Breaking an egg to stop a rearing horse from rearing

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251libby

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We've all heard of it....... but has anyone actually seen it!!
Someone came up to my friend and asked her if she could give her any advice on her horse rearing - well she launched into the massive speil about breaking an egg on the horses head as it rears, about not washing it off so the horse can really feel it and thinks its bleeding blah blah blah and the girl looked really impressed and went off.
When I asked my friend about it she'd never even tried it or seen anyone try it lol
Who has a chance to hang on to an egg on a rearing horse!!!
I'm starting to think its an urban myth!!
 
I have known someone who has done it - didnt actually see her do it, but she told us all about it at great length. It was very very sad, she was a student at our local equine college and had her own horse, plus two other youngsters who she was meant to be bringing on for their owner. One by one all three horses started rearing... but she wouldnt accept in any way that this might be connected with her riding
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Eventually the two youngsters were sent back to their owner as "dangerous" and she was threatening to have her own very sweet mare PTS as it was also "dangerous"
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Perhaps if she had ever learned to ride with a decent contact instead of constantly sawing at the horses mouth and restricting at every opportunity etc then the horses might have gone better for her
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I went right off her when I was told about her constantly kicking her horse in the belly/ribs (whilst she was on the ground) because the mare dared to move whilst it was being tacked up
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If I had seen her do it I would have done more than kick her
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Never seen it but have heard of it many times. I think if you have a persistant rearer, and know what buttons to press to get that reaction then it would be easier to guage the whole egg smashing timing etc.

I'm not sure if it works, but if you are balanced and competant enough to try it then I would give it a go, for the price of an egg to eliminate a bad/dangerous habit I would try it if everything else had failed to that point.
 
never heard of anyone actually doing it only the general urban myth that it works. Fleur was(is) a rearer but spinning was the best method to prevent her going up. Once I could control her from going up worked on the problem which in her case was an evasion from taking a contact of any description!
 
Almost!!!!! Hubbs re broke a rearer after a horrendous accident almost cost her her life! (not pO for those of you who know us... it was Polly dog)He had the egg in his hand and she would spin and try and get you off then rear like there was no tomorrow even go over on herself... It was dark as night time and there was a ground handler and sure enough mare went ballistic (we had 8 months of physio, vets etc and she was physically fit to ride) up she went and hubbs took reins in one hand (helps he was a pro stunt rider) and after a about 5 mins she stopped. Hubbs stroked her gently and walked her around for 2 mins then got off! All the time the egg was intact in his hand!!!! Typical as he 'forgot' to use it, only realising when he got off there was something in his hand!!!!!
Still I am glad as we were never easy with idea but the owner swore by it!
 
The entire concept of this confuses me. I've heard people say it works but never witnessesed it and have always wondered on what basis people think it would work.

A horses natural habitat is open plain, they only get near tree for shelter and food and would not live under trees. Therefore it's safe to say in nature they would never encounter being banged on the head for rearing.

A horse that throws it's head in the trailer will not stop doing so when it bangs it's head though it might refuse to go back in the trailer if it injuries itslf! So surely if a horse believe it has injured itself it will jsut start refusing to be ridden, go forward, jump, stop etc it won't realise the rearing is to blame only that it may get injured when someone is on it's back.

Richard Maxwell has a technique of tieing a knot in a thich rope and hitting them on the belly when they rear, they then suspect a large preditor is after them (far more natural IMO) and although they get a fright it makes them consider if taking their eye sight above the vertical is really a good idea.

Rearing is the most repulsive vice in any horse, it's ok to have a little leap off the front feet but when it turns into an actual rear I think you need to really step back and consider if you can control the horse and how safe it is to be around.
 
I've done it before...

was on my old 14hh palamino, who got into the nasty habit of doing mini rears when asked to work (was rescure pony so had a little bit of attitude). They seemed rather big at the time (i was 11/12) so YO suggested the egg trick
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so riding in a circle whilst holding egg (upwards as then its harder to break whilst holding) and then when he started to rear i smashed the egg over his poll (one tip - use a rubbish bridle!!) and that sure surprised him!!

so voila, one eggy pony & no more rearing
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Can't see the point myself. My mare was very bolshy as a youngster and rearing was her big vice. All I did was turn her in a circle every time she tried to go up and that worked a treat - she stopped rearing because it got her nowhere. Far safer than trying to smash an egg on the horse's head!
 
I have seen it once and it had the opposite affect to that required, the horse completely panicked and went over backwards..... not really what the rider was wanting to happen!
The richard Maxwell trick seems to be a good one, but I think you need to be relatively balanced and coordinated to do it properly and safely - and before anyone starts thinking about how to stop something .. it would make more sense to start thinking about why the horse was doing it in the first place - sort out the root cause first rather than simply the sympton.
 
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