One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

How literal and figurative is that statement today. After our progress yesterday I was really looking forward to progressing with that and working on him respecting my personal space. Right before going out to working with him I talked with a friend of mine who has also trained horses and she told me that I should use a crop and when I stop to tap him (hard enough to make him move and lighter and lighter as he gets trained) on his front legs till he takes two steps back so he starts to learn proper spacing and that he can't be right up on me. Well I don't have a crop yet (on my list of things to get after all the Christmas presents for everyone, but now maybe sooner...) so I tried figuring out other ways to do it. One site said to walk in front a ways with the lead rope loose and if they get too close to give the rope "energy", so I did and honestly we walked across one pasture into the next and then he started getting closer and rushing a bit.

I worked on making myself look big and making him back out of MY space, but he just got worse. Once I turned my head to see where I was stepping and he tried charging past me. Luckily I've had that happen before with another horse so I just stayed calm and planted myself in my spot and brought him back to me, he wasn't happy lol. Needless to say the end of the day didn't go very well.

After that I brought him to the gate to tie him up for a bit so that he doesn't think that he can act up and then get what he wants, but while Allen understands this, getting people who haven't done the research to understand this is a little more difficult. When I went back to try and groom him, he started trying to nip at me again. I tried moving him backwards, pulling the hairs under his chin, and more, but while he did start to think about it, it didn't stop him. I may end up having to bite him hard on the ear like has been suggested, he's just too stubborn for his own good.

I'm thinking that I need to start again and do only small 5-10 minute lessons a couple times a day instead of longer sessions once a day to start with and then build it back up. I'm thinking this because every thing I read says end your session on a good note, but ours end up turning sour after about 15-20 minutes, or at least it did today. What do everyone else think?

http://www.naturalhorsesupply.com/leading.shtml