[Spiritedsmith]

Im at a loss. I have a sweet 8yr old gelding. He will give children rides and he loves to be doted on. hes great on lunge verbal cues, hes great riding with other horses, he fine when someone is in the middle of the ring, BUT when noone or other horses are around, he will walk or gallop only! No trot. His saddle has been fitted, chiros have been out, vet says hes great, shoes done, but he will not ride alone. Only a walk or gallop. When hes outside he will spin without warning. I truly believe it behavorial of a unconfident horse, but im at a loss. Ive had trainers, six month of solid ground work, balance is great. Just dont know what else to do. Any ideas?

 

[waresbear]

Sounds like he's a good horse but when he wants to do something he just does it. You have to build up your skills to not allow him to do it and to not allow him to go into the gait he chooses, you choose the gait. There is nothing wrong with him physically so it's you.

 

[Spiritedsmith]

He does it for the trainer as well. Im wondering how many trainers do i send him to?

 

[waresbear]

Does this horse trot in hand? What breed is he, is he a gaited horse? If he can trot on his own in the pasture or when you lead him in hand, then your trainer is not skilled enough to train horses.

 

[Spiritedsmith]

The horse wtc on lunge, he wtc with other horses, w/t in hand. We can have him lunge no rope with cues, can ride him wtc with someone standing in the ring, But when the person in the middle of ring walks out and he is alone in ring he tosses his head and has 2 gears. You can half halt when he roars into a gallops but he stops to a walk... truly its like a jerking car, never seen anything like it. Cant get him to trot without someone in middle of ring or another horse near him.

 

[Spiritedsmith]

He is a full reg qh and thank you for helping. I appreciate it

 

[waresbear]

If he can trot, then he can trot with a rider on him. For whatever reason, probably because somebody's bouncing around on him, he chooses not to. Tells me he chooses a lot of things if he's just spins and nobody can do anything about it. The trainer you have now is probably no good. Frustrating I know, just sounds like a training problem. You need a decent trainer that can show you how to make the horse trot, how to stop him from spinning and how you can pretty much get him to do anything. You asked how many trainers you would have to get? As many as it takes until you can control your horse. Sounds like a nice calm horse that can pack kids and everything, but he has discovered that people don't know how to control him, so he can do what he wants, and he hasn't been horrible like bucking or bolting. He avoids the trot probably because people are bouncing around on him, and spins around when he doesn't want to go someplace. It takes pretty basic skills to get a horse to trot and to stop a horse from spinning around, to enjoy your horse properly find a trainer who can help you do that.

 

[QtrBel]

There is a warning for the spin. You just haven't tuned into it yet.



To me not an unconfident horse but a horse that has set his own limits/boundaries of what is acceptable and what isn't.



He accepts direction if there is someone standing in the ring wtc - so my question is how well does the rider ride and who is giving the direction? Was the horse a lesson horse that responds more to the person instructing before he came to you? Is the rider someone that posts the trot making it more comfortable or can ride a sit trot with out undue bouncing around? Or was this a horse that was raised in the show ring where either the trainer was always present or a judge?

 

[Woodhaven]

Just a thought, do you do a sitting trot on him and is it a bit rough so you bounce? Maybe try posting at the trot and see what happens. Sometimes I will count out loud one, two, one, two while trotting to set the rhythm and it seems to help as I post to the trot.