Following on from flintus post below...

Compete yay or nay?

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    0
V

vivhewe

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Possibly I'm slightly off topic, however I will bash on and dig myself a nice big hole.

When my old mare came to us she had a history of bolting as soon as she was turned for home or was on flat ground. She would take off flat out and nothing would stop her, often going home at breakneck speed on roads. She arrived at ours in a kimblewick, flash, and running martingale and was still unstoppable, and had been for years. She wasn't a breeding mare and so what would you have done?
 
Oh and those of you who choose the second option, can I ask how you'd stop her from taking off?
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i think every horse deserves another chance. its quite possible she may've been influenced by something/someone at her old home so i think it's worth another try. if, however, the bolting lark continued and there was no medical reason/rider/surroundings causing it, depending on her tempremant i'd turn her out as a companion if she was calm and sane on the ground or i'd have her put down if she was dangerous.
x
 
I voted undecided, as there would be a few factors to take into consideration, but I would have gotten the vet out to check her as a 'just in case'. I think the thing that concerned most of the posters on Flint's post was that the horse's behaviour was so sudden and so violent. He didn't even pin his ears back...
 
did she do it in the school or just out hacking?

was she checked out by vet etc?

my old BSJA mare used to tank off out hacking, every time you went faster than trot.

took 3 years before we could canter in the open without her doing this
 
You don't throw a whole life away just because it's banged up a little.

(Thanks Seabiscuit lol)

I'm not here for an argument/debate... but it sickens me that just because a horse can't be used to ride or for our own personal gain, it is thrown on the scrap heap.

Almost all of mine were those "problem ponies" and the ones people had given up on... and all of them now are happy, healthy, although now aged animals living out their days with a guaranteed home for life.
 
Well, since you say - when our old horse came, I'm guessing she is still with you, so you did find an antidote. I wouldn't condemn any horse out of hand as I haven't the experience or the bottle/required degree of insanity to really sort out ridden vices!

My only answer to the running off would be get into some very mountainous terrain (very practical!) and let it learn for itself that running off can be knackering. Or box up and ride out where home is not a known direction? Or hack out with it tied securely to an elephant?


I really can't wait for you to tell us what actually happened.
 
Undecided - It would depend if she would be suitable for a companion, if not and she was checked over and there was nothing physically wrong with her then I would consider having them put to sleep if there was no alternative. If she was able to be used as a companion (as you didn't state the breed) and/or only did it on hacks but was fine with school work then I don't think I would have her put down.
 
If she was a proper bolter then I would have it shot.
If it simply took a bit of a grip then I would stop it.
IMO, there are very few proper bolters and they are just as dangerous as the horse in the vid.
Most horses that people call 'bolters' really arent, they have just been made that way and can be sorted out.
 
our gelding used to bolt - he was in a dutch gag on the bottom ring, had a flash and a martingale, but would always bolt. So one day, we took everything off and put him in a thick eggbutt snaffle. He never bolted again! Was obviously just fighting all the gadgets he had on!!

Lou. x
 
Agree with V - SO many people claim to have been 'bolted' with when in fact they've just been on a horse who has p1ssed off with them! Big difference.

I would want to understand the situation better (although, Queen of 'calling out the vet' as I am, I don't think this is likely to be a veterinary issue) - but if the horse was genuinely bolting, i.e. blind panic with no self-preservation & a host of different riders, gadgets & situations had been tried, then I would suggest that it is NOT worth perservering & give up riding it.

The next question is, if the horse is unrideable, should it be retired or shot? That has to be down to personal circumstances - I don't think there's a right or wrong answer to that.
 
Before I say anymore I just wanted to say I picked to use as a companion, you obviously know alot more about this horse than any of us do and know in your gut whether you can sort it or not.
I just wanted to show everyone our advanced breaking system fitted to one of our jumping ponies! Pic not that great because had to blow it up! Its a ported mouth pelham, (yes that is 2 noseband you can see!) A Grackle to help stop her cocking her jaw (and doing a disappearing act) and a cavesson for the standing martingale which is attached to the running martingale breastplate! We picked up this pony dead cheap, we knew there would be issues to be that cheap, after we got it fit you couldn't stop it, just use to take off, this is what we came up with and is the only thing that we came up with to keep it under some resemblence of control! Must be doing something right thou because it qualified for 2 classes at scope and although not placed, jumped well at scope.
Breaks.jpg
 
PS if it wasn't peeing off it was napping but we sorted that too, just don't sit on the back round corners, we learnt that if you keep her rolling on corners with your weight out the saddle (opposite to ideal) it kept going... turns out very cheap pony is a bargain, as long as you aren't offended by the gadgets and do the opposite to any normal horse!
 
In my opinion, real bolters are the worst sort. Everything else can often be worked around, and to a degree so can bolting if managed correctly, but my opinion is, once a bolter - always a bolter. You can never totally trust them.
 
depends. I'm undecided. first thing i would do is get the vet, dentist farrier and back lady up.

Our arab was a bolter, we bought him he was in a gag with a flash and standing martigale. We got him home and the first thing he did when my sister first got on him was bolt, my broke her sister wrist when she bailed out.
We got the vet, the dentist and the back lady up, he was lame in all 4 feet, (we didnt have him vetted), had a mouth full of ulcers and a bad back.
Got his back fixed, his teeth done and some remedial farriery from our farrier, gave him 4 weeks off, then i started working him from the floor, took all the gadgets off him and put him in a french link snaffle. Once my sisters wrist was better she got on him, and weve never looked back, 6 years on and he is happily hacking out in a hanging cheek snaffle and hasnt bolted once.

So it would depend entirely on the horse and the reason for bolting.
 
[ QUOTE ]
You don't throw a whole life away just because it's banged up a little.

(Thanks Seabiscuit lol)

I'm not here for an argument/debate... but it sickens me that just because a horse can't be used to ride or for our own personal gain, it is thrown on the scrap heap.

Almost all of mine were those "problem ponies" and the ones people had given up on... and all of them now are happy, healthy, although now aged animals living out their days with a guaranteed home for life.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not everyone can afford a horse sitting in a field doing nothing, alot of people (most people i would think) are on livery and simply cannot afford to have a field ornament that costs them money and they get nothing in return for it. I'm sure alot of people would love to say turn her out and let her graze for the rest of her life, but unfortunately money gets in the way of that. It cost the same if not more to keep a bad one as to keep a good one.
Most people who are on livery would opt to sell or have a true bolter PTS if she was unrideable because of it and get themselves something that could be ridden.
 
Give her another chance, turn her away as a break and then start all over again with her as if she was just born, bond and take step by step

they all deserve to live.
 
Everyones answers are really interesting
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I haven't got her anymore, she was PTS (due to old age and arthritis last year, I'd had her for 9 years) so thanks for the suggestions but a tad too late for her now lol!
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She was a true bolter when we got her. She was owned by the lady I got my welshie from when I got him, and took off home everytime she was ridden or was on flat ground. She was then sold on and then was advertised again, and my mum got her.

After she had seen Andy Andrews (if anyone knows of him, he manipulated her to get rid of the trapped nerves in her back and neck) it took 4 years for her to settle herself down and she was still easily upset after that. On one occasion when we kept her at my mum's friends where they rode on the beach every day she got so upset that my mum had to ride her to an almost vertical sandbank, and it was only when she heaved herself over the top of it that she was slowed down to a trot and my mum could jump off and lead her home.

I only began riding her when I was 12, as she had moved to ours by then, and was in the field all the time. I was very naughty, jumping on her bareback and in a headcollar but she would just wander around the field with me on
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Because we have our own land at my grandparents I could keep her as a companion until last year
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otherwise I think if we hadn't got her she wouldve had a crap couple of years still being told off for bolting when really she was in agony then probably end up in the butchers
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I find it nice that only 4 people would've had her PTS straight off, although in her case the 14 who wouldve stopped her taking off would have failed if using brute force or gadgets
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Here is her last march, wasn't she sexy...
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