Herd-bound horse?

Question

Hi, I just recently bought a BLM mustang (already trained) gelding. I've trained him to the point where he listens to all my cues and respects my space. He's very gentle and calm too. But when I ride him or work with him in the round pen, i don't have any of his focus. He's constantly looking at the barn where the other horses are and he occassionally tries to run back. He acts extremely 'stallion-ish' and is extremely extremely dominant with the other horses, but hes fine with people. My question is how do i get his focus in the arena and keep it? No matter what I do, his attention is towards the barn. We're going to have a blood test to see if he was maybe proud cut, but are there any other suggestions about this problem? Is this a prominent problem in BLM mustang geldings? or is it just him?

oh and dont get me wrong he listens to all his cues when i ride him. He'll jog and lope and halt on command but no matter what i do whether im doing serpentines or rollbacks or transitions or anything..his attention is ALWAYS on the barn. He's much greener than what the previous owner said he was, so I'm thinking he just needs tons of miles on him. It's just so hard trying to get to the barn which is 30 mins away and with tons of AP school work each night. but i've made arrangements to where i can maybe get out 4-5 times a week now. Do you think this will help his herd-boundness? oh you should also probably know that he's kept with tons of horses including mares and geldings during the day in the pasture i think about 10 horses i believe. We're going to try to seperate him for a little while and i know it could either make him better or more aggressive but he has a horse next to him in his stall at night..so idk tell me what you think i should do

Answer 1

I have found that most horses are social animals. If they are usually around other horses, they get used to them. Try seperating him from the other ones for a few days, and see if that doesn't get his attention.