Hi! Just casting around for some ideas here... I've got a 6yo Friesian x Oldenburg gelding who is wonderful in almost every way except that he is 18hh ish and he knows it!! Every now and then he simply charges past me pulls the rope/rein out of my hands with the sheer weight of him. The first time he did this I had him in a flat halter and lead rope which quickly got changed to a Dually correction halter and lunge rein with gloves for me every time... And he still does it. Even a bridle with lunge rein clipped to the bit rings doesn't work, he just barges through it and goes! I'm an experienced trainer and rider and I am really at my wits end with this!! I've done lots if ground work with him and he was improving a lot... Until he remembers his party trick! :(
Today after a ride I was leading him to the field and he was a bit slow to move away from the gate, then tried to pull away a bit to snatch a mouthful of grass so I brought him up sharp with the correction halter and was doing some basic yielding, halts and backing up in the lane way to the field and I saw the realisation dawning on his face, like "I don't have to take this!" and he just whooshed past me and pulled the rope out of my hand. I went and got him, we continued the groundwork and within seconds he did it again!! Argh! Walked back to the stables and made him walk sensibly to the field, yielded a few times and then just shoved him out.
I KNOW that the thing the horse most needs is to never ever ever get away with this trick ever again but even with my precautionary tack, being prepared and having done lots of work getting him to yield his quarters and be respectful of the rope, he's still managed it twice today! Feel v frustrated! He'd gone several weeks without trying it before today and I thought we were getting somewhere! His former owner was a slight and nervous lady and he obviously got away with it with her. She was too frightened to lead him to the field!
He's not a bad natured horse in the slightest, he's lovely to ride, he just knows his own strength. Anyone got any tips for me??