Franklin Levinson's
Horse Help Center
Professional support for you and your horse!
Herd Bound, I think?
Hello Franklin,
I recently purchased a 4 year ol TB/ClydeX cross. He came from an open filed with all
of his buddies where he was out 24/7. He has now been stalled at a barn and has been
with me for the past month. He is a great horse, very quiet, not spooky, when ridden in
the arena he is responsive and does not care if there are no horses or 50 horses. He
will easily leave his stall or turn-out or ring with no problem. When in turn-out he
will play with the horse in the other pen. He will even leave the barn and go out on
trail by himself with me. He may snort a little but will continue forward and listen to
my cues. The problem comes in when we run into other horses on trail. He gets all
excited, stops listen, and just wants to be with them. When he wants to take off he
does and there is no stopping him. Also, If I go out on trail with other horses he is
fine but if they get too far ahead of him he will take off to catch up and again
becomes unstoppable. He will lead with no problem and listen to my cues when in the
front. One day, when I wasn't riding him I took him up to this big open field to graze,
it is out of sight from the barn. Someone else was up there with 3 of there horses off
of the lead lines. Once he saw them he began prancing around and popping up in the
front. He finally calmed down and began to graze. I decided it was time to go back to
the barn and the people with the other horses walked one way as I walked the other.
Well, that was a battle. He began spinnig and bucking a rearing the whole way back to
the barn. He also continued to call out to them even when we were at the barn. I do not
know what to do or if this is going to be a continued problem that might get worse. I
want to be able to ride him without him freaking out when he sees other horses and I
want to be able to leave other horses too. I have him on a 60 day trail and the time is
running out! Any suggestions or adivce!
Hi,
Here is a lovely tool to get your horse's attention abck on your should anything like
this happen. You can do this on the ground or when you are riding. Get very good at
asking your hrose to do hind end yields (yielding the hind quarters). A horse can
only think about one thing at a time. If you can put your horse to an action easily
when he gets distracted by anything, it will put his attention back on you and begin
to settle the horse. Repeatedly doing this process and getting good at it will
produce a horse that listens to you no matter what when you ask for the movement. The
reasons I like a hind end yeild is that it can be done in a very small space (the
length of the horse) and it is efficient use of the horse's energy and yours. It
sounds like you know what I mean by saying a 'hind end yield'. Practice this in a
quiet, safe, familiar area so you and your horse can get good and comfortable at it
before you need it. Practice this on the ground and in the saddle. It is an
invaluable tool to modify behavior your do not want in your horse. It is non-abusive
and effective. On the ground you bend the horse's head to his butt and have him pivot
on the front feet. Sort of the same thing from the saddle.
Good Luck, Franklin