Question Hello, I have a question regarding my 16 year old gelding. He is a Quarter horse, appaloosa, and thoroughbred mix. He lives by himself with no other horses in sight. I have been working with him so that I can show him in 4H this summer, but after attending a 4 mile trail ride with 20 other horses, my hopes of going to shows went way down. He was a totally different horse, he was bucking (which he has never done) and he was not listening to any of my commands. I thought that it was just because he hadn't been around that many horse in so long that he was just excited. I took him out today with a couple of my friends, and he started out to be fine, but when he got left in the back he started bucking and kicking.
He also has some concentration issues, he will become distracted just at people walking by the arena. I have tried to just ignore them and concentrate on what we are doing, but that doesn't seem to have a major affect on him, he won't listen at all until he can't see them anymore.
So my question is, what I can I do with him in order for him to be only listening to me or anybody else who is riding him, so that he won't become a danger to some people by bucking or kicking .
Thank you for your time and I can't wait for what you have to say.
Answer That horse would be tough to deal with. One thing you can do is make sure that he gets use to things around him. Take him to a couple of shows not to show just walk around and let him get use to the atmosphere of everything. At the show your horse may seem like he is not listening to anything when you warm up. But all horses get a little hyper and excited just like we do. If you want to when you are warming up to put some dull spurs on or carry a dressage whip to keep his attention you could do that. I don't think they allow spurs but they do a certain length of whip while you are in the ring. Just be sure to tap him very lightly at first if you can't get his attention without it. If he still won't listen then tap him a little harder until he does what you ask him. He is probably excited because he has thoroughbred in him. They generally are more hyper than other horses because they were bred to race.
