I just bought a 12-year-old Morgan gelding. Sweet, but of course somewhat nervous since we just moved him to a new home. His previous owner liked to run him all the time - he won't stand for mounting, is impatient in the trailer, and wants to zoom off the minute you hit the saddle. I need to reprogram him - 1) to get some patience and stand still in the trailer, while tied, and for mounting, and 2) to walk off and change gaits when I ask only. Where do I start? Thanks!
Answers:
to make him more friendly and to trust you more dont ride him try parelli its a really good program course
www.parelli.com
My answer to most problems with horses is start with ground work. You need to work on lunging and getting your horses respect. When you work the horse from the ground make him work hard any time he is away from you, when he is resting, he needs to stand quietly next to you. If he starts to move away make him work HARD. You become the quiet safe place. This is usually a good way to start. Then do the same thing under saddle, in a round pen. Mount up, if the horse moves, get off and lunge, make him WORK, try again.usually 2-3 lessons and the horse is standing still when you get on.. Tie him up, if he stands quiet leave him be, if he's pawing/dancing in place, make him work. He'll get the idea that if he wants to dance/prance, your going to make him work twice as hard..
i suggest getting a good trainer to help you out.
Learning to stand patiently involves LOTS of standing tied. Let him stand while you do barn work, brushing, working with other horses and any other time you can. This will automatically help his general patience. For mounting and riding do so lunge line work then starrt riding while someone lunges him. I also practiced mounting while tied, this helps alot but don't try if you aren't confident that he won't blow up. Moving some and realizing he has to wait is acceptable because thats what he's learning. My trainer wound trot them in a tiny circle for as long as it took to stand. This works well and only takes a time or two but can take an hour or more. Start to mount if he moves hold the closer rein and send him in circles, you stay still and don't take the reins over his head. Eventually they figure out moving isn't worth the extra work but you need to be very consistant. Good luck
Hello I train horses so I think I have the answer your looking for . so here is what I would do if I had your horse
1) to get him to stand whil u get on and to keep him still untell you are ready to ride off ___ A) first tack him up B) act like your going to get on him go to put your foot in the sturp . so u have your left foot in the sturup taks the left rain and pull his head up sloce to you so hes bending him neck around to look at you and hold his head there as you clime up on him . c) don't let his head go yet wait about 20 seconds after your sitting in the saddle before you let his head go.
2) Now you need to do some simple extersizes it will teach your horse to slow down in the long run and be more pationat and this will help later on with the horse trailer ok a) start out walking your horse it dont matter what direction you go in ( you should be in a fenced area) I would say walk him about 10 steps or less and reach half way down your rain and pull his head to the side and grab the saddle any place , the horne or the side of your sturup not to tight the first few times but grab and hold fermly ( your horse will walkina cercal) dont let go untell your horses feet stop moving the second his fet stop you let the rain go then do this all over again but this time do it from the other side keep doing thisfor about 1/2 hr then put him away then the next day do it all over again . you can teach this lesson from the ground also if your a good horse handler this one extersize is the best foundation you can give your horse . I hope this helps if you want more help please e-mail me and I will help you (whinnies_horse_training@yahoo. ) Terri
your first thing is to teach him to stand. Tie him. If you have a washing rack like at the arenas. where he can not shift left and right. And leave him there. Do not leave him to long in a trailer. If he gets scared he might rear up and hit his head. When you tie him make sure he has little spare room so he can not turn his head, or jump over a rail. This could take multiple days for him to calm down. Mabey give him grain while being tied. Make sure the grain is neck level so he does not get caught. After a while you can saddle and get on him. Leaving him tied. If he has nowhere to go he can not take off. Once you get up there make sure you pat him and let him know how good he is not to run. I have had tonz of horses that did this, I had one I also had to just let run. He ran for a long time before he finally quite though. But that would be your second option. You can e-mail me at sr22racing@yahoo.com and I can also give you more info on whatever you might need.
well lets see, ground work him first. He is going to have to respect your command now! Basically, you have a 2year old on your hands! What i think you should(i greenbroke a barrel racing champion)do is your going to have to work with him non stop! For ground breaking him put all your riding gear on him and lunge him, dont let him canter or trot until you give him the command to. Oh reward him everytime that he listens to you! the trailer thing is going to be hard, he might have had a bad experience in the trailer, so he is scared when he is in there. Put him in the trailer frequently throughout the day, but stand there with him to relax him. He has to put his trust in you, like Joining up. The mounting situation what you do is everytime he moves pull his reins back, punish him, not badly, just let him know what he did was wrong! I hope you have some good luck with him! If you have more questions you can always email me! I am actually going into horse boarding this spring. Good luck!
If he is staying in a stall right now let him go out in a paddock with another nice horse all day. This will let him get his energy out and let him be a horse. Right after you put his saddle let him in your areana or paddock or round pen and let him run around without a rider. This will let him get out all the energy he has from when you put the saddle on him. Start with that. I used to be at a stable where they hung ropes down from the trees and tied their horses there half the day. At first i thought they where crazy but them I saw how the horses acted after a few minutes. They will paw, whinny, rear, buck, weave, and get so annoyed but then they firgure out they are just fighting themselves and settle down. It teaches them that they can stand still. When your mounting have someone hold him. Then just make him stand there after you get on. A harsher bit will make him slow down a little. A slow twist or thin snaffle. It's not being mean just matching the horse to his bit. If he likes to toss his head (I know most morgans do) try a tie down or martengale. Morgan's usaully have a lot of energy so just keep that in mind. He proabaly always be a little fast.
Sounds like you have a hand full. There are no easy answers here. Do you have a riding pen? I would lead him to the riding pen and work with him on a lead rope, everyday. DO NOT MOUNT HIM! Stay off his back for a little while. Get him use to you. Walk him around the pen, leading him, jog by him, using verbal commands. Make him stand still, using a verbal command, such as stand, when he walks forward, use your halt command, and say stand again. You are teaching him patience with out whips and chains. If he takes off out of the stand position, by goodness let him go, do not chase him, do NOT hold onto the lead, if he is in a pen there are no worries. Make sure this is a dirt training pen, nothing exciting there for him, just you. Eventually he will get bored and come to you for excitement and see what you are up to. After about two weeks of this for a mimium of 4 hours a day, and there is improvement, put a saddle him and then a bridle. Lead him around using verbal commands, your walk, trot, NO GALLOPING (because you are not suppose to be on him), halt command, stand command, do this same as before for the same length of time, then start to work him on a longe rope. Using all your verbal commands and work up to a canter, if he breaks gait without the proper command stop him and start over. He will soon find that he has much more fun listening to you than standing alone in a pile of sand with nothing to do if you ignore him when he breaks from you. I use to bring an apple in the pen with me so that if the horse broke from me I would go over to a blanket I bought in spread it out, eat my apple and have a drink of water. Pretty soon the horse gets the picture that you will have all the break time you need with him, if he continues to behave in such a way. When my horse would finally approach me, I would talk to her, pet her, and give her a small bit of apple if there was some left, I would NOT instantly grab her lead! I would simply turn my back and walk away from her, pretty soon she would follow. I wouldn't even begin to mount him until after a month of this ground work. Then when you do, mount with one foot only and see if he moves, if he does dismount, use the stand command and try again, if he moves, walk away from him. When he has stayed completely still for you swing the other leg over, make him stand for a few seconds and then walk command around the pen, WALK only for a while. Work into a trot, starting and stopping if he breaks gait. Work in this fashion up to canter. BELIEVE it or NOT all this hard work will pay off. Within a month or two at the most you find yourself riding across the open with a steady horse. All of this work should steady him in a trailer as well. PATIENCE is the key here. If you continue this ground work you could get him to the point where he will follow you to his stall without even having to touch his lead rope or his halter. If you have to snap your fingers to get his attention and to stay focused on you instead of looking off in the distance then do it. Keep his eye on you. Make it as fun as possible for the two of you even though it is a lot of work. Your horse just needs to learn what you want. The previous owner spent years running this horse, it won't change over night.
Good Luck
You do have to go back to ground work and lunge work. I don't like using round pens for lunge work, so you just need a lunge line. Use it with a very simple bit, preferable a jointed full cheek or a jointed loose ring snaffle. He needs to learn voice commands.
Start with a lead line walking around. When you start to walk forward, cluck to him and say "Walk" and at the same time bring your shoulders forward with an exaggerated/obvious motion. When you want him to stop pull back on the lead line and with an assertive voice (doesn't mean loud or forceful, say it because you know your horse is going to obey) say "Whoa" while at the same time square your shoulders back. These little visual cues will help your horse learn the vocal cues. He'll pick up your visual signals then associate them with the vocal cues. Eventually you won't have to exaggerate your shoulder movement and it will be barely noticable, except to your horse. Sometimes after you stop, just make your horse stand just for a minute at first then gradually lengthen the time you are just standing with him. You will be so incredibly bored! Don't forget the fly spray either or it will be torture. Ultimately he should stand for 10 minutes without moving a hoof. It's a long time to do absolutely nothing! *laughs* Don't let him graze or sniff around. He can look around all he wants, but he can't move his feet. If he moves his feet say "whoa" with a quick pull of the line then act like nothing happened. If he stands for another 5 seconds, move him off at the walk. Try again for a longer time before you put him up.
Never say "whoa" to slow down. "Whoa" now and forever means STOP! You can use the word "slow" for now on when he gets too fast, but save that for a later lesson. So for a session or two just walk around on a lead line stopping and walking at random points, never the same place. If your horse likes the trail, walk with him down the trail still working on stopping and walking.
Move up to lunge work whenever your horse picks up the stop and walk vocal cues. You can now teach your horse additional vocal cues, focusing on one at a time like "trot", "canter" and then "slow". To teach slow when on the lunge, get your horse into a trot or canter and when you say "slow" make a quick jerk with the lunge line to get your horse's attention. If he slows tell him good boy and leave his face alone and let him be for a minute. If he breaks, that's fine because he just did what you wanted and slowed down. :)
Everything that he learns on the lunge, all those vocal commands, will be transfered to undersaddle work. So walk, trot, canter, slow and whoa are now your tools, along with your regular cues. Practice, practice, practice.
Since your horse now knows "Whoa", you can use that for when you're mounting. Since he's so use to being ran as soon as the butt hits the saddle, just let your horse walk forward if he does move off when your mounted. My horse is an OTTB, which when being mounted, the horses never even stop walking as the jockey is thrown aboard. As soon as I would get in the saddle she would immediately start walking really fast. I would just let her settle down and walk until she relaxed, then continued our lesson. Eventually she didn't walk off in such a hurry, then one day she didn't move at all. I gave her a big pat and a good girl and let her stand for as long as she wanted. When she walked away by her own choice I let her. With this strategy she realized I wasn't going to make her run as soon as I got on and now after only two months, she'll stand when I mount long enough for me to adjust myself in the saddle, check the girth and my stirrups and then ask her to move forward. If she takes a step or I feel her weight shift I say "whoa" and she stands.
I would suggest doing this with your horse.
I would give u a long answer but I see u already have a few of them. But most important to remember is have a lot of patience and don't punish bad behavior but always reward good behavior.
My horse used to never stand for mounting..
I would walk up like I was going to get on, and as soon as he started to walk I grabbed the rein closes to me (left) so his head was pulled in. This will make him walk in a tight circle. Now the second he stops walking release the pressure and try to get on. If he starts walking again repeat. It will only take a couple of days for him to learn.
Please don't take this offensively, but I have a question. If he was so high strung what made you get him..? just curious.
Best of luck
You might want to try looking at the same type of transition training they do for retired race horses. Many of the problems you mentioned are similar to that of a horse that used to race. Try this website for some great info.
http://www.horseadoption.com/training.ht.
well i had a horse like that. first before ur gonna ride or trailer him, lunge him. get some of his energy out so he's not so wild and impatient. but that doesn't mean u can't be in control he's just not going to be so wild.
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