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[RC] Amy Major -- trail shy gelding - Karen Bratcher

Title: Amy Major -- trail shy gelding

Love those Clinton Anderson training DVDs!  Not sure which ones you have, and hopefully you have done all the groundwork first which is the basis for obedience under saddle.  He does recommend getting the horse to "move his feet" for most under-saddle problems.  For example if he wants to stop and back up, make him back up way farther than he would like to go, like 500 feet (if you don’t have 500 straight feet, do it in a circle or square or lines), then do a lot of hindquarter yields and circles and see if he will go forward again.  I think you're right in working the snot out of him at the barn if he flat refuses to leave -- hey, if you're trotting around in circles at the barn for two hours, it's still conditioning!  Make it hard work though not just mindless trotting, such as going over low jumps, bending around obstacles, pivoting on hindquarters and forehand, sidepassing, doing small and large circles, up and down transitions, etc.  After a while take him away from the barn and let him rest a few.  Take him back to the barn and work him more, then go further from the barn and let him rest.  You should be able to get further away each time.  I would also tie him up for several hours after riding, fully saddled, so he doesn't think going back to the barn means immediate unsaddling and turning out.  If it's your day off make a day of it and go work him again after being tied up a couple hours, tie him up again and repeat. 

If he tries to run back to the barn from the trail, first you have to have done your homework re yielding the head around, but then just do circles and circles until he walks, making him bend around your leg both ways and then yielding his head to both sides before going on.  I did thousands of circles/bends on my guy the first year I really rode him, it would take me two hours to get the last mile home!  I still have to do it the first few rides out in the spring. 

Good luck and post how it's going,

Karen Bratcher in northern Idaho