Arena Misbehavior

I've been having an interesting time lately at shows. In the warm-up ring my horse behaves well, schools well and listens to me. The minute I head up center line toward C, he tries to take over, gets tense and pulls alot of shannigans, acting as if he's spooked by stuff which I know doesn't bother him, etc. Our scores are suffering for it and he's a lovely horse. I can't discipline in the middle of a test without risking comment. Any ideas from the group about how to school this out of him without ruining his show record?

Have you tried to take him to other barns in a non show situation and done your test in their ring where you can discipline him? That way he won't assume that when you go down center line there's nothing you can do. Its hard to replicate a show environment but taking him out of his safe space at your barn might help.

Sure have. We go to the show grounds the day before the show and school in the actual rings we'll be showing in! He's perfectly well-behaved! He's even an angel in the warm-up ring day of show five minutes before we enter the ring. I'm thinking I'll have to ride my tests HC until he learns how to read and figures out how to sneak up to the ride order board and see if there's an HC by his name. LOL