Zelika wrote:

The big problem comes in when I ask him to canter. He just keeps trying to trot faster and he won't break into the canter until I MAKE him go. He won't canter unless I get after him, and he starts getting ignorant whenever I get after him. The first day I asked him to canter, I wasn't wearing spurs and had no whip. I tried using my seat and leg pressure to push him into that way, but it didn't work. No matter what I did he wouldn't canter so I basically had to kick the crap out of him until my legs got sore to get him to go. Once I've got him cantering, I really have to ride him and even then sometimes he'll go down to a trot despite me pushing him forward. When he's going good I go with him and try to make it as comfortable for him as I can. He just won't let me be nice to him because he's always trying to find a way out of it and I can't let him get away with it. He is NOT sore, that's the first thing I thought of when he first started all this and I know he is not sore. Initially I had problems getting him to canter on the lunge line too, but we worked through that and now he's fine. When I use my spurs he bucks. When I use me whip he bucks. Whenever I get after him at all he bucks. He's finally realized he can't buck me off (he bucks like a sissy btw), but he's started bolting sideways (only at the canter). He dropped my that way once, he got a spanking for it and I got back on. He's tried it a few times since but hasn't dropped me doing it. He get's a kick for it or whatever, but he's trying anything and everything to get out of doing work.

The other thing that's driving me crazy is that he is more concerned with what's going on in the pasture than me. I could be beating him in the head with a baseball bat and his mind would still be out there. I've been considering getting him one of those little hats that cover his ears with the fringes that dangle over his eyes so he can only see and hear a little bit.

I want to get him out of those dirty little habbits without him going sour. I've been making sure he gets a release or a reward of some sort when he does what I want him to but he doesn't seem to care. It just upsets me because I know he knows what I want, he's just being an ass.

I think I'm going to try and make a video so you guys can actually see.


*assuming he knows his cues for W/T/C & whoa* You're 'making him' is not severe enough for him to think to himself "dam, when she says -lope- she means lope".

App's are extrememly intelligent horses which can both work for you or against you depending on your level of experience in handling/teaching horses. If this was my horse, I would either use spurs (only if you are skilled at using them) or a crop and if after the third 'ask' he is still trotting and not loping, I would give him a good swat with the crop on the rump - or spurs. Be sure that once he listens to your cue and goes into the lope that you talk to him and tell him what a good boy and pet him.


image

Last Edited By: See N Spots Sep 23 08 12:55 PM. Edited 1 times.