Im kind of stuck in a predicament....I got a horse from slaughter and hes awesome his name is Jericho. But.....hes been trained western for 10 years and I havent ridden English in 10 years and I cant train him English but thats what I want to do... Ive been riding him bitless for 6 months and he isnt listening to it(he only surpasses left and right and tries running into trees) He just recently started the tree thing so I'm not sure what its about. Hes also buddy sour with an annoying Arabian mare that tries eating my saddle-_-

I would have a trainer come out. Maybe not ride your horse, but observe you and him and help guide you two in the right direction. It's hard to teach yourself in a discipline, let alone trying to do so with a horse that isn't trained in it as well. The last thing you want to do is teach him the wrong thing and then have to fix that later.

I say start from the ground up, work on lunging him, do halter work with him, anything so he learns that you are the boss. It always must be established to the horse that you are in charge, not in a mean way, but in a way that it is safe for both of you. All horses must learn manners before they can be ridden, otherwise they will be sour under saddle. Once you have those tools under your belt, you could start riding and see how it goes :)

Misty Mountain Ridge said:
I say start from the ground up, work on lunging him, do halter work with him, anything so he learns that you are the boss. It always must be established to the horse that you are in charge, not in a mean way, but in a way that it is safe for both of you. All horses must learn manners before they can be ridden, otherwise they will be sour under saddle. Once you have those tools under your belt, you could start riding and see how it goes :)

He lunges really well already. (Reversing when I tell him to, keeping the speed I want him to, facing me when he changes directions, and stopping when I tell him to.) Overall on the ground he is great.

Misty Mountain Ridge said:
I say start from the ground up, work on lunging him, do halter work with him, anything so he learns that you are the boss. It always must be established to the horse that you are in charge, not in a mean way, but in a way that it is safe for both of you. All horses must learn manners before they can be ridden, otherwise they will be sour under saddle. Once you have those tools under your belt, you could start riding and see how it goes :)

The thing here tho, is he already knows how to ride. A lot of the moves put on with a western saddle can be done the same in English. You can try and self teach yourself English but I highly recommend someone to come out to help you understand the difference between proper and improper. :)

Most cattle horses ride more off your seat and leg. I`m not sure how you ride but I can almost guarantee that you two are just miscommunicating.

Take it slow and try to get a trainer out there. Make sure to understand your horse and try to figure out how he thinks and what he responds to.

If he isn't responding bitless, try a bit. You may be against bits, I don't know you or how you ride, but he may have never been ridden bitless and needs to be reintroduced slowly. I can't be entirely sure, but it's just an option.

Fairwind Fields said:
Most cattle horses ride more off your seat and leg. I`m not sure how you ride but I can almost guarantee that you two are just miscommunicating.

Get a trainer to come out and help, have them ride the horse to see what you have to work with and decide where to go from there.

This ^ A lot of western riding is neck reigning, seat and leg.

If he isnt responding to bitless, try a lighter bit like a loose ring snaffle. And yeah, try to get a trainer out to observe how you ride him, and maybe they can see the issues from a different viewpoint