I cant get him to trot

[Leeana]

Alrighty, Coco trots just fine coming out of his stall ..i usually trot him to the driveway and then we stop and walk some. He usually does that fine. But then when we do these 'runthoughs' (basically where we do what we will do in the halter show ..walk in a cirlce like we would to line up, walk to middle of the driveway and do our show standing and stretching liek for the judge, walk about 10-15 ft ..but then when i get ready to trot him back ....i have to drag him and he's just back there walking behind me while i straine every muscle in my body to get him to trot). I've tried baiting him w/ a baby carrot but it only works about 30% of the time. We just now broke his show halter (the chaine under neath in half!! and he got loose and i had to put the lead around his neck and push him back to the stall. My heart about stopped and im still a little upset and jumpy

) We need to get this down. He is backing up nicely and straight. He was doing this fine last week but the past couple days he is just not getting it. He never did the trotting correctly and im starting to stress. Im about to have a breakdown from stress and it stinks. We go to the fair Monday so the only 'real' training and stuff we can get done are going to be in the next 2 days. It will be hard to do all this w/ 10,000 ppl around at the fair next week. Please i need logical help FAST.

 

[Marty]

There's a real good chance that the chain is preventing him from trotting with you if you are pulling on that lead, causing the chain to be tight on him. A little trick for you would be when you signal him to trot, just take 1 finger, and hold the chain back from his chin making it "loose". When I know I'm about to have to trot off, I signal my horse and whisper to him that we are about to take off before we even move, so that he's prepared to come trotting out of line from a stand still. Try not to worry too much about it though because he's going to be a little bit excited at the show and I don't think you'll have that problem once he's actually in there.

I also think you need to lay off of him a couple of days. You are going to sour him and by the time you get to the show, he won't work for you at all. Overstanding him, over working him, makes for one borring horse. It's a lot better if you just chill, get your head on straight, back off from him and pushing him so he will be "fresh" and into it by showtime. Youre nerves are going to make things worse so back off of him.

 

[Horsefeathers]

I don't know if this will help you, but it did help me... Lunging... I made sure he was very solid on vocal commands or cues, but that doesn't really help with the show so close. I was worried about that too with my stallion, but Kaykay told me that usually at the shows, getting them to trot isn't a problem... nerves and such make them entergetic I guess... hope that helps.

Chris B.

 

[Leeana]

I dont want to Lung him bc he just turned 2 years old a couple month ago. im going to wait about 5 more month for that i think. im going to try some of that stuff though, Thanks guys.

 

[Relic]

My daughter thought she had a son of a gun to show one year as a yearling because he didn't like to do a lot for her at home in the short time at home she had to practice with him. But guess what once he got to the fairgrounds all the noise people and activity after he was unloaded made him a pocket horse paid plenty of attention to her and he didn't do one thing to embareass her. Some horses are fairly good once out of there own element and behave very well and suddenly remember most of there training and then others are regular poops in public.

Enjoy your time with him if you feel stressed he'll pick up on it have a jolly good time and whatever happens happens have fun with it that's the whole point. Or l think it's suppose to be besides there's always next year.

 

[liltnt]

I was told by the breede of my two boys you can lunge them when they are under two, as long as you dont do it for a long time and you dont do it everyday Or in real tight circles. She also told me if I have a round pet to run him in thre rather than on a lead. Darb is 2 and a half but Omar is only 1 and a half. As of late I have been chasing them around in the pasture with a whip and plastic bag. For about 15 minutes every other day and working on my verbal commands as we go.

 

[Naira3284]

well what i always do is,

keep the horses head in front of you, at all times, dont let him drag behind.

get a driving whip, and when he decides to drag, tap his but. that gets my lazy butt of a brat goin

ok to make that work, put the whip in your left hand so it sticks out behind you, walk a bit than when you want to trott klick at him once or twice, if he dosent go give him a tap or 2 and he should get goin. after a couple of lesons my guys relized that a klick meant trot, if not its a snap on the butt

 

[Crossbuck Farms]

Wack his butt with your lead rope. It works all the time. I have trained stubborn stallion I own and this solved it. I don't even wack his but any more. Also try excessive clicking to cue him into a trot.

 

[Horsefeathers]

I had tried the tap on the butt thing, but my guy throws it into reverse when I did it, so I had to resort to other means. Doesn't mean it won't work for you, thought. I too was told lunging around the age of 2 is o.k. as long as you used big circles and short sessions.

Chris B.

 

[kaykay]

normally when you get to a show you cant get them to STOP trotting. remember hes going to get excited etc. you have to go in at a walk (if he doesnt walk the judge will make you go back and start again) and as soon as he feels you pick up the energy in the lead he will trot. I never worry about trotting at home. Also you are probably holding him too tight and not giving him enough room to trot. 9 times out of 10 a newer person showing is holding the lead under the horses throat. This is way too tight. He should be on a loose lead at all times. And i always use the energy in the lead along with the voice command "trot"

When i trot the horse and go around the cone curve i let the lead ALL the way out so the horse can really move and the judge can get a clear pic of the horse trotting without seeing me.

also wanted to say you are over practicing. give him a couple days rest to just let all the new stuff hes learned settle in his mind. Its all a learning curve. Once hes taken in all he can the learning stops. Then you wait a few days and go back and ta daaaaaaaaa its all there and comes together. Even when i teach painting i make sure and only give students a little bit at a time and let them digest that before we move on. People or horses that are overwhelmed cannot take in new information

 

[Leeana]

Thanks ..im going to start lunging him a little (im sure training him to will take a while though, but i will have my dad help. He's good at that sort of stuff).

Im deff going to try using the whip and tapping his butt. I do tend to hold the lead a bit close but thats because he tends to want to stay behind me a tad so i've been holding him up unfront of me a bit more w/ it also if i hold it about a foot down he tends to get to close to me or 'attack the grass' as i call it (we have grass around our training area and he cant seem to get his mind off it ...yep thats my coco

).

Giving him the day off today. Thursday all we did was go for a 2 or 3 minute walk in the show halter just so i could get the feel of it and him to. That was all we did really ..he was in pasture all that day. Today though im just planning on scrubbing all his stains w/ Oxy Clean (bc Monday is fairday and i know it will take 2 days to get him clean. So today im getting rid of stains and tommarow giving him a regular bath.

Quick Question though ..Since his show halter broke (the chin chaine broke in half ...do you think i could just show him in his regular halter since it is only a fair and we tipically only get about 3 or 4 mini's at the fair which would be the class he is in. Its brand new and blue ..really nice w/ matching lead (black leather w/ blue tint). The only place around here that sells mini show halter is about 2 1/2 hours away in amish country where we got this one and it took a day to make it. So i dont really have time to go get a new one ..maybe i could fix this one but i dont know if i trust it really after what happened

.

 

[kaykay]

honestly if you stop holding him so tight youll find that heck lead much better. Holding tight means the horse has constant pressure. Training horses is all about pressure on and then pressure off. So if you hold him loose and only go tight when he does something wrong he learns really quick to release his own pressure.

I would just run to the grocery store and get a dog choke chain and use that for the chin chain. They are almost identical. If the chin chain broke it was too tight so get a longer one.

 

[Leeana]

The reason it broke was because we were walking and all of a sudden he stopped and yanked his head back to itch his hip and *CRACK*. I might run over and get a dog chain later on. Thankx for the idea ...but if that for some reason doesnt work ...do you think the regular halter would be okay or would it not work at all. Its only a fair. Im going to try to fix the show halter but if it end up not working out i might call jess and see if she knows (she is a Jr. horse judge so i think she would know, but then agian not to sure).

 

[kaykay]

myself i have never seen a horse shown in a regular halter even at fairs. Also if your horse is pretty headed youd hate to cover it up with a regular halter. A nice show halter can really add alot to the look of the horse. I think it would be better to just go get a dog chain but thats just me