How do I break these bad habits?!?

Question

Ok I have this Saddlebred mare. She came as a neglect case. She is very "hot" as they call it. Here recently it has been horrible weather so I haven't let her out of her stall but to feed. I walk her down the back road. (live in the city) to exercise her and stretch her legs. I get her about 30 yards from the barn and she won't walk any further. I have swung the lead behind me smacking her on the butt and that doesn't help, pet her and told her it was ok, told her to walk on, tried making her go first, and finally got her to move when we had a battle of tug of war where i wrapped the lead around my body and pulled as she did want waited for her to give. She finally gave and walked with me applying a substantial amount of pressure pulling her. With occasional stops i would repeat the tug of war to get her to move. I don't know why she does this. Its not like I work her a lot ( She still needs to gain about 50 lbs) She does not like to go away from the barn at all! I train horses with issues like this but this one is stumping me horribly! Ive done everything I can think of to get her to walk that worked on my other trainees and nothing works!! Please help!

Update:

@Casey- She won't walk one way but when we walk back she is all game no breaks pulling and nothing. Most of the time she does a pacy trot back wanting to get back to the barn.

? · Accepted Answer

She seems barn sour, i would reccomend working her on lunge rope to let her know she works there to relizing its not a rest place it can also be a workout there. As you say shes stubborn so she thinks when she gets to barn its rest time so thats what she want

Katatonyk · Answer

Clearly your horse feels safe in the barn, while dragging her down the road, you are taking her away from the barn's safety.

Just walk with her as far as she will go, then stop, if there is grass around, let her graze if she wants, just stand there, letting her take in her surroundings. Ask her to walk one step forward, if she does, praise her and return to the barn.

You also could try walking her with another horse- she may be willing to follow the other horse down the road.

Joan H · Answer

It sounds like she is just barn sour. Is there any wide place or cross road on the back road where you can lead her back and forth on the road instead of either away from or toward the barn? If there is such a place, lead her back and forth at that place until she stops trying to head back to the barn. Each time you turn her to go back the other way, turn in the opposite direction of the barn. Keep doing that and don't let her head back to the barn until she quits trying to go back. I use this method to teach my horses to go the way I want instead of the way they want, but I have lots of room to do that. They have to learn that I will only let them go back to the barn when they quit trying to do their thing.

? · Answer

I would begin with join up. It seems she just isn&#x27;t trusting you to come out of her comfort zone, and join up could really improve that. Also, in this case, make sure to give her tons of praise when she does take a step. Give her praise when she even  thinks about it. Then, when you&#x27;ve got her curious, take her elsewhere.... much like having a 
big red button that says do not push, youre going to want to push it! Lol

Casey · Answer

Is there something over there that could be scary? I&#x27;ve had that happen with me on some school horses and it turned out to be like a bag and they were fine after it was moved

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How do I break these bad habits?!?

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