horse acting out

Question
Hi, I have a 8 y/o quarter horse gelding who has been professionally trained for 90 days plus.  He has become a wonderful jumper and is now totally broke.  I ride western so Diego came back to my barn to be leased to a potential English person.  Well, that didn't work out after a month because the child did not know how to ride well enough.  Diego basically was not ridden for one month.  Last week Diego went to another barn for a trial period.  Unfortunately, he has been acting out...spooky, jumpy, hold holding his head/tail high....bucking....but yet still maintains the sweetest personality.  So, now he is coming back to my barn this week still unsold.  I am going to have our resident jockey ride him for me.  What do you think?  Is he in a state of confusion?   Is he going to act like this everytime he is in a new situation with new surroundings, etc?  I feel that everything the trainer accomplished has gone by the wayside.  What to do?

Answer
Thank you for your query and I will do my best to answer it.

Firstly yousay  Diego has been trained for 90 days plus............if you think about it 90 days is approxiamately 3 months........not that long really.

Secondly you have sent him away to a strange place not once but twice, Diego is  just a little confused right now.   The first  new place was a big failure, the child did not know how to ride, so I have to ask  if  you knew the chold was not competent why did you let Diego go to them?  Sorry if it sounds rude but it would be something I would ask  myself, surely you had the  childs riding ability checked by yourself before she ttok the horse on and if not why not?

Then he went off somewhere else, no wonder he is acting spookily......... he is confused by all the sudden changes.

You say you are going to let the stable jockey ride him, why can't you ride him, he is your horse after all...... he is wondering what on earth he has done that is so bad you have snet him away from the  place he knows, and from people he feels safe and secure with..... you would be just a bit confused in a similar situation.

Let him settle down, and if he has to have a new rider then make it plain that he has to stay where he is, no more moving away from everything that he knows and trusts.    He won;t be like this all the time (but there have  been horses that will not settle for new owners at all no matter what you do but I do not think Diego is one of these)  

Better still why not try riding him yourself, and learning a new form of riding?