Well today I took Max to Somerford Park farm ride with 5 other horses. We started pretty steady and Max was brillianbt: calm and chilled walking and trotting. Then the pace increased and we were cantering pretty fast and jumping 80-90cm fences. Max got thoroughly over-excited. He jogged instead of walking, cantered on the spot instead of trotting and fought for his head whenever we were cantering. At one point I just let him go, thinking he would just follow and he accelerated past another horse to get to the front. After that I split off from the group and went with just one other horse and Max was fine again. Cantered steadily in front or behind and was fab.
So my question is, does it matter if sometimes you just let a young horse blow off steam or was that bad for him? He LOVED it but will it teach him bad habits? I know a lot of young horses are hunted - surely then they just go flat out and follow other older horses over fences? Of course I should not have let him over-take and next time I will be more prepared for him to try to get to the front and will keep him behind. But I am not sure I did the right thing taking him at all today and am wondering what to do next time that group of riders go out.
So my question is, does it matter if sometimes you just let a young horse blow off steam or was that bad for him? He LOVED it but will it teach him bad habits? I know a lot of young horses are hunted - surely then they just go flat out and follow other older horses over fences? Of course I should not have let him over-take and next time I will be more prepared for him to try to get to the front and will keep him behind. But I am not sure I did the right thing taking him at all today and am wondering what to do next time that group of riders go out.