# my NEW horse.



## morganshow11 (Dec 19, 2008)

hey, i got a new horse, and he is a morgan. his temperment is a 7, and i got to admit he is a bit CRAZY, but as sweet as can be! and if any of you have any tips that will help, then please post them on here


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## wild_spot (Jan 30, 2008)

What do you mean by crazy? Hyper, likes to go, plays tricks, etc.?


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## morganshow11 (Dec 19, 2008)

well he is a 7 in temperment, and yes he is hyper and likes to go, he runs barrels in 15 sec.


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## Brandon (Jan 17, 2008)

Yes I would say a 7 would be high on the high spirited side of the chart. I have yet to have experience dealing with a very high spirited horse. You will just have to be firm and change the way you train horses to fit this particular horse's personality.


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## Spastic_Dove (Oct 4, 2007)

I ride barrel horses, so I understand high spirited. I run 15s but my guy is probably like...a 4. But I've ridden your typical barrel horses, you just need to channel their energy. What is he eating? 

What are your plans for him? Does he get out of control or what? When I'm on a horse that is getting out of hand, I do circles and serpentine. Anything to get his mind on you is good. If you want to walk, walk. He needs to understand that he has a job and even if he is all hopped up and wanting to go that he still needs to listen. For instance my horse is completly sane until he see's the barrels. When he starts to get fidgety I will make him do some basic circles, yield, and bend until he stands still. 

If he is a barrel horse I have tons more info I could give though...a lot of barrel horses are uncontrollably hyper because of how they are ridden/trained.


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## mlkarel2010 (Jan 27, 2008)

Morgans do tend to be a little more hot headed. I love them though. 

Lunging is good and finding constructive ways to release his energy (transitions to faster gaits and turning and what not) but try not to do things that don't require him to think and only require him to run such as just taking off running or only flying through barrels. I'm not saying you can't do that, but doing it all the time will only make him want to run more w/o using his head. 

Use his energy to your advantage and do a lot of controlled transitions (depending on his state of training) such as from trot to extended trot or canter. and from walk to canter or standstill to canter. a lot of lead departures as well. 

my best advice is to lunge him until he is focused on you and what you want him to do


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## morganshow11 (Dec 19, 2008)

Spastic_Dove said:


> I ride barrel horses, so I understand high spirited. I run 15s but my guy is probably like...a 4. But I've ridden your typical barrel horses, you just need to channel their energy. What is he eating?
> 
> What are your plans for him? Does he get out of control or what? When I'm on a horse that is getting out of hand, I do circles and serpentine. Anything to get his mind on you is good. If you want to walk, walk. He needs to understand that he has a job and even if he is all hopped up and wanting to go that he still needs to listen. For instance my horse is completly sane until he see's the barrels. When he starts to get fidgety I will make him do some basic circles, yield, and bend until he stands still.
> 
> If he is a barrel horse I have tons more info I could give though...a lot of barrel horses are uncontrollably hyper because of how they are ridden/trained.


 in the pasture we keep round bales in there all day, and i give him grain ONCE in a great while(i am trying to keep him skinny for shows). my plans are for us to go to the NBHA (and win.) he does get out of control with people that know nothing about riding, but i always keep him under control when i am riding him. ya, i also like to do circles, it calms him down A LOT. But when i trot and canter him he does not calm down he just gets hotter.


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## SaddleUp158 (Dec 26, 2008)

Just as with any breed, it depends on the horse. Morgans in general are not necessarily a hotter horse. It really depends on their breeding and training. I would say out of all the morgans we have had and showed, we have had more babysitters than hot ones. And I would say 90% of the horses we have had were all under 5 yrs old.


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## mlkarel2010 (Jan 27, 2008)

SaddleUp158 said:


> Just as with any breed, it depends on the horse. Morgans in general are not necessarily a hotter horse. It really depends on their breeding and training. I would say out of all the morgans we have had and showed, we have had more babysitters than hot ones. And I would say 90% of the horses we have had were all under 5 yrs old.


it depends on what line of morgan... around here they all can be traced to a certain horse, and all of it's offspring are extremely hot-headed... sorry i don't know what horse that is. and don't get me wrong i've met some nice morgans and i know a lot of morgan breeders.

another thing to get rid of energy is to teach them to pull something. start teaching him at the end of the ride (when he has less energy to spook) eventually the horse enjoys pulling it and enjoys using his energy productively. That's what i've realized anyway, but it takes time


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## Spastic_Dove (Oct 4, 2007)

IMO I don't really care what the breed of the horse is. I just care that the horse pays attention. I've ridden hot TBs and TBs that would be a 1. Substitute "TB" with Arab, quarter horse, or Standardbred. They can all learn to listen. 

The feed sounds fine, though I really wouldn't worry about keeping him "skinny" barrel horses need to be well conditioned and fit if you want to win. 

First off, don't run barrels. Don't do it. Not until he is listening to you. I've ridden local stuff, but I have also done some NBHA and I can tell you that is one of the biggest problems I see. All barrel horses do is run run run so they get sour VERY quickly. I like to have a barrel pattern set up even when I am working sometimes so that my horse learns that jsut because he sees those barrels doesn't mean he gets to run around like a lunatic. 

I take dressage lessons on my barrel horse. I have gotten a lot of trash talk about that from some of the people at circuits around here for some reason, but believe me it works. 

Lunging works, but I don't really like to do it too much. I don't like to use it to tire them about because that isn't teaching them anything and you won't be able to run a good barrel pattern if you have to tire him out before your run. 

I can't stress enough how important it is to do things OTHER than barrels with a barrel horse. I trained with an endurance rider, and we ended up competing in a short LDR. My horse was so much more responsive by the end of this. He carried himself better, but he also listened better from being ridden so often. 

What is your training scedule right now? 

And for the heck of it, do you have any current pictures? The skinny comment kind of worries me...

Or, feel free to PM me if you like =)


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## Spastic_Dove (Oct 4, 2007)

Sorry for the typos. o.<


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## morganshow11 (Dec 19, 2008)

well,he is not fat or skinny, he is just perfect.
i dont really have a training scedule. he is new so i do not have any pics i will try to get some tommorrow.


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## Spastic_Dove (Oct 4, 2007)

Yeah, I would definitly start a conditioning scedule before you start training him on barrels or anything. Long trotting, transistions, etc. Start off slow and work your way up


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## my2geldings (Feb 18, 2008)

I demand pictures before I post any advice


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## FGRanch (Feb 9, 2008)

I'm sorry but I just have to say that Morgans are NOT normally hot horses. I've been around Morgan horses my whole life and they are one of the calmest breeds I've ever seen.


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## morganshow11 (Dec 19, 2008)

my morgan's not calm at all!!!!!!! he was trained to be a hunter jumper, and a barrel horse. and like most barrel horses he is hyper!


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## FGRanch (Feb 9, 2008)

Yes I understand, but that was trained into him more than likily, as they are not hot horses. I once had a hot morgan as well, but I had trained him to be that way.


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## Spastic_Dove (Oct 4, 2007)

I have a barrel horse. He is calm, reliable, and I have done pony rides on him. He is a 1D barrel horse but does not ACT like a barrel horse. Most of those hot barrel horses are only a result of poor training and riding. 

Sorry, I hate it when barrel horses get away with being dense. It's not cute and doesn't make them faster.


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## Angel_Leaguer (Jun 13, 2008)

Spastic_Dove said:


> I have a barrel horse. He is calm, reliable, and I have done pony rides on him. He is a 1D barrel horse but does not ACT like a barrel horse. Most of those hot barrel horses are only a result of poor training and riding.
> 
> Sorry, I hate it when barrel horses get away with being dense. It's not cute and doesn't make them faster.


I agree with the training that can make them hot.

In our association you can not run the gate, meaning all forward motion must be stopped before taking off to do the pattern (like doing a circle, slightly turning, or holding the horse up). This is done to ensure safety of people handling the gates and others around them. My cousins horses are some of the most displined horses out there. They can walk through the gate, circle a couple times, and then take off like rocket... when they are done the horse will circle and then walk back out of the arena. She has done very well with these horses in MN AQHA (top in MN 2008) and has shown at world. They can also do pleasure events. The horses dont win the class but they are in control and sometimes slower then the trained "pleasure" horse. All of her horses start in pleasure and wont full out run till they are atleast 5-6...

so yes training has TONS to do with how well the horse will behave for running barrels. If the horse is being hot I would maybe start over with some of the basics and stay away from barrels all together.


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## wild_spot (Jan 30, 2008)

God yes, Spastic Dove, i'm the same. I ride Mounted Games and also some barrells, and I only train the actual event maybe once a month. The rest of the work I do is simply trails/cattle work/conditioning work. You can work on all the sections of a barrell pattern while doing other things, to keep those muscles working and in good condition, without turning your horse sour or making him hot. I will often do turns around trees on the trail, etc. Things like dressage, lateral work etc. are of great benefit to a barrel horse, they carry themselves better and are better able to collect for the turn. 

I also agree with Spastic on the skinny count. If you want him in good condition for shows, its more important to feed him correctly for the amount of trainingm, and get him fit. A fit and well conditioned horse will nto be fat, but will also not be skinny, and will look much better at shows!


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## eralcx3 (Jan 5, 2009)

I have a morgan/QH cross and she is really hot tempered also. What I do with her to calm her down is do LOTS and LOTS of circles. One thing that also REALLY helped me is the Stubben EZ-Control bit. It's like a snaffle but it has a joint in the middle so if the horse wants to pull on the bit or something it locks up and becomes a straight bar and stops them from pulling. It doesn't hurt or pinch the horse or anything, just correct. It worked miracles for me and a lot of people where i live now use it. But circles help a lot and doing half halts on the inside rein. Just work on keeping the horse slow, if that is what you want. Sitting trot helps a lot because when you post that makes them want to go faster.


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## NicoleS11 (Nov 21, 2008)

I have seen hot morgans..and easy going morgans...it all depends on there training. I recomend not working on any paterns till you have him figured out and just go have fun with him and show him that his life isnt in the arena. To many barrel horses are ONLY used in teh arena...thats when you get a hot horse. Your gonna have to spend extra time with him becusae of his breed. Not dissing morgans at all! i love them! but it is true that some of them are hot


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## mlkarel2010 (Jan 27, 2008)

NicoleS11 said:


> Not dissing morgans at all! i love them! but it is true that some of them are hot



that's how i feel. it really comes down to the individual and all the factors affecting it. training and diet are some of the most dominant factors


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## morganshow11 (Dec 19, 2008)

does anyone have any other training bits that might help?????


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## Curly_Horse_CMT (Jun 8, 2008)

morganshow11 said:


> my morgan's not calm at all!!!!!!! he was trained to be a hunter jumper, and a barrel horse. and like most barrel horses he is hyper!


 
Not all barrel horses are hyper. It depends on how they are trained, and how they channel their energy, what they are fed, how their rider handles them, ect. A good barrel horse (any speed horse, IMO) should be willing to walk in and out of the gait easily, no problem even after running a fifteen second barrel run. I have just run in 4-H speed shows, nothing special but still....

Its the same thing with the Saddlebreds and the Tennessee Walkers, or any other breed. Some lines tend to be easier to handle, tend to be less hyper then others. Some require a different hand then others. It just depends on the singular horse.


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## Dumas'_Grrrl (Apr 2, 2008)

My aunt had the coolest barrel horse that she actually did very well with. It was a QH and he had a jekyl/hyde personality. When the gate closed behind him he became a barrel eating machine... He would just fly...

Anywhere else you would swear he was an old trail horse. Hot doesn't equal winning imo. You have to still be able to have some control. 

I think the tip that have been given are great ones. I don't have anything to add to them.


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## Kura (Nov 16, 2008)

morganshow11 said:


> does anyone have any other training bits that might help?????


I really would not go the path of the bit first off. That should be a last resort, in my opinion. It's training that'll really help your horse, not a million different training bits. Some of those can be really harsh, and though the one previously mentioned didn't sound bad, I still think you should work with your horse to get him calmed down. A lot of people on here have good suggestions for that, so I think you should listen to them. I don't have enough experience to give you the advice you need, but I know enough to realize bits are not the answer to every problem.


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