hack you can come across some right weirdos so it helps to have something to hand but also because a tap with the whip is like a tap with spurs. I've also rode in a snaffle except one but that was at a riding school and I was taught that if you let a horse get away with something or back down then you're setting yourself up for trouble. That's how I was taught and it works, George trusted me 100% and would only be trouble if it was something that he'd never seen or traffic that got too close and too fast.

Rearing?? Babies all do it, older horses do it too while playing. Rearing is part of their makeup. They do it to escape work. We ask something of them that they don't want to do and they rear??
So what is the big deal?? It isn't hard to ride out and if it gets them nowhere they eventually quit using it as a defense mechanizm??
All my boys rear in the first few months but never for long. It doesn't upset me, doesn't intimidate me so it becomes a useless tool to the horse and they stop using it.
As for poor fitting tack, poor teeth etc etc. I feel you are just making excuses for a situation you can't handle

Um, question for you Riosdad, did you want people to tell you what they do for training or did you just want to be able to tell everyone how they suck and are wrong?

I think several people have truly answered your original question and then you pounced on them.

The problem with a whip is it is in one hand. You are holding a rein in either hand trying to steady the horse and at the same time trying to flick your wrist to get him to move foreward. Where with a pair of spurs you can bump him while steadying him with your hands.
I also ride alot with my legs and half passing on the trail is done all the time to avoid sticks or burrs and a light touch of the leg gets him moving over quickly and freely.
I use dressage spurs, not western spurs. I hate the wheel and the noise they make while walking. I also use a strap under the boot and one over the boot to keep the spurs quiet on my feet.

Yes - I use my brain - therefore I do not need to fight on anything.

When you break their spirit - you are right - they aren't afraid of much.

RD, I was not arguing with you on that. Lol! My point is if you beat totally scared horse into something it won't do any good. I've seen people doing that and the end result was not positive at all.

In fact I totally disagree with that. With some horses (especially habitual rearers) yes, with some rearing is reaction to the fear. They are not trying to escape work , they are just scared to death (I run into couple horses like that). That's when I rather prefer to get off and help them to go over. Not to FORCE them to go over.