Young horses etc....

["Wilcocks, Carol" <cwilcocks@aidpo.agric.wa.gov.au>]

Trish,
I too have a young horse, and although he was broken in at 3yo, he's now 4 yo 
and a total handful! I am going to send him to a very tough trainer before I 
do any more ridden work on him. He scares me, I admit it, and after reading 
about all the others who are in similar positions to myself with green 
horses, I think I am going to up my health insurance! I have ridden him twice 
and he's fast and very floaty, I feel like his feet are way off the ground, 
and he likes to barrel around whilst evading the bit. He's also a real up-on-
his-toes shier. My mare can shy from one side of a track to the other, but 
this guy is something else, and I can feel his terror - he even 'roars' with 
arched neck and flared to the max nostrils. On the ground he is a puppy dog, 
except if you take him away from his familiar surroundings, in which case he 
does his shying and 'roaring' thing all over you! I will not keep him if I 
feel he's too much of a handful after the trainer and some work, as I agree 
that my skin is worth more than keeping a green horse just for the sake of 
my ego, or because he's very pretty - I think he's probably a lot like your 
David! I have been using the round pen JLyons lead mare thing with much 
success, but this does not change his attitude once mounted. It is quite 
difficult to get hold of JLyons info here in Australia, so any suggestions 
would be most welcome. If you do not have the money for a round pen right 
away, you could try what I did and use star steel pickets for the uprights 
with 3 runs of electric tape and a tape 'gate', which can then be attatched 
to a portable unit, or not electrified at all, which none of my horses have 
even questioned. I can free lunge, stop, turn etc. even with my young fella, 
and it's relatively inexpensive and portable. I've even used it for teaching 
hobbles. Good luck,
Carol and the 
gang.