Raf is lovely to hack on his own, I feel like we have a bit of a partnership going and it's a two-way communication.
But when I hack him with another horse, especially with OH and his horse Jack, he's lazy, switched off and just wants to pootle along behind the other horse. It's spoiling my hacking pleasure because I get so cross with myself that I can't get Raf to listen to me instead of 'leaning' on the other horse.
Tonight OH came out with us on his bike instead of riding, but bless me if Raf wasn't just the same with the bike - when OH went faster Raf tried to chase after him and when he went slowly Raf didn't want to go past the bike and I had to tap him with the whip to move him on. Once properly out in front he's fine again, but when he's sticking to the other horse/bike he just doesn't respond to my aids at all and it's getting me down. He didn't used to be like this, I think it's just happened over time since OH got Jack last year.
Raf is 6 now and I think I can detect some other little signs of rebelliousness, but I could just be imagining these. Sometimes when we go in the school we have a lovely session and other times it just seems like a battle to get him to do anything, which always makes me worry, is he lame?, is he ill? etc. Besides I don't want battles, I want to persuade him that he wants to do what I want to do so that he does it willingly.
Any tips would be most gratefully received!
But when I hack him with another horse, especially with OH and his horse Jack, he's lazy, switched off and just wants to pootle along behind the other horse. It's spoiling my hacking pleasure because I get so cross with myself that I can't get Raf to listen to me instead of 'leaning' on the other horse.
Tonight OH came out with us on his bike instead of riding, but bless me if Raf wasn't just the same with the bike - when OH went faster Raf tried to chase after him and when he went slowly Raf didn't want to go past the bike and I had to tap him with the whip to move him on. Once properly out in front he's fine again, but when he's sticking to the other horse/bike he just doesn't respond to my aids at all and it's getting me down. He didn't used to be like this, I think it's just happened over time since OH got Jack last year.
Raf is 6 now and I think I can detect some other little signs of rebelliousness, but I could just be imagining these. Sometimes when we go in the school we have a lovely session and other times it just seems like a battle to get him to do anything, which always makes me worry, is he lame?, is he ill? etc. Besides I don't want battles, I want to persuade him that he wants to do what I want to do so that he does it willingly.
Any tips would be most gratefully received!