My horse is afraid to go fast in my arena?

ok so i have a two 3 year old quarter horses, they are both awesome horses but my one horse no matter how hard i try wont go faster then a trot in my arena and when he does break out of it its like one and a half strides of loping then back to trotting but when i take him out in a feild he will canter like any other horse its like he is afriad he doesnt have enough room to go that fast. so does anyone have any tips for me for this sort of thing? thanks|||I have this same problem. If your arena is small like mine, it may be why. What I did that REALLY helped with my mare was riding her out in the pasture. Your horse needs to be confident on his transitions. Riding him along the fence line and asking him to canter with your outside leg and teaching him the vocal command will really help.|||try compromising. in the ring, don't just demand him to lope all the time. ask him to and when he does do the half stride thing, maybe hes just saying "im not comfortable doing his in a ring". ask him to go back into a trot. but you should still reward him when he does the half stride thing. because that means "good job, you did something right". because you wanted to go faster and he went faster. just try working with him on transitions and building his confidence. that should help him a bunch..|||I have always used a lunge line and whip. You said he will canter in the field but not with you so this might indicate that he is uncomfortable under saddle or with weight on his back, start lunging without a saddle or with a small pad, then move on using a saddle, and work your way up to putting a small rider on, still using the lunge line. Hope this helped, good luck!|||i barrel race and all that fun stuff. but just work with him. if he doesn'tt want to run, then keep working with him. don't give him what he wants. because then he will just keep doing that just because he wont want to run. just work with him. and once he starts to run for you. then let him know that you appreciate him running for you. (:|||your horse have lost courage in that arena where you always make him run|||he might feel like he will slip or it could be a little bit small|||u got too get him out of skitish do u have a round pin tht will help u|||What I've come up with with alot of my younger horses I've broken is that they are just afraid to lope because it's out of their comfort zone. Have they been ponyed at all? Sometimes just getting another horse in the ring (who doesn't kick) and following them breaks them out of their bad habits. Have a horse they get along with ride in front and start trotting and follow for a while, then lope and follow. If your colt doesn't lope, use the end of your reins or mecate or crop to give them a reminder they need to continue moving forward. Use your body to move them forward, squeeze with your legs, and kiss to them - using all your aids dramatically will help them understand what they need to do when asked to lope, and the "pony" horse will help provide the motivation to learn how to move forward. Once they learn how to move forward, it's much easier when alone in the ring to do.