Hi Steph. Kirk is now 31 months old & very much the happy, curious colt. I've used a Dually head collar & have a great relationship with him, his sister & his Dad, not gelded until he was 6. If you haven't already I would study the Uni, use a Dually & keep your cool. Stop single line lunging & use two lines - Monty explains why in the Uni lesson. Get a copy of From My Hands To Yours. You don't need to be confrontational. You need to be consistent, calm & progress at Arthur's pace, not too quickly or too slowly. Bored youngsters get naughty - just like kids do. Kirk embraces everything new with confidence. Sure, he makes mistakes & gets things wrong but he knows I'll show him, fairly, what is expected. The onus is on the trainer to work out how to cause the horse to want to. Keep posting & we'll try & help you & Arthur. Cheers, Jo.

Hi Steph - may I respectfully suggest you take a step back and look at this a bit more objectively. Your post is littered with comments that attribute human type behaviours and thought pattern that horses just do not fit into to. "Picks his fights...he know he has to behave to quit lunging..." etc etc.
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Look at life from your horses point of view and try to see it through his eyes, it will be invaluable I promise.
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Re: your friends expereince...experience doesn't mean correct methods. How does your friend get the respect that you crave, can you explain in more detail what she does. For example, how does she stop him nibbling, how does she get him to back up etc.
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You are right to "not want to be walked over" but I sense there is something bigger and deeper going on here and some more detail may help us to understand and support. Please don't take offence at my comments, I truly want to support not criticise. Best wishes, Vicci

Hi Steph, agree very much with Jo and Vicci above. I'll just add my 2pennies worth from what I read.
First can I ask how far have you got with watching the lessons and are you aware there is a question section after watching for you to gain rosettes and certificates?
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Do you have a dually head collar for him?
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You put.... Admitably he is always better after I have lunged him...... There is a reason for this. When single line lunging a horse you tend to mimic the process of join up. If you've not yet fully understood join up, then you will be missing signs of communication from your horse. the better behavior at the end of lunging will be some form or join up that you have unwittingly performed.
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You put.... His lack of respect for me is evident in him trying to move me, either by nibbling me when I lead him, refusing to turn to the right because that means I move his feet and escalating to reading when I try to back him up and he is in a bad mood. ....
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The whole process you've described here you are communicating to the horse that you are challenging him, so I'm seeing some force to move him to the right, force to make him move backwards etc .
I'd like to know what you do in response to his attempts to move you. Do you step back? When he nibbles you to move you, what do you do in return>
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If you have a look at what I've recorded of a challenge between 2 of my horses, you'll see the behavior your horse is doing. The nibbling, pushing, forcing and then when you demand he backs up as telling off he rears. https://youtu.be/LJcII_VLIUw?t=5m41s What you have to become like is my Shetland, he says no behave, the cob doesn't listen and the Shetland becomes louder until the cob listens.
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The right use of the dually head collar helps us to mimic that type of pressure required to tell our horses off in a manner they understand, so if you do not have one yet, then 'we' all recommend that you get hold of one. You can get 10% discount if you order with the coupon code to the right of this post.
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I don't know if you've watched other horses, but the respect they give each other is mutual. For your horse to start to respect you, you must first respect him which can be done in many ways. This is just my way there is no hard fast rule, but this works for me and horses I work with.
First - don't step into his space without his say so. His space is anywhere his head can go when he is standing still. This includes the whole area outside his stable door. When you approach him, stop well outside his space and offer your hand to say hello. When he reaches forwards to touch your hand, you can enter his space. I might add if you feed him treats by hand you might get a nip, so please refrain from feeding treats by hand. Monty says it encourages biting and I quite agree, especially with youngstock as they start to associate the hand with food.
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You put.... my friend has oodles of more horse experience than I do...
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One thing I've picked up from listening to different ways of horse care is that more experience is not always the best advice. Many people have lots of experience in methods of handling horses, traditional well known accepted methods that continue to cause horses pain or discomfort. On your journey with your horse you'll need to look at what their experience and methods are. Do they force, demand or hit to achieve or are they firm and gentle communicating with the horse to create a partnership. What you'll learn as you go through the Uni and chat with the guys in the forum is that we can create a willing partnership with our horses using the horses language Equus, which is what we'd all like with our horses a willing partnership.
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First though you will need to address the ground handling issues.
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As Vicci asked, if you could provide a bit more details what's happening, then we can all help you achieve a willing partner. :D
Mel
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