Can't get gelding to settle down.

windyr · Postby **windyr** » Sun Dec 27, 2009 10:45 pm

I'm at my wits end with my Mizzen Mast gelding. He is 2 soon to be 3. In the paddock his behavoir is fairly normal. However, the moment he gets out on the track to work in the mornings, he is so indiciplined that it is hard to get get any riders to work him. At specific places on the track, he would stop, spin around and won't keep a straight course. Then at other places on the track he would move along just fine. It is so frustrating. He sometimes tries to throw the lighter boys. I have tried several things, including gelding him but nothing seems to work. His teeth is fine and the vet says that he has no physical problems. I would really appreciate any help anyone can give.

ireneinwa · Postby **ireneinwa** » Mon Dec 28, 2009 3:20 am

He keeps getting away with it, hell keep doing it.

Tiz · Postby **Tiz** » Mon Dec 28, 2009 5:43 am

Take him somewhere to be broke to ride, before he's completely ruined. He should not be on the main track at all, in his current frame of mind.

Jessi P · Postby **Jessi P** » Mon Dec 28, 2009 8:12 am

Good advice so far - you need to nip this behavior in the bud before your horse is ruined. I wholeheartedly agree that this horse should not be galloping on the main track at a racetrack where he could possibly get someone hurt, be it horse, rider, outrider or bystander. Get him off the track and get someone who can RIDE him and teach him to be ridden (and tolerate it, if not like it).

Here at MNR there are a couple "cowboy TYPE" guys who get on the bad ones - but they take them home and get them going well off the track before bringing them to the track. We also have an Amishman a couple hours away who takes all sorts of horses, including rogues, for retraining - when they come back from some time with Ezra they are all pretty well behaved (and might possibly know how to pull a buggy as well lol). :lol:

What would be ideal would be finding someone who can get on him away from the track then also AT the track, putting some continuity into the equation, to enable your boy to show his best side instead of his worst. In the meantime, I would suggest blinkers and a stick EVERY. SINGLE. TRIP. to the racetrack. A little ace might help as well - you dont need to give it IV, you can put a little on the back of the tongue and it will be absorbed. Several places also compound acepromazine powder/granules, so you can add it to his feed or blow it down his throat with a small (~18") section of garden hose or other firm tubing.

Its not just the rider on top of the bad actor who can get hurt - it's every single person atop a horse or near the track while that bad actor is ridden who is in jeopardy. Few years ago at MNR a very nice groom who worked for John and Tammy Semer was raking up in front of the manure bin late in the morning when she was finishing up her work, almost ready to go home. A horse who was a bad actor was on the track late (when the babies and bad ones go to the track), dumped its rider, got loose on the track, ran back to the barn and KILLED her by running over her.... she left behind 3 young children. Sure it doesn't happen often but it happens. Get the horse going well and listening well to a rider before taking it back out on the track. I wish you all the luck - sometimes you want to just smack the beast upside the head and say LISTEN UP!

How long has it been since he was gelded?

windyr · Postby **windyr** » Mon Dec 28, 2009 8:44 am

He has been gelded almost one year ago. Is there any type of equipment we can use to make him more controllable? Would confining him to a walker for a period of time teach him some dicipline? For now I will take him off the track.

madelyn · Postby **madelyn** » Mon Dec 28, 2009 8:48 am

He needs what I call a "serious come-to-Jesus meeting." I think you need to get him to a no-nonsense trainer who can ride the heck out of him.

A horse's behaviour in a paddock, ground manners, etc., does not translate to how they will behave under saddle, and if you have issues under saddle the horse probably needs to be rebroke altogether. He sounds much too green and will either get himself hurt, hurt some people, or both.

LB · Postby LB » Mon Dec 28, 2009 10:09 am

Confining him to a walker will accomplish nothing. Your gelding needs what Madelyn called a "come to Jesus meeting"--a period of time spent with a serious horseman who can teach him both manners and rideability. That needs to happen ASAP before he begins to believe that he can get away with behaving as badly as he wants to, and also before he injures someone. As he is, he's a danger to every other horse and rider on the track.

amanda1 · Postby **amanda1** » Mon Dec 28, 2009 11:55 am

Why dont you try sending him with a pony?

griff · Postby **griff** » Mon Dec 28, 2009 12:05 pm

Put a western saddle on him and find a cowboy with a pair of roller spurs.

griff

Diane · Postby **Diane** » Mon Dec 28, 2009 12:35 pm

Do as everyone above suggested and take him back to a training farm. One because he's immature, two because you don't need someone to fry his brain forcing him to do what he's already saying he can't do, three because if he has any talent at all you don't want his reputation of being immature to grow into "he's crazy". When you say he acts out at different spots on the track (and he has no physical issue) during galloping it makes me think it's fitness related. He gets just past the point where his muscles and brain are getting enough oxygen and he looses concentration and acts out. Very frustrating, good luck.

windyr · Postby **windyr** » Mon Dec 28, 2009 12:40 pm

I'll definitely try the pony first and if this does not work, I'll try the cowboy saddle. The gelding is not high strung or ill mannered in the paddock or when we have him on our smaller exercise track. In fact he goes like a charm on the small track. When we get him on the main track, he goes past the winning pole section and along the lower end of the track, quite normally. However, when he hits the 4f marker, it's when he starts acting up. When he gets past the winning pole area again, he settles back down. Maybe the pony will help him settle him down all the away around.

ageecee · Postby **ageecee** » Mon Dec 28, 2009 6:46 pm

30 day tranquilizer

ireneinwa · Postby **ireneinwa** » Mon Dec 28, 2009 6:58 pm

All the western saddle does is give an incompetent rider security. Just get yourself a rider that knows his stuff. He should be back at a farm with miles on him then to the track when ready.

Rachel Alexandra · Postby **Rachel Alexandra** » Mon Dec 28, 2009 7:01 pm

If you're not going to send him back to a farm right away, why not trying to send him with some good, quiet company - not a pony - other race horses. If you send him to a farm to be rebroke, send him to one with a track and where he will learn to gallop in company.

valjoe · Postby **valjoe** » Mon Dec 28, 2009 8:58 pm

The gelding is not high strung or ill mannered in the paddock or when we have him on our smaller exercise track. In fact he goes like a charm on the small track. When we get him on the main track, he goes past the winning pole section and along the lower end of the track, quite normally. However, when he hits the 4f marker, it's when he starts acting up. When he gets past the winning pole area again, he settles back down.

it sounds to me like he associates the main track only with speed work if he mainly gallops on the small one,and works on the main. try galloping only on the main track and get him past that winning pole more than 2 times, my guess is by the forth time he'll be tired enough to concentrate on the job, that of course if you can find a rider willing to do it. [/quote]