Hey everyone! My name's Cara - I've been lurking for a while and thought it was
time to post. I just got a new horse. He's sort of a rescue. His name's Comanche
and he's a 13 year old mustang that was never fully trained. I've known him for
7 years now and about a year ago was working with him and we got to the point of
riding walk/trot. Then his owner had some financial problems and moved away.
Well, he called me up last week and said that he was going to put him down if I
didn't take him because they can't do anything with him (he's a great horse but
is pretty fearful and if you don't know how to act around him he can be somewhat
dangerous).

So anyway, the reason I'm posting is because I'm anxious to get to work with him
again (once we fix his neglected hooves and teeth)and would like any advice. My
main problem with him the last time was that he would pull back against the
halter all of a sudden, whether I was lunging him or we were walking to/past
something he was afraid of, and throw his full weight into it. Most of the time
I was able to hold him but there were a bunch of times where he pulled right out
of my hands. He leads great but if he feels insecure his instinct is to run. He
doesn't want to hurt anyone and most of the time he would let us walk right back
up to him once he felt he was at a safe distance.

I have tried rope halters and chains but I can never hold him 100% of the time
so if anyone has any tricks up their sleeves they would like to share I'm all
ears. I'm especially concerned about it this time around because my sister fell
in love with him and he's going to be her horse (she was the one who was riding
him). But, she's smaller/weaker than I am and can't really hold him when he
decides to take off so I do most of the lunging.

Thanks!
-Cara

PS - I'm trying to teach my other mustang, Cheyanne, flying lead changes but she
always sticks a trot step in between. Any thoughts?