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Originally Posted by sup3rn0th1ng
Ok, well I figured I would get y'alls opinion on this. I just got hired to train this horse, he is a stallion and is about 3 years old. He has never had any training, he is a very friendly animal, now I had to get the halter on him wow was that a task...I have had a bit in his mouth because he was being pretty tame, but only once. Now The people that want me to train him do not want a whip used on him, they want him completely broken.
I can only work with him every weekend because of my work schedule. He will not lead he will refuse to lead and pretty much a stubborn horse when it comes to that. Now you can make all over him pet him comb him do anything pretty much, but lead, bridle, ride this animal.
I am running short on ideas since I do not use a whip. I have spent the last month working with him thats including putting the halter on him and pretty much getting him used to me.
I do go to there house and they have about 5 other horses 3 females they do not have a round pin, and do not want to put one up...
Any suggestions or ideas would be great.
Thanks in advance.
Well, not having a roundpen is a real hindrance. But you can accomplish a lot of the same things with a longline. When you say they don't want a whip used on him, do they mean they don't want you to USE a whip, or just that they don't want you to whip the horse? I always use a longe whip at least at first, but rarely very touch any horse with it except to scratch them and show affection (so they aren't scared of the whip, and think of it as an extension of my hand). If the owners don't want you to use any kind of stimulus to make him move, they need to resign themselves to having a horse that won't move.
Another thing you should be doing since you have him in a halter, is to disengage the hind end, keeping his nose bent toward you while you pressure his rear to cross over and pivot. Usually nothing more than the pressure of your thumb in front of his hip will get it started. Then get the front end to disengage similarly. Also, do a lot of backing. Once he's moving freely off his front end, his back end and backs up willingly that he'll be much easier to get moving forward.
I don't favor trying to directly pressure a horse to move forward until I can get him to move in every other direction first.