orphan colt

Question
Hey I have an eight month old orphan colt who I've raised since day one. All around he is well behaved but he is always trying to suckle on me and if I don't let him he gets very pushy. Also he does not let anybody but me lead him gets very excided.  Hope you can give me an idea.  

Answer
    Hi Yvonne
 Congratulations on having raised an orphan, which I imagine is not easy. It probably indicates that you are a caring person, and possibly a rather soft one. Now the advice I am about to give requires you to be very firm. Horses operate on a strict hierarchical basis, so there are no equals "He who is not above me, is below me". Needless to say you can not afford to be lower in rank than your animal. This does not mean that you cannot be kind,and considerate towards them, but you do have to be authorative.
 If you do not stamp out these attempts to suckle, there is a very high probability that over time it will change to nipping and maybe even biting. In order to put a stop to this behaviour he must suffer some negative consequence every time he attempts it. I don't know how creative you can be on deciding what form this consequence might take, but the easiest is a rap on the nose, which could be accompanied with a sharp verbal reprimand. The crucial part, however is that it MUST be instantaneous. Ideally it should happen just as he stretches out to reach you, so that he might think that by his own action he had bumped into something unpleasant. By the way, simply pushing him away is not sufficient, whatever you do has to have a "shock" value.   
 You also mention that he can become "pushy", and this also is something that cannot be allowed.When he starts to push, he is invading your space and trying to take it over, which is typical "horsey" behaviour.You have to turn the tables, and become the one doing the pushing. You may have to arm yourself with a short little bit of a stick, so you can jab him on the shoulder in order to make him move.One word of caution though, in some circumstances this can cause them to rear, which is something that can happen in a herd situation when they are trying to sort out their relative positions in the "pecking order". If the idea of this makes you nervous, then the aid of a more experienced person may be advisable.
 As regards the leading, there are a few things you could try. One would be to practice leading him from the "off" side for a while,just to get him used to the idea. I would have my little bit of stick to touch him on the shoulder to prevent him "falling in" on me, and I would gradually try to increase the lateral distance between us. This could take a few days,but if all goes well, on a certain day, I would go back to leading him up close ( still on the off side), but then have a friend clip on a second lead rope on the near side. Both parties then lead him for a while, and then try to VERY gradually increase the distance between him and you. If he becomes agitated at any stage, try to hold your distance, and calm him by talking soothingly, and if within touching range, stroking his neck and shoulder. The idea would be that you could eventually dispense with your lead rope, and again gradually increase the gap between him and you until you eventually fade out of the picture entirely. The more challenging aspects of this exercise might be best performed after a period of work, when he might be a wee bit tired.
 I hope some of this will prove helpful, and I welcome any comments you may have. Might I also suggest that you go on the Internet and look up a few articles on "Herd Dynamics", "Round Pen Techniques" and "Natural Horsemanship" as I feel they could be helpful to you.
              Best of luck,
                        Slan,
                           Brendan