A Tale of Two Horses

[Outdoorz]

Ok, really it’s just one horse - but I swear he has two personalities.

He’s a green ottb, off the track about a year now.

When we flat he is amazing. Listens so well to my leg, no funny business. He can be a little lazy, but gets going appropriately.

If we take a break after an appropriate warm-up, he starts this weird hardcore drifting (side stepping in the direction of the entry/exit gate) and basically likes to pretend he has no idea how to steer. He fights to go forward, and I have to kick and crop to get him going. Once we start moving, he’s absolutely fine. It’s just that initial reaction to work again. He does it if we start jumping courses, too. But once we start moving, he’s fine. He’s still green, so not the most handy thing in the world, but he generally turns within the course to the best of his ability without this nonsense.

He’s gone through this phase before, but stopped. And now here we are again. Any tips or advice?

[Mander]

What happens if you let him go towards the gate and then ask him to work there? It sounds like he’s thinking, “If I go over here then I don’t have to work anymore and can go back to the barn”. It may be as simple as showing him that that’s not the case. Warwick Schiller has a video with a horse who did something similar to what you describe and that was the first thing he had them do - I’ll see if I can find it.

If your arena permits it, I also like to leave through the gate that my horse is not anticipating leaving through, even if it means I’ve got to walk an extra hundred yards. Just helps break the habit of “this gate = go home!”

One other thing I noticed with the last OTTB I was retraining is that he didn’t really understand that “work” can also happen at a walk/trot (I imagine there’s not much of that on the track). When he first showed up he was as distracted as all get out… until we started to canter and then he was all business. It took several weeks for him to understand that trotting is also “work” and he needs to focus. After a few months, he figured it out for walking too, but it definitely took the longest to convey that walking isn’t guaranteed “do whatever you want time”. With this in mind, I’m wondering if maybe adding a little something to your routine that tells him it’s time to work again would be helpful. Instead of going from a walk break immediately into a trot or something, ask for some contact at the walk and then maybe a leg yield/shoulder in/pirouette for a few steps - something he’s confident in and understands he needs to have some focus for - and then ask for whatever work you wanted to do.

[blue_heron]

It sounds like you are losing your connection in the outside aids and he is taking advantage of this. Or, he is young and green and your appropriate warm up is all he can do for you for the day. It’s not that uncommon for training issues to crop up again even if you think you’ve solved them completely, and stopping/drifting at the gate is an issue everyone has faced for a while.

My favorite solution is to do my difficult work by the in gate and my walk breaks elsewhere. Sometimes just thinking shoulder-in going past the gate is enough to get their mind off of it. I also think it’s really valuable to get out of the ring with horses like this. You said he is green and only in a year of work. Getting out will be great for his brain and you can work on being even in your connection on both reins, which it sounds from your very short original post that he is not.

[Jealoushe]

Sounds like hes a bit nappy? My one mare was like this for quite some time…at least a year or even more, gradually it got better but sometimes would back track. Be very diligent with creating the forward aid.

Ask for forward and when no response then a tickle with the whip, then leg. If nothing then repeat until the horse moves forward. Once forward, HUGE reward, some might even suggest a treat. Then to confirm the aid you put the leg on again to ensure the horse understood. If he doesn’t move forward its tap with the whip, leg again. Leg always after the tap.

[StormyDay]

Adding in to say make sure you don’t dismount at or near the gate.