When I retrain show/speed horses to the trail, I will just pony him
with my quiet gelding. That way they can get confidence without
worrying a rider. When they are quiet on the trail only then will I
put a confident rider (usually my daugher VBG) on him for several
weeks. Then its time for the owner to take over. Usually it takes a
few weeks to a month for this to work out. I also work extensively on
ground manners to gain the horses confindence too.
Patrice
Where we will get dust storms today....


--- In training-horses@yahoogroups.com, "Kathryn Santos-Reed"
<sactokat@...> wrote:
>
> I have a problem with my Morab gelding. He was trained to
> compete at Morab Nationals and he did quite well, he was
> a National Champion 2 years in a row.
>
> Then, we shipped him to California and have barely ridden him.
> He's perfect in the roundpen and the arena, but when we try
> to ride him out and about in the pasture, he only wants to go
> back to th barn. At first we thought we was just being willful,
> but it's because he's only been trained as a rail horse for showsd.
> Even the trainers who've worked with him in California have only
> ridden him in the roundpen or arena.
>
> He doesn't know anything other than roundpens and arenas!
>
> Okay...what should we do to get him accustomed to being ridden
> out there in the world? I haven't heard of anyone else having
> this problem in years, so I have no idea how to correct it.
>
> Kathy
>