Terrible 3s

Question
Hello Denise,
I have a 3yo QH gelding that I bought as a weanling and started slowly last fall. He is an interesting sort almost like Dr Jeckle and Mr Hyde. He has a nervous nelly/busy body type personality most days and can be a sweet, goofy teenager. I started having some ground manner issues(looking away from me, stepping into me with his hips or front end, general disrespect behaviour), so I started round penning him. He seems to enjoy the work and he is very responsive AND he is always watching me. He is very VERY sensitive to body position and pressure in the round pen. He will do inside and outside turns, stop, W,T, and L on cue, and turn a face me. I have trouble with getting him to come or join up with me. If he does decide to come it is very brief and if I correct him for anything during that time I loose his trust/interest. Afterwards, when I halter him and lead him out it almost like I don't really exist again. I need help understanding how to get him to respond and respect me in halter by having him disengage the hips and front end. I have seen it done, but I don't really understand and I think if I work with him more in the halter and getting him to respond to pressure it will help him respect me. I just don't know how to connect it and my body language to help him understand.
On a side note, he also goes through episodes where he pulls back. We had an accident with a 20ft section of fence that is no longer about a year ago. I think he has flashbacks and I am running out of halter shanks and big posts!! Any suggestions or advice would be helpful.

Answer
Hi Patti!

This is a great question!  I LOVE what you are doing with your horse.  I'll just help you refine a few things so you can get what you are looking for.

When you are working your colt in the round pen and you are hooking him on, (join-up same thing) I'm sure you have figured out not to correct him when he comes in to you.  Just rub him and make him feel good.  Don't try to make him stay.  Let him offer to stay.  If he has to leave just at the second you feel him leaving...SEND him away.  Your timing here has to be spot on and you may make some mistakes but that is okay!  Mistakes are the only way to learn what not to do!  When you send him out set him to really working, get busy!  However, the instant he checks in with you, even the flick of an ear in your direction, get soft and quiet.  Step back and walk a bit backwards to draw him in.  When you have him, really rub him and make him feel good.  Don't pick at him, just rub him...DO NOT PAT but rub, be soothing.  Keep up this pattern until he can stay with you longer.  Be aware when it is good enough for the day.  Try not to drill him into dullness.  Have another plan in mind of something else to do.  You know you have time to keep refining on this and get it better, but you don't have to do it all in one day.  Be patient.  Horses don't wear watches, so throw yours away!  When working with young horses get on "Barn Time"  no watches, no calendars.  Sometimes the slower you go, the faster you get there!  

Your horse is really troubled about tying because he does not really understand how to give to pressure.  Get a good rope halter with a 12" tree line lead.  Double Diamond makes a really good one and they are not that expensive.  Get him REALLY good at rolling over his hindquarters, yielding his hind quarters.  Get control of all four feet and be able to set them where ever you want them soft and smooth.  This will make a HUGE difference in your horse.  Horses that pull back just don't understand the pressure and how to yield their hind quarters to move so they don't feel trapped, but not create more pressure and panic.  Please don't hard tie him again until you can "tie" him to a traffic cone, flag him and have him be comfortable and not pull away.

I start this process by getting down to the feet and getting hindquarters really good.  My horses are really following a soft feel on the lead rope and will come off the slightest pressure.  I want mine like a feather in my hands.  I will then enlist the help of a friend and have them take two wraps around a stout post.  This is so we can avoid a wreck in the event I missed something with my earlier work.  I will then us the flag and send the horse to the right and left so they understand how to move their feet without feeling trapped.  I get them good at this.  I only do as much as I need to get their feet moving.  All of the other work has prepared them for what to do when they feel the resistance on the lead rope.  I take several days to weeks to get this good and then I do more with the flag.  I will get really careless with the flag so I know how much trouble my horse can handle.  

My horses then go to the highline to be tied.  They can't get an angle on the highline to pull back against.  All they can do is yield hindquarters so it reinforces all of the other lessons.  Then and only then to a hard tie.  I always try to tie as high as I can to hedge all my bets.  I never want to put my horse in a position for them to loose.  I never want to create trouble for my horse.  

Teach your horse to tie with quality.  Pulling back is scary for you and your horse.  Try this out and let me know how things are going.  Also, check out Buck Brannaman and Ray Hunt.  These wonderful horsemen are my teachers.  Both have good websites and great DVD's that will really help you if you haven't seen this type of work done.  Find Buck's "Ground Work" DVD and Rays "Back to the Beginning" for starters.  

OOps!  I almost forgot, from the moment you step into your horses presence to when you finally step away, you are training your horse.  If you are leaving the round pen and your horse looses track of you, go right into hind quarters/front quarters.  Keep this up all the way back to his pasture or stall if you have to.  It is a lot of work and pretty soon he will figure out that walking like a gentleman is lots easier than having to work that hard.  He sounds like a nice colt, and you are on the right track so it won't take the two of you long to get this figured out!  

Check out the DVD's and keep me posted!

Smiles and Miles-Horseback of Course!  Denise