How do I stop my horse from rushing on the way home?

A horse that rushes, jigs, or becomes increasingly difficult to rate as soon as it turns toward home has learned that heading home means rest, feed, and the herd — and the anticipation of that reward escalates as the barn gets closer. The most direct fix is to make the return trip no different in terms of pace and rider expectation from the outbound leg. When the horse begins to quicken on the way home, do not simply pull back — that becomes a pulling match the horse can sustain indefinitely. Instead, turn the horse around and ride away from home a short distance at the pace you want, then turn back. If the horse immediately quickens again, turn around again. Repeat until the horse maintains the requested pace home. This is time-consuming the first several sessions but breaks the horse's certainty that home is always getting closer. Vary the route home: sometimes loop back, sometimes approach from a different direction, so the horse cannot anticipate exactly when it is heading home and begin building toward the rush. Ride past the barn entrance and continue on before returning — this prevents the gate from becoming the trigger for escalation. The horse that learns the pace home is always the rider's choice loses the motivation to rush because the strategy stops working.