What napping towards home actually looks like
Owners use "napping" for a whole family of home-focused protests: the horse who plants his feet at the yard gate and will not walk out, the one who dawdles and drifts towards hedges on the way out, and — the version in this question — the horse who comes alive in entirely the wrong way the moment the ride turns for home. He jogs instead of walking, takes a stronger hold of the bit, throws his head up to look for the yard and rushes the last stretch, sometimes calling to horses he cannot even see yet. The contrast between the two halves of the ride is the tell: his legs were never tired; his motivation was pointing home all along.
Why home pulls so hard
Horses are herd animals, and home is where the herd, the shelter and the feed are — the three things a horse's instincts rank highest. Leaving means exposure: open ground, strange sights, no companions to share the lookout duty. A horse who has also learned that rides always end at the gate, and that hurrying shortens the uncertain part, has two reasons to rush — instinct pulling him and experience pushing him. Rider tension feeds it too, because hands that tighten in anticipation of the jog give him something to lean against and a suggestion that there really is something ahead worth worrying about.
Schooling that changes the pattern
Break the ride's predictability first. Turn for home and then turn away again; ride straight past the gate and round the block; arrive home and immediately do two minutes of quiet schooling in the yard, or tie him up to stand before he is untacked, so that homecoming stops meaning instant release. Even the route itself can be varied — a loop ridden the other way round, or a hack that ends with ten minutes of grazing in hand away from the yard, stops home being the only ending he knows. On the homeward leg, give him a job: leg-yield a few steps, ride a small circle at a junction, ask for transitions down to walk and up into a few strides of trot and back, so his attention stays on you rather than on the stable roof on the horizon. Insist on a genuine walk on a long rein for the final stretch and praise it generously when it comes — a calm arrival is the behaviour you are buying, so pay for it when he offers it.
When it is more than a schooling problem
A horse whose napping appears suddenly, or who adds ear-pinning, tail-lashing, bucking or rearing to the protest, deserves a physical check before more schooling, because pain from the saddle, back or teeth often shows first as reluctance to leave and urgency to get back. Rearing in particular is dangerous, and it is a reason to stop and involve an experienced professional rather than escalate the argument yourself. Your vet can rule out pain, and a saddle-fitting check removes the commonest hidden cause. Whichever exercises you settle on, consistency between riders is what makes them stick — a shared schooling plan in KinsLe through Care Teams keeps everyone who rides him asking the same way on the way home.