Yes, that is a scary thought, a trainer that wants to go battle with a horse, not one that will try to find ways to defuse unwanted behaviors and try to get the horse over those without drama and fireworks.
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Exactly. One that’s going to “rough him up”, if you will.
Some people believe in that kind of training though. Kick/spank/jerk until you get what you want.
Then oh-so-surprised when the horse’s behaviors and phobias get worse (or sneakier/dirtier). It’s a no brainer…
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I had the same thought.
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Hear hear! A sound and well-reasoned response and one I can wholeheartedly agree with. I changed career aspirations on a lovely thoroughbred who would’ve been great for two years on the AA eventing circuit, and exchanged it for a 15 year partnership with him in trail, low level dressage, western dressage and eventually just “getting the mail” at the end of the driveway bareback. It was in his best interests and I listened when he told me so.
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Lots of very good sentiments in this thread already but I want to add my two cents.
At this point I don’t think it matters what the “fix” is. Horse is clearly telling you that he doesn’t want to jump. Personally, I don’t care if it’s the feet. I don’t care if it’s because he’s excited. Or that he doesn’t know how to do it right. He’s telling you he doesn’t want to do it. You should listen to him instead of saying well what if we did it on the lunge, what if we did dressage then tried it again, etc etc. This doesn’t have to be looked at like a “problem” that you have to “fix.” It’s just who he is.
Horse does not know nor care for his “potential” or what he could be doing if you just keep trying with him. There is no glory in making him do a job he doesn’t want to do just because you want it from him and think that he can do it.
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I, also, have a sample of one. My pony was an excellent jumper, until she wasn’t. Since I have nothing to prove, we have a lot of fun on the trails, and even practice our dressage out there.
She cares whether her feet hurt or not. She does not care that she’s not fulfilling some dream of mine to take her eventing.
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But your original statement was “30 days and it will be fixed……”
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Re-read your first sentence OP- “I’ve been working with this horse on/off for over 5 years” FIVE Years! and his behavior hasn’t changed. you should’ve posted this 5 months in, not 5 years later. Maybre then you could’ve gotten some advice about trying different bits, like a gag, or a “headknocker” to help yank his head up when he’s misbehaving. Why are you risking getting hurt on a horse you don’t even own? Maybe this horse needs to find another job - he could have some physical issue or a mental issue. Five years is a long time for this continued behavior. Put your health over this horse, it’s not worth it.
I confess I have not read through all the posts so forgive me if this has been mentioned previously. I don’t know what your trainer’s program is, what your relationship is with your trainer -do you work /ride for them, but a good trainer would [should] recognize that if a horse continues bad behavior with the same (or other riders) it’s now a safety and liability issue if this horse keeps popping people off. the next fall you might not get up so easily.
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I agree that this horse is most probably in pain. Have back and neck xrays been done? Also has a whole-body scan been done on this horse? If not, then consider one, it may tell you everything you need to know.
And most importantly, you should change your mindset about the horse. In order to do what is best for the horse, you need to make it about the horse, not about what you think the horse’s job should be or what it should be doing. Really great horsemen have the ability to give up all ‘human’ expectations and focus on what the horse is telling them their job and life should be - and accept it.
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With a pro you would see significant progress. Have you searched around and looked at trainers yet or looked at trainers that could come and give you a dressage lesson? Baby steps right?
This is such a huge learning opportunity. Just think, if you learn the skill to change a horse like this you will always have that arrow in your quiver to use when you come across other horses with training issues.
It’s the journey.
Yabbut this isn’t her horse. The pro that owns it gave up years ago and doesn’t consider it safe. She has her own horse who sounds like a project. At this point the over-under seems to be more on the side of emotionally letting go of a damaged animal she doesn’t own who has a history of being dangerous.
I’ve spent a lifetime with horses, some really, really, really damaged, and part of the learning curve is knowing when to walk away. The last super-difficult one I had was mine, and he was my responsibility. I never gave up on him, but the project I rode before him, I did. That one wasn’t mine, he was dangerous, and while I could have stuck with it there was no reason to continue to put my own life at risk.
And, there was no reason to spend more time rehabbing a horse who deserved better than to be put in work when he was so clearly not enjoying it. Horses don’t owe us anything, and they aren’t capable of understanding that concept anyway, but we owe it to them to recognize when to stop.
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We can all agree that dressage training is an asset to any horse, just as weightlifting can be beneficial to runners. But this horse has navicular changes. No amount of dressage work is going to fix that. The same way that weight lifting won’t help a runner who has a damaged foot to get back to running. Sometimes navicular can be helped with corrective shoeing, many times it cannot. Jumping hurts this horse’s feet, dressage cannot fix that. There is also a good chance that he is in pain during flatwork and it is being over looked as him being naughty. This horse is SCREAMING that he hates his job for whatever reason. Our duty as people who love them it to listen to them and put their needs ahead of our desire to make something work.
The journey for this horse is very bumpy and painful. He should be a pasture pet or humanely euthanized.
Edited because man did I not proof read some of this.
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Horses don’t have the brain elements required to “be dicks”. Proven, with research 
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I’ve tried explaining that to people and they still refuse to understand. Like the discussion on FB about Saint Boy at the olympics. Someone commented that the horse just wanted to be a dick that day. I tried to explain that horses do not wake up on the wrong side of the stall and decide that that day they’re going to be a dick. Fell on deaf ears.
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Ah. But there is a pro involved. The horse belongs to a trainer. This trainer now refuses to ride him. This tells us something.
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The thing that really surprises me about this whole thing, as related to us, is that the pro is allowing an amateur to ride a horse that is owned by the pro, but that the pro is not comfortable riding.
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Also horse went out on lease but was sent back early?
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I had this same thought. Why on earth is the trainer allowing this??? Sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. The horse gave OP a concussion for Pete’s sake!
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It occurs to me that “some details may be intentionally blurred” in this post, and also that the OP may not have trainers permission to jump the horse. Or, possibly, OP hasn’t been jumping at all but wants to pull a training trick out of her Heartland bag to tame the retired dangerous horse on the back field.
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