Hello,
First of all, apologies to anyone who may have already read some of this in my post in the Mature Riders section, but no one had replied, possibly beacuse it was hidden under a misleading subject? (Too soon for Progressive Riding?)
I have recently started riding a more 'forward going' horse (George ) and am having trouble calming and slowing him down.
The minute I mount up he becomes a bit overenthusiastic and tends to storm off at a very fast walk. Then when we trot he shoots off like a rocket! We are riding in a large indoor school with a group of horses (who he presumably knows well as he lives with them). As they are going a lot slower than us we keep catching up and having to turn away across the school to move into a space. Due to this we are spending more time crossing the school and circling than going round the outside .
I have tried half halts and turning small circles but they didn't seem to do much. When we are on the inside track or crossing the school George slows down nicely but the minute we are back onto the outside track he speeds up again, especially on the corners. Could this be him trying to get close to another horse because he has no confidence in me as his 'leader'? What can I do to make him listen to me more and feel more confident in me? I'm not used to 'forward going' horses and need to figure out how to calm them down as I feel that I may be having the opposite effect at the moment . I am sure it is me winding George up somehow that is causing this as I was told he is usually lazy. Also I don't think he is being ridden much at the moment, could this be the cause of his enthusiasm?
Frosty
First of all, apologies to anyone who may have already read some of this in my post in the Mature Riders section, but no one had replied, possibly beacuse it was hidden under a misleading subject? (Too soon for Progressive Riding?)
I have recently started riding a more 'forward going' horse (George ) and am having trouble calming and slowing him down.
The minute I mount up he becomes a bit overenthusiastic and tends to storm off at a very fast walk. Then when we trot he shoots off like a rocket! We are riding in a large indoor school with a group of horses (who he presumably knows well as he lives with them). As they are going a lot slower than us we keep catching up and having to turn away across the school to move into a space. Due to this we are spending more time crossing the school and circling than going round the outside .
I have tried half halts and turning small circles but they didn't seem to do much. When we are on the inside track or crossing the school George slows down nicely but the minute we are back onto the outside track he speeds up again, especially on the corners. Could this be him trying to get close to another horse because he has no confidence in me as his 'leader'? What can I do to make him listen to me more and feel more confident in me? I'm not used to 'forward going' horses and need to figure out how to calm them down as I feel that I may be having the opposite effect at the moment . I am sure it is me winding George up somehow that is causing this as I was told he is usually lazy. Also I don't think he is being ridden much at the moment, could this be the cause of his enthusiasm?
Frosty