Horse Behavior problem

Question
Hello, i have 4 year old gelding bully bullion X Sun frost grandson. Hes bred to the hilt to be a bang up barrel horse and really has the ability to do it, he was gelded as a 2 year old. He is confirmationally correct in everway, and looks to be almost perfect. He has never been lame and was never sick, we bought him as a unbroke 3 year old in Northern Minnesota. Casey is let out during the day, and comes in at night to a heated barn, he is on oats and sweet feed mix and is turned out with 3 other horses. He hauls great and is almost perfect when it comes to personallity. He is very calm on the ground and loves to be around people. We had casey at a well reknown barrel horse trainer for 3 months. They told us his attitude was affecting the way he performed. He gets frusterated very easy and its hard to push him to the next level. They said you have to ride him to soaking wet sweat before he will peform the task you are asking of him perfectly. His bully bullion breeding i believe is what i am seeing. They say this line doesnt get good till they are 7. We have 10,000 invested in this colt and he has all the ability in the world, like the trainer said, he would be one awesome horse and its a crying shame his attitude affects him. He gets scared of things easily and shys away from them, takes him a while to get use to things and he gets frusterated. He does buck or rear just seems to loose concentrate on what he was doing. Do you think i should give up on this colt, or keep on progressing. Try to expose him to more things, trail ride him and haul him more to see the sites and try and desensatize him??? Im really torn between selling him and keeping him cause i know if his attitude changes he will be hard to beat in the arena and would bring over 30K at the least. Its a really hard decision. We have 20 acres of grass and we have enough feed, people told us to give him a chance, let him run and get his mind straight for a year and try to work on him when hes more mature and can handle the barrel racing sport. Let me know what you think.....this colt is just to nice to throw away, and i see so much potential!

Answer
Hi Ashley!

You are between a rock and a hard place with this dilemma.

This is not a training question, so much as it is a "sorting things out" talk.

I cannot say what you should do as I do not know you, the gelding or the situation.  But, I feel if you choose to keep him, you are on the right track.  No more racing for awhile...just trail riding mileage, de-sensitization tricks and time, time, time.  I wouldn't leave him solely out to pasture, just change his routine to more of a "making a better horse" than "making a better barrel racer".

Four is very young to push so hard, some can do it, some cannot.  Sometime one can see the potential and the "try" in the horse and he allows you to push him too far, too fast and then he explodes.

You must watch him for when he has reached his mental limit and respect that.  Build a solid foundation of trust and leadership through consistent training so that he has something to fall back on when he gets stressed.  He has the legs but, you have the brains  :-)

Good luck and remember to always wear an ASTM/SEI approved helmet!

Solange