Thank you for making this. I am starting my Mustang (a 4 year old from NV) and we've been struggling with forward movement after he had a bad day, and lost his marbles for a few seconds, I learned I could be making some solid money riding broncs, my saddle slipped and I got the privilege of remembering what dirt tastes like. I feel like I have new ideas both on the ground and in the saddle thanks to this video.
This video is really helpful. Unfortunately I've got a horse that has been through a lot in his life and we're working on desensitizing. He's a very sensitive horse and it's clear in the 15 years before I got him that he had dealt with abuse. He's come so far in groundwork over the last year with me and is a totally different horse (anxiety has subsided a ton but it's still there every once in a while as I expose him to things), but in the saddle he has some anxiety still. When I asked him to go forward he just shakes his head. Definitely not laziness or stubbornness because he's one of the smartest and most willing horses I've ever worked with. So I've stepped back a bit and started doing other things in the saddle instead of asking him to go forward to help build his confidence. Like disengaging hind quarters, dropping his head and flexing his nose which he knows how to do from our groundwork. I definitely need to work on the cues for walking forward from the ground to build his confidence as well. Unfortunately he has the tendency to scoot when he spooks, but I think I'm just going to have to ride him through that eventually, and I'd happily take any advice you have regarding that.
Restarting my one eyed 14 hh gaited rescue pony and I got him so far as getting on calmly been desensitizing him till he didn't react to anything I've tried so far ...
Can get on him and he calmly stands but nor sure what he knows from past what I should cue him to walk as idk which way he was trained , I've has some horses that walked when you verbally said walk or walk on, some used a leg squeeze others were all rein cues. Or some combination of the three.
For ones that back rather then forward one rein stop/circling can help them out. At least from past ones unless u have one that decides to back and flip over or flop on thier side.
