praised2 wrote:
I think it's more his personality, it could be he is sore, but I think he holds a lot of tension and likes to float and wiggle when rode being a lookie-lue, not relax and let you do the driving, I think his high set neck makes it hard for him to use his back and he will need a lot of training to get to a place where people feel comfortable being carried on his back.. he also looks like a forward horse who is rushing himself into the bit with a active mind.. if his mind is as active as it looks in the video and that's his home arena and trails around his barn I wonder what it would do in a new place like a show or if something was going on?   he gets all balled up and wants to use a lot of energy when being used not hack down the trail from the looks of it.. I would guess he would need a lot of training just to get his personality to cool down and at ten it's pretty much set... but he could be different then what I see... 

  

This is what I am seeing in him as well which is why I think he is going to be a very difficult retrain.  I think the current person is in over their head with him and has resorted to grabbing his face and holding him in tight.  Hard as it is on a forward horse with an active, scattered brain, you still have to let go of the face and ride them forward.  You just have to be far more creative in the work you do with them to help keep the brain engaged so that he can settle into his work and relax into a rhythm.  Anytime you take him out of his element, you will most like face a setback until you get enough miles on him to make new environments not as much of a big deal.  I would expect the first 6 months - 1 year to be very challenging until you can form a good trust bond and get some decent training established. 

~Shelly~