my horse wont turn when i want him to

Question
my horse is 3 yrs old, he is a gelding, part hackney. He is turned out all night with 2 other horses. He is kept in a stall where he cant move around freely. My problem is that when i am riding him on the way home, he is so intent on getting home that he fights me really bad when i try to turn him. How can i fix this?

Answer
Hi Nicole!

I understand your question and have an idea as to what is going on.  But, I need a little more information.  How long have you been hacking him out?  Do you go alone or in a group?  What is the tack you are using?  How often do you hack out?  Did you break him?  Lastly, what do you mean when you say "he fights me really bad when I try to turn him."  Do you mean when you try to turn him right to take the right road or like he is bad so you try to turn him in circles.

Before I have any other info I can safely say in the broadest of terms....your horse is incredibly young to be hacking out (alone or in a group) and also his training is not on him well enough to make him feel you are his safe place..not the barn or other horses.

See, a horse goes away willingly and happily with it's rider if it has two things:  1.)  Solid training that it understands completely and a confident rider who rides with a plan.  2.)  Experience, experience, experience!  When a horse fully understands the action it is about to complete, knows it will end well with him in his pasture with grain/buddies...then it is comfortable allowing itself to leave it's grain/buddies.  At 3yrs. old, your gelding knows and trusts nothing!  Except other horses and home.  It takes years of quiet leadership on your part as the rider to gain that confidence from your horse.  You have to dispel with all your notions of what he should be able to do and watch him in reality.  He can only do what he feels comfortable doing.  

Just because he has been on that hack 10 times, you feel he should be "over it" and comfortable.  Well, in his head it may need 100 times!  And don't forget, you are 50% of the equation too....are you handling/training him in a way that he really understands?

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

Solange