wont stop, and spins

Question
Ive been riding off and on for 5 years, regularly for the last 2 of them, then i bought a 4 y/o qh gelding and rode daily for the month ive owned him. he started out very good.. would do anything i asked, although i never took him on trail alone. now that im trying hes developed a few bad behaviors. the first is he no longer stands still when mounting.. he'll stand still n let u do anything u want til u try to get ur foot in the stirup, then he turns the front of his body toward u, and his butt away from u.

the next issue he picked up was he dus spins when he finds something he dusnt want to pass.. so we sit there spinning.. sometimes half an hour or more til he either gives up or my times up.. i never let him go the way he wants to go.. but if he wont go my way and im out of time n have to get ready for work or something.. ill turn him halfway between where he wants to go and where i do.

and lastly since hes been used as a rental b4.. hes used to other horses, and hes jus now starting to trust me with him leading. if i take him out with other horses, if theyre running ahead of him, he wont try to pass them, but he wont slow down or stop until they do. if hes in front or if hes alone.. he stops on a dime.

since the spins come so randomly i cant always catch his head and turn it the opposite way like ive heard to do.. so i jus ride them out.. same with the not stopping thing cuz if i keep trying to get him to stop, he starts pulling his head/throwing his nose. how can i fix this? id hate to b responsible for ruining what i know to b a very well trained horse under better riders than me. he dusnt do any of this for his old owner. can u help?  

Answer
Jenn,

You've got so many issues to deal with in this one post I'll do the best I cn.  I may have to ask for more info to help you.  

The mounting issue sounds like you are having a saddle fit problem.  He is a young horse and is changing shape as he grows.  The fact that he's started all this stuff when he was good before is indicative of a problem and I would guess it's partly the saddle.  What does his back look like when you take the saddle off?  Any dry spots?  Is it evenly wet all over with even marks on the saddle pad as well?  Get back to me with what you see on the pad and his back.  

The spinning when he doesn't want to go past something is another problem.  And since he's "won" at times because you ran out of time you have made the problem worse.  When training a horse you have to forget about time.  You might try a martingale on him although I would suggest a running type not a standing martingale.  A standing martingale is like a tie-down for a Western horse.  A running martingale clips to the breast plate and has 2 straps ending in rings that go over the reins.  They will help you keep his head down without restricting him to the point he may flip over backwards.  Biggest thing is to conquer this spinning habit.  So if you can keep his head down when you stop him you can deal with it better.  Work on boosting his confidence level when he does this.  Get him to stop spinning and ask him just to stand there facing whatever he has a problem with.  Don't ask him to go forward until he's relaxed a little and is working with you again.  You may have to get off and lead him up to it and discuss it with him.  He's a young horse, has a lot to learn, so work with him accordingly.  Don't expect him to behave like an older, seasoned horse.  He's not.  He's still got a lot of growing up to do.  I always cringe when inexperienced/novice people buy young horses then don't understand the problems they run into with them.  You have to have patience.  Work on building a bond with this horse.  He's got to learn to trust you.  

As far as riding with other horses he is a herd animal, remember that.  He's not behaving in an unusual way from what you tell me for a youngster out in company.  

It takes a lot of time and riding to "make" a nice horse, especially a trail horse.  There's a lot out there in the world that they have to learn about.

Biggest thing I can suggest is try to only face issues when you have the time.  Once you figure out some of his problems then you'll be able to set how long you want to accomplish something but not now.  I know you didn't want to hear that.  Training is not an easy thing to do and cannot be rushed.  Each horse learns at it's own pace.  Just like kids do.  Some are slower than others.  

Get back to me on the saddle issue.  Please.

Lyn