Let me say something other than drugs!
I first suggest a rope halter. They come in two basic flavors, the Parelli type that has smooth rope over the nose and the Anderson type that has two additional knots over the nose.
My young warmblood learned he can drag a handler with his head in a regular, nicely padded halter. Not so with a rope halter, it is much less comfortable when one applies quick, sharp corrections.
The metal bosal halter can work but it will work best (like the rope halters) if you teach him carefully what behavior warrants the “use” of these halters and how quickly you release their “use” when he’s behaving or stopping unwanted behavior. If you’re not fantastic with timing, I would find someone very good with timing to teach you to read your horse and how to apply corrections and releases to an overzealous youngster requiring hand-walking. It’s a perfect time to teach respect skills that should translate to later under-saddle skills.
Drugs may be necessary, but I wouldn’t want to resort to them for lengthy periods of handwalking. You don’t want him to associate “time out of stall” with “woozy feeling”. What does your vet say?
If you have alot invested in this youngster and he’s too much of a handful, consider sending him to a rehab facility with a water therapy option. Walking through water is more difficult than walking through air, yet it isn’t stressful on the joints. Walking through water might be a great way to give your guy a little workout/keep a cap on his behavior without impeding his healing.
Alternatively, depending on his injury, can you place walk poles around a circle, or other things for him to step over so he can focus on these new things he has to walk over rather than his “kite-ness”? Maybe put tarps down? Sometimes stall-bound horses are just bored out of their minds and want to explode in movement but if you can present them with things that are interesting and require brain power, they are content to navigate/figure out at the walk.
Just some things to think about.
