How to get my horse to listen

[AppleJacks1988]

If it wasnt for bad luck we'd have no luck at all.

I have to start riding my gelding cause the new mare is skinny and the vet said not to ride her. But the last owner was riding her in shows a couple days before we got her. So im really mad.

Anyways I have the harderst time trying to get my gelding to listen to me. I dont ride much cause of it and i always feel like crap when he does what he wants. I ride in my back yard meaning theres no fences no arena no walls. so he kinda goes in to the small barn seeing where near it and wont move and figgets a lot. He walks away when i try to mount him And he tries to go under tree and stuff to knock me off. He's always a pain to ride unless were riding on the trail he's fine. I want to keep riding i want to get better and I want to have fun. But lately Ive thought about selling everything cause riding isnt fun anymore and everything seems pointless. I know im just complaning and i should do something about it. But i dont take lessons cause i hate over working my horse and sometimes aj acts lame and limps thought hes NOT he knows i will put him away when he does though. I hate also the way they work with my horses. I Know that sounds dumb but i dont want my horse gettig the crap beaten out of him unless its me and i dont like other people riding him and i dont like the way some trainers our. Ive had no luck with finding a better one. I have the number of one and im going to see how see is.

Anything that makes your horse listen to you better? Makes your relationship better and stronger? And some other ways to make riding fun again?

[Just.Jump]

I don't understand- how long do you ride on a good day? A few hours? Considering a lesson is only an hour long, being in a lesson won't 'overwork' your horse. In the wild, horses can travel miles and miles every day because they never stop moving. Out here in the west if you work cattle in huge spaces, you would be riding all day long on one horse. To baby a horse is to put it to no use, horses get bored and they need the riding to stay fit (They don't exactly get much exersize in a measly little pen with nothing motivating them to get up and move)

Go to lessons. You need to learn how to work a horse and get respect. It's in my opinion that horses don't 'fake sick' like people do either. They don't go that far and twisted in their minds, to get out of work, they pull the tricks your horse does like ignoring you whether you're on or not. If your horse is limping, soemthing is wrong, and most likely he doesn't want to work for you because it's aggrivating him. Lots of horses don't like the arena because it means work, as opposed to easy going trails which are more relaxed and easier on the limbs.

Get your horse checked by a vet, get yourself into some lessons. If yur vet says the mare is too skinny, then don't ride her, because that, IMO isn't moral. (And to make it more amusing, would you hop on top of someone recovering from anorexia and tell them to give you a piggyback? :p )

[AppleJacks1988]

On a good day I ride maybe an hour tops.

hes in a pasture with a run in shed hes able to run about and what not as he pleases hes got a huge pasture but i know it doesnt matter he still needs to be ridden.

we just had the vet out for his shots everything else was fine.





but yes your right you wouldnt do that to someone who was anerix [sp?]

[Cheeky]

I know exactly how you feel about over working - I am such a push over lol. I wouldnt dare ask Cheek to do any more than say 6 laps of trot - then my instructor comes up and says "push push push! U gotta whip, bloody use it" so I am wacking and kicking and pushing - but it feels bad. Mind you it works as he is the slowest of everything lol :rolleyes:

Muh mare, who I should be working harder on, also has it easy. She tries to get away with cantering at a certin spot with muh sister (just in open paddock) and will only turn left after a jump, and will always canter a jump - even if its a tiny cross bar.

But when I get on, she does this aswell, but I make her go back and do it again properly. If you dont want to 'over work' your horse, like me hehe, then do a lot of things in walk. Make a dirt outline in the paddock of where you WILL ride. Do not skip corners, do not run out, you are the rider, you are responsible. You will not let your horse toddle off - you will be incharge. You will be in walk :P hehe, its a relaxing pace, but you can really make a horse work in walk :P Walk on a contact, walk 20 m circles - repeat until YOU are happy with it, walk 10 m circles, change rein, walk serpintines, walk walk walk :P Then introduce trot. Do the same, but if he starts to play up, bring it all back down to walk, and carry on from there :) good luck

[Bay Mare]

I'm with J.J, get some lessons, it's the only way that you're both going to improve. Not all instructors are mean, I have a very good instructor who doesn't tell me to whip her every second of the lesson. If you look around and ask for recommendations you should be able to find somebody suitable.

Just to comment on a couple of things that you've said:

He walks away when i try to mount him And he tries to go under tree and stuff to knock me off. He's always a pain to ride unless were riding on the trail he's fine

I very much doubt that he's doing these things on purpose, you'll probably find that he doesn't know that he's supposed to stand still to be mounted (or has been hit in the past to make him stand). I also doubt that he's being a 'pain' deliberately and if he can get under the branch he probably doesn't even think that you can't.

But i dont take lessons cause i hate over working my horse and sometimes aj acts lame and limps thought hes NOT he knows i will put him away when he does though.

How do you know that he's not lame? Horses don't usually act lame unless they are. Even when Saff wrecked her shoulder recently she tried to 'pretend' that she was ok. Lame horses get eaten in the wild so it's not in their best interests to be seen as weak. The other thing, of course, is that if he really isn't lame then you have 'taught' him to act lame by just putting him away. Have you ever had the lameness investigated? It may be well worth getting him checked, back etc, the usual to see if there is anything.

[jUmPingIsLifE]

horses do not fake lame, if your horse is limping at all he is sore somewhere. maybe he hurt himself after the vet came? or you said hte vet was giving shots, my vet doesn't check to see if a horse is lame when he gives shots. he comes and gives the shot. did you mention to your vet that your horse had been off latley? if not then of cource he wouldn't check to see and he wouldn't have found anything wrong. i would get the vet out to check your horse if he has been like this for a while.

and i think lessons are a good idea, your horse wont be overworked. you know when your horse is tierd dont you? just say you need a walk break for your horse if you think you need it. any good instructer would notice a horse who is tierd and not in shape enough and they will work around that for the lesson. and besides YOU are paying for the lesson and you can most certainly say your horse needs a break if it really does. your horse has 23hours to do whatever it wants and be lazy as it wants, they really can work for an hour in a lesson. just get your horse into better shape and he will be fine :)