one person horse

Question
Hi, my name is Kayla.I am fourteen years old and i am training my  horse.I have a two and a half year old gelding colt that seems to be turning into a one person horse. He lets me handle him anywhere anytime with litte or no problems, but the minute i have someone else lead,lunge,load him into a trailer,fly spray him or ride him,he throws a fit. For example, yesterday i was riding him bareback with a halter and lead, like usual, and he was doing very good,neck reining, walking trotting and stopping with no buck or rear. My freind came over and asked if she could ride him, so i said yes. He took 2 steps forward reared,came down and bucked her off. he has done this 2 other times, they never get back on him so i do and he is always fine with me.Why is he becoming a one person horse, and what can i do to fix this? Please help. thanks Kayla

Answer
Hey!

Sorry for taking so long to get back to you, life's been pretty busy. I hope I can be of some help.

It's totally normal for your horse to be attached to you but when he rejects other people it becomes a problem. My guess would be he's behaving like that because he relys on you for everything. I assume you are the one to put him out, groom him, feed him, train him etc. My only advice would be to get other people to handle him. Choose people with experience of course because if he rears and such you don't want someone inexperienced. But even if it's something as simple as letting someone else feed him. If he really behaves that badly then you might want to go with other people to be safe but eventually you should let them go by themself. Once he realizes that he needs the other people to be taken care of he should be better around other people. Also, if he behaves badly around your friends you really should encourage them to get back on. He needs to know that he has to behave with all people not just you. If your friends get on him you should probably stand by his head or walk with him. It should keep him calmer. But if he behaves badly, scold him and then try to get them back on. But overall, the best idea would be for you to let other people handle him. That's really the only way to deal with the problem. Choose expereinced people at first who aren't afraif to scold him if he misbehaves. If you get someone who won't punish him then the problem is only going to get worse. So once again, just let other people handle him. This doesn't mean by any stretch of the immagination that you have to stop seeing him but if it's possible get someone else to do little things like feed him, put him out in the paddock etc. I hope that was helpful. Feel free to ask any other questions :)

* mira *