[Friesiangirl]

Well, stormy has hit the point where he really wants to rush his trot and lope, he has great within the gait transitions, but he won't LISTEN to them, he wants to just, rush off. And i am working on lightening my hands, and i don't want to be yanking on him, beacause i KNOW thats wrong. So far, i've been doing circles, and stopping, and back up. Is there anything else i can do?

[Just_me]

I would add some cavalettis.He can`t rush because he has to focus to get through the poles or he might trip,get out of his rythm etc.
Circles are good,do big circles and go smaller if he doesn~t respond.Ride lots of figure 8,half turnes,broken lines and all kinds of patterns that you can think of.Do lots of half halts.Also continue to work on your transitions:canter the short side of the arena,then a full halt,walk half of the long side and trot the rest.Go back and forth...
If your horse can leg yield,do leg yields also.
oh,and if you decide to use cavalettis make sure the spacing is right.
walk+ trot cavalettis/ground poles:3-4 ft apart
canter:9-12 ft apart.
Adjust them to your horses needs.The closer they are,the more careful the horse has to be.

[EquineJessie]

One thing that may help is everytime he goes a little bit faster than the exact speed you want, disengage the HQ. If his HQ are disengaged, you're basically taking the engine out from under him and he can't rush. Like you said, yanking is a no no. Stopping and backing can be good in some cases and in other cases it doesn't seem to help. Often it's because once the horse gets going, it wants to go fast.... Disengaging allows the horse to keep moving forward but it has to move at a slower pace which I think is key.

[Bruce Wiley]

You may need to take him back to the round pen to make it clearer of what,when,where and how you want it.
Work him with this in mind...you must convince him that, this is your idea to do this and that and not his.
In the round pen, when he is rushing simply change his direction,speeding him up and allow him to work off any extra energy, so he can focus on the task at hand.
Now request him to slow down and hold that gait in that direction.
This way you're re programming his rushing behavior, helping him to understand... right here is what I want from you Stormy
Repeat this many times,until he can perform it consistantly.
He should soon learn that he should wait and react,act on your request only and not decide to do it his way.
Get this solid before moving on to the next phase.
He is setup for you to do this work from the saddle.
He should remember doing this when you were working in the round penning.
Transferring your requests should be clearer, understood and easy for him to do the right thing the correct way.
If not...from the saddle just speed him up and work him hard changing his directions many times and everytime when he starts to rush.
He will get the point soon, just be patient, firm, clear and consistant with your re programming working sessions.
I hope this helps.

[JBandRio]

Round penning is nice and all, but it doesn't solve every under saddle problem, and it really won't help solve this one a great deal. Yes, the more you have Stormy paying attention to you in the round pen, the better for everything, but to fix riding problems, you have to ride.

It's very likely he's "rushing" in order to keep his balance. Stormy is young and unmuscled, and it just takes time to do these things properly. To get a great trot, you don't start off by schooling the trot for miles, you start by schooling walk/trot transitions. To get a great canter, you don't start by cantering for miles, you school the trot/canter transition. Once those are good, confirming with the horse that he did what you asked by allowing him to trot or canter for a few strides, then you ask for more and more trot, and more and more canter. ALWAYS come back to the walk or the trot if you feel the horse start to become unbalanced/rushing/on his forehand in these early stages. Don't yank him down, take as long as it takes to get a proper transition. A downward transition with the horse falling on his face is worse than no transition, so set him up to do it correctly. Corners are great for this, as the physical barrier of the fence helps physically set the horse back on his butt more than a wide open space.

You have done only a miniscule amount of transitions between gaits that you need to do to build his strength and balance. I would not work on transitions within each gait until you have good transitions between gaits, and he can maintain a steady w/t/c for a nice length of time.

[lilrider]

How old is Stormy Haylee? I forget... is he 5? I have such a bad memory

[Friesiangirl]

We're pretty sure he's seven. And actualy, he's pretty darn muscled in the butt Lol He CAN drive himself really well, he just will go into air head mode and just trot around like a drunk


Thanks for all the great advice guys

EDIT: in protected the name of what little muscle stormy does have, heres proof he does have muscle:

[JBandRio]

Having a big butt, and muscle to mosey himself along in the pasture, even spurts of WHEEEEEEE every now and then, is very very very different from the muscle needed to carry a rider in a balanced, cadenced, rythmic manner.

[Friesiangirl]

Originally Posted by JBandRio

Having a big butt, and muscle to mosey himself along in the pasture, even spurts of WHEEEEEEE every now and then, is very very very different from the muscle needed to carry a rider in a balanced, cadenced, rythmic manner.

Lol, i just thought you were saying that he didn't have muscle in general. He does get longed now in very loose side reins (he doesn't brace at all, i checked) everyday (except his day, monday), then i ride him long and low at a walk trot canter (working on the long and low at the canter, he is an air head). He has good transitions, he easily goes into a walk, and a trot and a canter. He works off my leg, and he does great circles. So i just thought that since he's been ridden for three months now or so (maybe less)that he'd be in good shape. He did after all, go on a seven hour ride threw mountains and up gravel roads (down to the beach, up the way back) and he barely broke a sweat. I hate to sound so rude, since you are trying to help. But i feel that he is in DECENT shape (i've seen horses in way better shape then him)

[madvoice]

What I do when a horse I'm riding starts rushing and breaks into canter at a trot is to bring them back to trot and work on transitions to keep them thinking. Transitions between walk/trot and a lot of leg yeilding and flexion work. If he is young it does sound like he is a little unbalanced. Keep at it as he is sure to improve.