troubled horse

Question
i have a 12 year old appendix quarter horse. he is perfect on the ground and when i lung him. i ride him with a rubber D-ring. when i ride him he is either trying to run away from my hand or he prances in one place kicking out and then lunges forward. i don't knew his past, I'm afraid he may have been miss treated so I'm a afraid to us spurs or a crop on him. he is a beautiful horse and is able to jump 4 feet in his sleep. but lately he refuses to walk over a ground rail. i try to ride with a light hand and seat and each ride is a battle. if i fight with him he gets worse. what do you think?

Answer
Hello Jen,
It sounds like your guy does not know how to give to pressure from the bit. Since you have a good thing going on the ground I would work on using the bridle as if you were riding him while walking next to him. Can he go from a nice walk to a halt and a back up? Does he immediately give to the pressure of the bit or does he lean against it? If he leans just hang in and wait until there is even the slightest give and then give up all your pressure, you want to teach him that HE is in control of the pressure around him- if he gets soft and gives so do you. The other thing I would bring to your attention is that horses that do not feel allowed to "go" can think about nothing else. Perhaps in his past he was asked to go and then immediately told "Wait! Not THAT fast". That can be very frustrating to a horse because they are trying to do what is asked of them and then immediately told they did it wrong. I would check out how he feels about other things, can you lounge him over a tarp? Jump? Poles? How does he react to plastic bags? Can you shake one at the end of a stick near him and he has no worries? Work with the plastic until you can shake it up where the rider is and he will continue to walk around you in a circle, you want to get to a point where he just walks around and you can do lots of weird things and he just accepts that mom is weird sometimes but it has nothing to do with him. Check out how your lounging is really working out with these things and then let me know how it goes.
Talk with you soon,
Caitlin Day Huntress