Anyone "cured" a true bolter

Its a much more serious problem and happens easier with driving horses! "True bolt" is a silly term really because when a horse runs away out of control of the rider or driver there isn't another term for it, and I'm not having that its "tanking off".

I know plenty of people who have been bolted with. Their horses aren't "bolters", of the possessed, un-triggered, regularly suicidal variety, but panicked horses who have been out of control terrifying their riders. If they weren't bolting WTF were they doing? Its what the word means.

There's like there's this total unwillingness to recognize this as a serious problem. :confused: Why is it accepted that the severity of rearing and bucking varies from a bit of a laugh, right up to the possessed, un-triggered, regularly suicidal episodes but not bolting? It just does not make sense to me.
 
Last edited:
I had a massively strong horse and it was a horendous combination. Cocky teenager and cocky horse. Near as I got to a bolter as he would just take off when he wanted. However, and this is the Big But. He was pretty much sorted out, to his horror, by a change of instructor, a very strong bit and a straight tell you how it is to me. The difference for me, is that this horse never ever gave you the feeling he had forgotten there was someone on his back and had a great sense of self preservation. Now I have sat on something that just flipped, with no reason at all and went. I never, ever want to repeat that again. a horse that genuinely bolts is running blind, and will hurt someone, be it themselves, the rider or some poor person who happened to be in the way. I would not even bother trying in this instance. Tanking off for me means the horse is still aware of what is going on and this problem can be sorted. Bolting is a blind panic and can not, IMO be sorted in something that makes it a habit.
 
Snowysadude said:
Just pondering really, I am not talking about a horse that is strong/takes off in fear ect. I mean one that will be behaving perfectly normally and the next minute take off and be completely unstoppable/uncontrollable to the point where you have to bail/hold on for 20 minutes until they stop.

If yes how and what did you do? Or would you just PTS or retire for good if horses have had all the vet tests/neurological tests and nothing found to be wrong wrong?
Click to expand...

My last share bolted once. I handed her back as one of us would kill the other. She'd never done it before. She tanked before I got to know her but this was totally different. We almost went through a barbed wire fence, she came down on her side with us both and galloped straight through the yard. I had her head round on my knee at one point and she didn't even turn, carried on forwards with no vision, so ended up giving reins and just holding on so at least she'd hopefully see where she was going. The only reason I held on was because if I came off on a tank she'd trot straight back to me, without staying on for this I'd have no idea where she'd go.
It was so out of character that while I was on there I simply panicked that she'd kill herself, I didn't even come into the equation. I've been worried for myself on tankers, but not in the slightest on this mare, I was just terrified that something had happened to her, she just wasn't there. I hadn't even considered it a bolt before but looking back on I would definitely class it as one.

I took her back on as several hours later her fieldmate dropped down dead. She was uncontrollable (even leading) for a week which was completely unlike her, then settled back to normal. During the week it was like she'd completely gone, horrible.

I carried on riding her after as I never worried about myself when it happened and I'm sure her fieldmate was related to it. She's never done it since. So I'd say she bolted, but she's not a bolter.

True bolter, I'd turn away for good/ do ground handling/ showing. I'd never sit on again though.
 
Luci07 said:
I had a massively strong horse and it was a horendous combination. Cocky teenager and cocky horse. Near as I got to a bolter as he would just take off when he wanted. However, and this is the Big But. He was pretty much sorted out, to his horror, by a change of instructor, a very strong bit and a straight tell you how it is to me. The difference for me, is that this horse never ever gave you the feeling he had forgotten there was someone on his back and had a great sense of self preservation. Now I have sat on something that just flipped, with no reason at all and went. I never, ever want to repeat that again. a horse that genuinely bolts is running blind, and will hurt someone, be it themselves, the rider or some poor person who happened to be in the way. I would not even bother trying in this instance. Tanking off for me means the horse is still aware of what is going on and this problem can be sorted. Bolting is a blind panic and can not, IMO be sorted in something that makes it a habit.
Click to expand...

There IS a difference between a 'true' bolter - and a run-away - and a run-away CAN be caused by blind panic. Basically, if there is a CAUSE for the panic, then the horse can probably be cured. If there isn't a cause, then it can't.

I have a TBxClyde in Oz who had put its former owner AND my then boss (an expert rider) in hospital either through bucking or bolting! He had a HUGE buck - but he only bucked when something scared him. He bolted when something terrified him - and that was CAMELS! (We had 4 camels living on the farm and some horses NEVER got used to them!) If he happened upon the camels he would GO - and there was NO point even trying to stop him until he had put a safe distance between himself and the camels (about a 1/4 of a mile!) After I sold him - prior to coming to the UK - he never put a foot out of line (because he never again met a camel!:D)

When I was 15 I had an OTT gelding with a SERIOUS runaway habit - one day he went on the road - came face to face with a lorry and veered away so sharp that I went head first through the windscreen of the lorry! He galloped home! He was cured when I took him into a BIG field (100 acres+) and waited for him to go. When he went, I didn't try to pull him up - and when he tired and WANTED to pull up, I wouldn't let him. I used whip and legs and MADE him go until he was ready to drop! Then I stopped him, and started him, and stopped him, and started him until he was TOTALLY exhausted. Cruel? Yes! I could have killed him! But then if he kept running away the way he did, he would have killed us both! He went on to be a successful show hack!

The vast majority of horses described as bolters are actually uneducated horses, usually also over-fed and under-worked, in the hands of a less than expert rider! Most CAN be 'cured' - some will never be.

My 'test' of a 'true' bolter: it's a horse that if you dropped a 6' fence in front of it would go through the fence, rather than jumping it! If he jumped it, that would mean he was thinking - and looking after himself!
 
He was cured when I took him into a BIG field (100 acres+) and waited for him to go. When he went, I didn't try to pull him up - and when he tired and WANTED to pull up, I wouldn't let him. I used whip and legs and MADE him go until he was ready to drop! Then I stopped him, and started him, and stopped him, and started him until he was TOTALLY exhausted. Cruel? Yes! I could have killed him! But then if he kept running away the way he did, he would have killed us both! He went on to be a successful show hack!

This is exactly the method that I was taught to use many, many years ago by horsemen far better than I will ever be. I have only ever had to use it once (thank God!:eek:) and it did work.

However, I have come across some horses that I would never have tried to use this on - nor would I have got on them as it happens. In at least one instance the horse proved to have a huge brain tumour at post mortem.

I think the difference between a totally demented horse that is genuinely of unsound mind, and a determined, panicky bolter is very, very different. And it takes a very experienced expert to tell the difference before risking life and limb.
 
Or they crash straight into another horse they could definitely see. Said horse dies instantly. Or you have one that plows straight into chain link fence with a bright White track rail in front of it. They crash, pick themselves up, continue on and plow through another fence.

No thanks, don't need to figure it any other way. Both horses had a history of this type of behavoir.

Terri
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top