What do you all do?

The more I mess with Nelson, the worse it gets. I have learnt to just sit quiet, relax, breath and just leave him alone.

He is a fire cracker out on Fox Hunts, and I have to remain safe with him because I cannot interfear with any of the Hunt Members and riders who are all there together, but I cannot mess around with Nelson either.

He is like that on Trail Rides as well with other riders who are with us, especially if they are infront, when Nelson wants to be the one infront. In casual trail rides with other riders, Nelson gets to go up front, he is quiet and at peace up front.

Unfortunately we cannot do that on a Hunt since the Elder riders who have far more seniority than I are up front, I have to remain in the back - so I circle alot, without getting in his face. I sit deep, relax, don't tense up and just sit. He jigs the whole ride, but there's nothing I can do to change that, so I just leave him alone.

I put him in check periodically, Pull relase, pull release action - but most of the time, his brain is out in left field in those high action packed scenario's.

Wish I could hold Nelson back - no luck for me.

I do pretty much what you do MyBoyPuck. If he's nervous or jiggy I don't get tense or in his face, but I soften my seat and hands and ask him to relax. He rarely acts this way, but occasionally out on the trail he will, especially after a good canter or gallop.

When I finally get to take him XC schooling I will ride in the way that MIE described. Zeus seems to be very similar to Nelson in that aspect. If I get in his face he's going to get even more riled up. The most effective thing to do on him to to relax, do what you can to get his attention, and don't mess with him too much. I will be riding him in his gag, because if worse came to worse and he took off (not likely, but he's strong, and if he got it into his head to run, well, the rubber d wouldn't do a thing), I know I can shut him down in that if I need to. Hate to phrase it like that, but it's the truth.

But anyway. For the most part he's calm and well mannered on the trail.
Maybe a bit jiggy in certain situations.

I'm sorry to say that what I hear from most of these posts are riders that find a way to conform to their horses behavior rather then having a properly trained horse. In my opinion, allowing a horse, or rather, excusing a horse for acting improperly shows a lack of discipline for both rider and horse.

I usually have a horse or two at the farm that come to me for conditioning or for a tuneup. Many times over excitement when first ridden is common and one of the first things that I fix. It is a sign of a horse that doesn't understand that once the saddle is on, he has to go to work and nonsense is not permitted. An advantage that I have over some is that my horses are on 24/7 turnout but even a horse that is stalled needs to know that sillyness is not permitted - sometimes a horse like that needs to be lunged a little before saddling but only for a few minuets, not 1/2 an hour. I don't lunge with a saddle if he is too fresh because I will not allow a horse to buck with a saddle. A saddle means all nonsense is over and it's time to work.

When I first got Hollywood, about 4 or 5 months ago, he was that way when first saddled, jiggy and pulling the reins. That was the first thing I worked on. Due to weather and a back problem (mine not his) I wasn't able to ride for ~6 weeks. I saddled him up yesterday (no lunging) and mounted up. He rode off like he was just ridden the day before. No jigging, bucks, rearing, pulling on my reins, just a loose rein and off we went.

In my training, that is the way a horse needs to be 100% of the time.

To begin with, I'll start a horse that wants to jig, alone. I don't want to interfere with any one else's ride. I'll lunge him before saddling just to take the edge off (after I'm comfortable with his progress, I stop lunging). Once he is saddled, I'll flex him in both directions then mount. Once I've mounted, I'll flex him several time in both directions from the saddle. I'll have him stand for several seconds but as he gets better at standing, I'll increase that time. If he starts to get anxious, we do circles and serpentines then stand. I keep that process up until he stands for a few moments, only then do we walk off.

We will walk off several times and then return to our starting place. If he starts to jig or get anxious at any time it's back to circles then stand still. There is no set time as to how many times I need to do this and it's isn't surprising to have him all lathered up the first few times. Never will I pull on this face or jab him with my heels. Everything is done slowly and without anger. It is simply a pressure and release.

Once I have him standing and walking off without jigging, I'll introduce another rider. The rider I'll have with me knows that this is going to be a training ride and we may not get 1/2 mile from the trailers. We do the same thing as before but the 2nd rider will stop when I stop.

As his attitude improves the second rider (this may be several training trips latter) will ride a little further away and my horse is expected to follow but not get anxious to catch up. If the jigging starts, the second rider will stop and wait while we do some flexing and circles then we both move off, allowing me to slowly catch up. Again, this may take several trips to get it so that he does not get anxious when another horse gets ahead of him.

The long and the short of it is that this process may take a few trips or 1/2 the summer. What I want is a horse that is disciplined and at ease with being anywhere in the group I ride with.

There is no magic to this method and I'm sure everyone has heard it before but the reason that so many horses are a problem is because most riders want only to enjoy a trail ride and allow their horses to get away with things that shouldn't be allowed. I would rather spend a month or two fixing the problem so that the horse will be a pleasure to ride anytime I saddle him up.

Time and patience.

Well this thing morphed a little since I was last online. I do agree with iridehorses that time under saddle is supposed to be no nonsense time. That being said, it's easier with some horses than others. I'm lucky in that my horse calms down within the first 5 minutes or so, but until that point, it does bother me that he pulls that crap at all. As each new trail riding season comes, my experience level goes up and my confidence along with it, so I am quicker to correct anything he does I find inappropriate. While I find the first 5 minute thing seem to happen with a lot of horses, I won't go on trail rides with horses who continually act up on trails. It's just not safe for fair for other riders. Occasionally you just get one of those days where all the horses are spooking at everything that moves, but I agree there's no place for horses who are not suited for trail riding.