Getting Off When Horses Misbehave

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Mithras

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I keep reading on here about how riders dismount when their horse naps/rears/misbehaves in some way and am I the only person who thinks this is a bad idea? Fair enough if you are in danger, especially from an upright rear, but if its napping or suchlike, surely dismounting and leading your horse teaches your horse that napping works? I've had too many horses to reschool that have obviously been dismounted the minute they go to nap or put in a small rear and all they seem to learn is that it works so they do it again. If you persist in the dismounting and leading school you end up with the horse controlling you, not you in charge of the horse. What horses respond to surely is constant, mental pressure - keep asking, patiently, using different tactics, and release the pressure when they go forwards. No matter how long it takes. Or think up another tactic, such as reversing past the "nappy" object. Anyone else?
 
I would never ever get off a horse that is messing around (unless it is an enforced, unscheduled dismount
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Asking for trouble IMO.

That is not to say that I haven't been tempted! But I am too bloodyminded to let them get the better of me.

ETA - also I feel far more in control of the 750kg beasts when I am sitting on top, rather than standing next to them...
 
Define misbehave. I will push a horse on if it needs it. If it's afraid of something however I might get off and work through the problem on the ground, then get back on. I'd then return and do it again in the saddle, if the opportunity was there, but not get hung up on it. It's worked fine for me for many years, and I've never had to send any of my horses to an expert for "reschooling" as a result.
 
I agree, when my horse reared and napped i just sat tight, no way was i getting off. I was scared and worried he'd go over backwards but i think i was more stubborn than him! and sat it out. I just sent him back, that told him
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ETA i think every horse is different though and with mine he was just scared and insecure at times so he would see something (usually a log or a shadow!) and freeze, if i tried to force him on he would start rearing and spinning round, i soon learnt that not all horses respond well to firm commands in that situation. With him if i just pointed him the direction i expected him to go and just sat quiet for a few mins he would calm down and walk forward again. If i had kept on and on with the firmness he would have been 100 times worse. So different horses require different handling.
 
I totally agree. When i got my first loan horse i used to get off if he napped and things on a hack because i just wasnt confident with him and i dont really like hacking anyway. But now i just realise that it caused so many more problems for us. I too have been given rides on horses that nap or buck and have been allowed to get away with it by the owner getting off and i have found that more often than not if you show them your not bothered by it and push forward they give up pretty quickly.

Even today i was riding a mare who naps (worst napping ive ever had to deal with) and with advice from people on here as i was at a loss of what to do after about 10 mins she was going beautifully you would have never have guessed she was the mad bucking spinning horse from 10 minutes earlier. Perfect example that sticking with it works.

Now i would only get off if i thought i was in serious danger like you say if he was rearing right up and threatening to go over.
 
OK, minor napping - ie any napping not involving rearing threatning to come over or serious broncing and with no traffic, kids, etc around to be endangered. I''ve seen a few horses allegedly schooled by experts who spent a lot of time on groundwork and you seem to have to pussyfoot around the horse and not do anything to upset it, because as soon as it is upset, it reverst to the misbehaving and you have to get off to do "more groundwork". Not to say groundwork doesn't work, its just that sometimes people are not as good at doing it as they say they are.

Horses are big creatures. You generally have more control from the saddle than the ground, especially when you are out on a hack.
 
I think it depends very much on the horse and why they are behaving in a particular way. I took on a challenge with a horse who was so nappy her owners had got fed with her and put it down to bad temper and dominance issues. If fact it was a lack of confidence and in her case getting off when she napped, leading her confidently forward for a few strides really worked. It had the opposite effect to that which you describe, she napped less, grew in confidence and turned into a llittle mare you could hack anywhere past anything. However if it is purely a stubborness thing, then I agree sitting it out and not giving in is a better option.

I don't think its as simple as you never should get off, as is usually the case with horses it takes a lot of thought and understanding to work through the problems.
 
I have got off twice - once when we were confrunted by a couple of RAF boys - whom were practicing low flying - and I am sure i could see his eyes !

and the 2nd time was when we had taken the wrong way on a fun ride and had 1 in 10 muddy hill to negotiate. I almost got off once to get past a rather angry bull but when i realised that the fencing was not too good - we headed back the way we had come rather quickly and on another occasion the horses were napping quite badly - which was very unusual - and we were suddenly in the middle of a thunder storm - I have never seen anything arrive so quickly - we were on the moors at the time - we headed back home at full tilt that day.
 
I would usually rather be on a misbehaving horse than off it but will get off and lead a napping horse if required. I am not going to spend half an hour fart arsing about on a horse when I can get off and lead it. I've had to do this with 2 of mine to get them past a nearby farm that is, for some reason, extremely spooky to get past. They used to start backing off from a mile away so I would get off and lead past. Both horses were happier with me leading the way and will now ride past with confidence.
I think it depends on the reason's behind the behaviour and the consequences of it.
 
I don't get off if they misbehave as often it teachs them that messing about results in the rider getting off.

HOWEVER I do occionally get off if the Drama Queen is terrified of something out hacking. Not much bothers him but occasionally we come across something that he's so frightened off that he's only just managing not to spin and gallop off in a blind panic.

Forcing him to walk past it undersaddle won't work and just stresses him more, so I get off, lead him past a couple of times (as long as it's safe to do so) then get back on and ride past it. Works every time and he's becoming more and more confident. Haven't need to lead him for ages.
 
It depends on the horse, what it's doing and why it's doing it for me. General hooning or evading during a schooling session then no, unless it's an unscheduled dismount I won't get off. Hacking off road I won't get off but hacking on the roads I pick my battles.

Too dangerous to have a full blown fight when there are cars etc about and I don't bounce too well on concrete. I've only ever had to get off a horse out hacking once though. I was riding a younger soon-to-be event mare out and she did NOT want to go past a parked tanker (and I mean spinning, trying to bolt, mini rears) so I got off and lead her past. it gave her a bit more confidence and got back on and completed the ride....the next time we saw it she (eventually) walked past it reasonably well....all be it all the way up the bank against the fence on the other side of the road. If I'd had that fight I doubt she'd have gone past the second time without just as big of a fight, if not bigger.
 
I would never get off a horse that was playing up unless it was completely necessary. For one thing I am safer and more in control when on board than if I am leading. I also think its a bad thing for a horse to get the idea you will just get off if they are naughty, as I think it affirms a negative behavioural pattern.

I have got off once or twice though. Two times on occasions out hacking when something has seriously spooked the horse, to the extent that to persevere by trying to 'win' the battle would put both of us in danger of a serious accident.
 
Depends on the circumstances but I try and sit tight. Got off my horse once when he used to nap badly the first year I had him to see if I could lead him past what was frightening him (local football match, lots of cheering and shouting) and could not get back on again as he was spinning so much and then he just turned and headed for home at a very fast trot with me doing all I could to hang onto him and his reins as going through a village with busy roads - swore I'd rather battle on him rather than off him after that. For me it feels like I have more control and hopefully can dictate the outcome if I stay onboard.
 
Ooooh, interesting that this has come up!

I am a firm believer that if you get off a horse when it is misbehaving, then a) you are putting yourself in a position of minimal control if the scenario is a dangerous one, and b) you are essentially telling your horse that it is ok to nap/refuse to budge/rear etc. I will admit I used to get off my old pony whenever she napped or planted, simply because I knew she would rear and I was scared of her...and because she knew this, the frequency of her planting herself suddenly increased. Vicious circle! When I first got Ellie, we were both very young and I wasnt the most confident of riders, and I had to make a real effort not to give in and just hop off whenever she spooked. Even now, having spent a decade together, she will still try to test me when we go past something she thinks is spooky, but I dont think I have ever got off her. There was one time when she was being VERY naughty, and because it was on the road and there were cars around us, I had to really smack her (I dont normally carry a whip) to make her go forward; some folk on here told me I should have got off and led her, but in a dangerous situation like that, who can say what is the best thing to do? I personally believe that as long as you dont think the horse is going to purposefully go up in the air and come over backwards on you, you should stay in the saddle rather than getting off.
 
It would totally depend on why the horse is napping. I have backed and brought on 2 horses. When hacking I will get off and lead, but only when the horse is genuinely frightented. I keep my horses on their own, so usually don't have a nanny to encourage them.

I have only got off once or twice because when the were not frightened, both occasions it was safer to get off and also let the traffic through.

I have never got off one in the school, as there is nothing different for them to be frightened of.
 
I've owned too many mares to still think you can win arguments with pure bloody-mindedness. You have to win with your brain and it completely depends on the horse and the situation.
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Interesting how many people say that getting off will teach the horse that napping is a good way of getting the rider to dismount & that means the horse has won !! Do you all think that getting off makes the horse think you are rewarding its bad behavior? Because if you do that seems to equate to a school of thought that says horses view being ridden as punishment !! Horses aren't capable of logical thought & I see no problem with getting off & leading by. Time permitting lead it to & fro a few times until it's stopped worrying then get back on & ride it past if you really feel the need to "win".

I have no hard & fast rules as to whether or not I get off. It depends entirely & what the horse is doing & where. However if I was riding a horse on a slippery road in traffic & it started a determined nap I'd get off. If it was doing the same in a safe environment I wouldn't.
 
poss you have read my posts today as i mention being dissapointed as i got off today when my horse started rearing, prob not fully upright but not a silly bunny hop either. as i have siad in both my posts with hindsight i wished i had stayed on and seen it thru, however we only have a split second to make that decision when something happens and maybe i made the wrong one, but its difficult to know what to do for the best. now i know it may happen again so i'll ensure i'm fully prepared for the battle, however today took me by surprise. so i totally see where you are coming from, but its not so easy sometimes, esp if you are not brimming with confidence in the first place!x
 
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Interesting how many people say that getting off will teach the horse that napping is a good way of getting the rider to dismount & that means the horse has won !! Do you all think that getting off makes the horse think you are rewarding its bad behavior? Because if you do that seems to equate to a school of thought that says horses view being ridden as punishment !! Horses aren't capable of logical thought & I see no problem with getting off & leading by. Time permitting lead it to & fro a few times until it's stopped worrying then get back on & ride it past if you really feel the need to "win".

I have no hard & fast rules as to whether or not I get off. It depends entirely & what the horse is doing & where. However if I was riding a horse on a slippery road in traffic & it started a determined nap I'd get off. If it was doing the same in a safe environment I wouldn't.

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It's quite simple really - if you expect your horse to walk past something with you in the saddle, and the horse refuses to do so , then it is defying you as a rider. I really cannot see why you would want to get off (unless you felt your personal safety were being compromised) - change the scenario a little: if your horse refused to jump a fence, would you ever get off and jump over on foot? What would that show the horse - that every time it stops at a fence, the rider hops off and does the work for it!
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I dont view riding as a punishment for the horse - far from it - but if you ride for a purpose then for me it stands to reason that a certain degree of expectation and discipline should come into play. The horse should do what you (reasonably) ask of it - if everyone got off their horse every time it baulked at a spooky object, there would be an awful lot of us walking everywhere leading our horses....

Oh, and whoever said that horses arent capable of logical thought!?! Tell that to my old pony, who knew full well that if she napped sharply enough, I'd hop off and walk her home. And tell that to any horse who neighs every time they hear their owner's car pull up, then mugs their pockets for Polos....if that isnt logical thinking, I dont know what is!
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Oh, and whoever said that horses arent capable of logical thought!?! Tell that to my old pony, who knew full well that if she napped sharply enough, I'd hop off and walk her home. And tell that to any horse who neighs every time they hear their owner's car pull up, then mugs their pockets for Polos....if that isnt logical thinking, I dont know what is!
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Err thats not evidence of logical thought process, merely association - along the same lines as Pavlovs dogs......
 
Completely agree with you. If a horse is genuinely petrified about passing a certain object and pulling every trick in the book I will quite happily dismount and lead the horse past the said object and remount once past. What the hell is the point in endangering yourself, your horse or other road users just for the sake of 'winning a battle' I personally choose my battles very carefully and sitting atop a horse that is rearing, spinning and bolting on a public road is not a 'battle' I choose to fight.
 
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Oh, and whoever said that horses arent capable of logical thought!?! Tell that to my old pony, who knew full well that if she napped sharply enough, I'd hop off and walk her home. And tell that to any horse who neighs every time they hear their owner's car pull up, then mugs their pockets for Polos....if that isnt logical thinking, I dont know what is!
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Err thats not evidence of logical thought process, merely association - along the same lines as Pavlovs dogs......

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Well that is a matter of opinion, surely
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Sometimes my horse's behaviour is more logical than my own, so I'm afraid it will take a bit more than Pavlov to persuade me that horses are incapable of logic!
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I've owned too many mares to still think you can win arguments with pure bloody-mindedness. You have to win with your brain and it completely depends on the horse and the situation.
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Agree 100% horses don't ever see it as "winning or losing" they just see it as " comfort or behaviour they have mistakenly been taught.
 
I always find this topic quite funny when it comes up. Such human feelings being attributed to horses. If they nap they aren't defying you, they are either worried about something, or maybe they are repeating an evasion they have learnt in the past. Whatever it is, they are just horses being horses, doing what is right for them. They don't try to piss us off. Horses don't think like us.
I know that however you do it, the important thing to do is to get the horse past the obstacle. I know done correctly, this is just as valid if you do it on the ground. Getting off doesn't reward bad behaviour, not if you persist in getting the job done anyway. Of course, the horse may not be being "bad", he may be scared... so why look on the situation as a win or lose? If you get him past and calm you've won, you can win it again in the saddle when he feels more confident, or just because you have changed his expectation. I realise that for some people getting off and tugging ineffectually on the reins to try to get the horse to "behave" may not be an useful strategy. But if you can handle your horse as effectively on the ground as in the saddle, then it really is a perfectly valid approach.
I can accept that if it's not the way some do things, or that if you don't have first-hand experience of how this can be done effectively, you may choose to stay on board. What I find a little frustrating is that some people seem unable to accept that there may be more than one way to deal with situations, in this case working on the ground may work just as well as working in the saddle.
 
I feel more in control from the saddle than on the ground, and my pony definately thinks things through, how else would he know how to "unscrew" the top off his lickits ball, you watch, he doesn't just pull off the lid he knows to turn it.

 
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poss you have read my posts today as i mention being dissapointed as i got off today when my horse started rearing, prob not fully upright but not a silly bunny hop either. as i have siad in both my posts with hindsight i wished i had stayed on and seen it thru, however we only have a split second to make that decision when something happens and maybe i made the wrong one, but its difficult to know what to do for the best. now i know it may happen again so i'll ensure i'm fully prepared for the battle, however today took me by surprise. so i totally see where you are coming from, but its not so easy sometimes, esp if you are not brimming with confidence in the first place!x

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By the sound of it I for one believe you did the right thing getting off so don't beat yourself up about it. Better for you to be safe than sorry - especially on the roads. Having " a battle with a horse that is rearing when you are on top is not a great idea if you value your safety.

To all those who say they would rather stay on board because its letting the horse "get away with it" you may be really brave but I for one would rather get off and continue working the horse from the ground. This is very different from getting off and putting the horse back in the box. Horses by nature will nearly always take the path of least resistance - they just need to be shown the way.

Just my opinion.
 
I mentioned this to one of Monty Roberts' trainers and they assured me that getting off a horse if you feel you are not safe is a damn good idea and the notion that it is giving in is stupid. The first important thing to remember is to be safe yourself and if you can walk the horse past a situation and then remount there is no disgrace and she said the only people who maintain it is are not being honest or have no sense of survival!! I have always remembered this and it has worked well for me when I was getting my confidence back. The horse took confidence from me taking charge and I remounted when the moment was passed and no harm done in the long term and we always came home safely. What is the problem with dismounting and tackling the problem from the ground. Horses learn from being led by the rider, irrespective whether it is on top or on foot, they don't see it as a goal if they get you to get off it just doesn't work that way.
 
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Interesting how many people say that getting off will teach the horse that napping is a good way of getting the rider to dismount & that means the horse has won !! Do you all think that getting off makes the horse think you are rewarding its bad behavior? Because if you do that seems to equate to a school of thought that says horses view being ridden as punishment !! Horses aren't capable of logical thought & I see no problem with getting off & leading by. Time permitting lead it to & fro a few times until it's stopped worrying then get back on & ride it past if you really feel the need to "win".

I have no hard & fast rules as to whether or not I get off. It depends entirely & what the horse is doing & where. However if I was riding a horse on a slippery road in traffic & it started a determined nap I'd get off. If it was doing the same in a safe environment I wouldn't.

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It's quite simple really - if you expect your horse to walk past something with you in the saddle, and the horse refuses to do so , then it is defying you as a rider. I really cannot see why you would want to get off (unless you felt your personal safety were being compromised) - change the scenario a little: if your horse refused to jump a fence, would you ever get off and jump over on foot? What would that show the horse - that every time it stops at a fence, the rider hops off and does the work for it!
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I dont view riding as a punishment for the horse - far from it - but if you ride for a purpose then for me it stands to reason that a certain degree of expectation and discipline should come into play. The horse should do what you (reasonably) ask of it - if everyone got off their horse every time it baulked at a spooky object, there would be an awful lot of us walking everywhere leading our horses....

Oh, and whoever said that horses arent capable of logical thought!?! Tell that to my old pony, who knew full well that if she napped sharply enough, I'd hop off and walk her home. And tell that to any horse who neighs every time they hear their owner's car pull up, then mugs their pockets for Polos....if that isnt logical thinking, I dont know what is!
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Its quite simple - your pony learned that if she napped sharply you would get off and walk her home ........... she got to go home. Learned behaviour, not logical thought.
 
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