I bought this yearling back in June, but I've known him since a weanling. I know his background in training, but there was two months that I had no idea what was going on. Pretty much he was born in 2011 at my secondary school, halter broke there, and then sold as a yearling. I was one who got him ready to be sold and he had none of these habits prior. Pretty much since it was a school they had to do an auction on these horse, I bid on him three times and someone out bid me, which was no surprise because he was the best looking gelding out of all the others. A few months went buy, and who ever bought him put him up for sale and I snagged him... Well he came to my house with some bad habits. First off, he is the absolute nosiest horse I have ever seen! If he even thinks you have something for him, he is freakin' there, with his nose up your butt to see what you got. I could punch him in the face and all I would get is a broken hand. For the love of God, he ate a chicken egg because I didn't think he would be that stupid and let him mess with it to show I had nothing. So that is his bad habit, just always has his nose in your buisness. You give him a treat, he thinks you have a million more. He pins his ears back when you give him one and when you feed him. He use to push me every where and get into my bucket when I went to feed, but I broke him from that. He now stands off to the side with his ears back and waits for me to tell him he can eat. Though I'm at a loss on the treat/nosey issue. I've tried just waiting it out until he stops and puts his ears up, but he just goes right back to doing it. When he is trying to bite at me when I have one, I smack him. But he isn't understanding it....
Another thing that floors me, is he is extremely laid back dispite being an idiot most of he time. I can jump pratically ontop of him and he doesnt move a muscle. Though he is too tall for me to actually put full weight on. Except my dad kinda stood on the other side of him and pulled me to where I was fully on him and he just sat there... So its not that he is a bad horse that he has these issues.
I guess I would like to know everyone elses thoughts on how to approach this. A lot of people say just not to give horses treats, but I like treating my horses. My other three know better and I want him to know better so he stops teaching my 8 month old colt bad manners....