how do you stop a bolting horse?

[maletto]

Following on from the thread below about bolting/bucking/broncing etc horses, the only thing that bothers me is bolting. (well, it scares me ****less to be honest!!)

Admittedly it's only happened to me once or twice that I can remember but that's one or two times more than enough.

The time it happened to me recently we were on a group hack and a storm was coming so we decided to trot back across a massive field. One of the girls ponies shied at a ghost in the hedge and she fell off, B then completely freaked and bolted for home. It was horrid. I remember trying to calm him with my voice, shout at him, stand up in my stirrups to try to get a feel for his mouth but he had literally locked himself from head to tail but with galloping legs.

What can you do to stop them when they bolt? Obviously you have no steering and no brakes but is there anything you can do to get their attention back?

 

[tinkandlily]

When mine bolts, i pull as hard as i can on one rein to bring her head right around to my knee, they can't carry on if their head is at your leg, but you have to be ready not to come off at the side.

 

[Box_Of_Frogs]

A true bolter is running blind and on neat adrenalin and the only thing that will stop him is running into a brick wall. Sometimes a horse that has decided to ignore the rider and run away feels like a bolt but it isn't. With a runaway, your best bet is to try to turn him in a big circle if you have the space. Or bridge your reins and let him run til he's had enough and then kick him on some more until YOU decide to stop. If you have a true independent seat and know your horse well, you can reach forwards and grab the rein right next to his mouth and yank with all your might. Sometimes, just sitting quietly and not making a battle out of it can work but not if there are roads around. With a true bolter you may be able to turn him on a huge circle if there's space but otherwise I'd say pick a safe spot and bail out. Woman I know was hacking alone on her horse and it bolted with her. They think it may have been terrified by a nearby gunshot from someone out shooting rabbits. Ran straight full tilt into a brick wall and was killed outright. As it fell stone cold dead, it rolled on top of the rider and she was out cold for at least 4 hours before, thank god, a farmer found her, still trapped under the horse. She was in a coma for weeks. Mercifully, ok again now but true bolters are beyond any control.

 

[FlorenceBassey]

Some people in fact most people will dis agree with this but i was told by a very old school AI instructor to kick on, believe me it works as they get confused or my it works on my section d anyway.

 

[maletto]

Box of frogs, that's terrible about the woman you knew and her horse. What you said about true bolters being out of control is what I was afraid of :S

Does anyone know how long they would carry on for unless something got in the way to stop them? would the adrenaline run out after say 3, 5, 10 minutes?

 

[dreamcometrue]

I agree with box of frogs. When truly bolting you can't stop them and trying to turn them can result in a fall. Just sitting it out is the best option in my opinion.

 

[Toffee44]

Complete box of frogs and depends on horse and your state of mind and balance I suppose. I have run my pony into a hedge before and I have also spun her round but I have never had a bolt where I can truely not see the horse stopping. The two big bolts I have had are from my lack of experience and knowledge rather than the horse on pure adrenaline.

 

[Keep Trying]

A pee-wee bit should help. It's not that strong but has little side bars from the mouthpiece which will dig into the side of the horse's mouth if you want to turn sharply. I would think that it's almost impossible for it to slide through mouth at all and should get most animals to turn.

 

[millitiger]

if a horse is truely bolting there is nothing on earth you can do to stop it.

a horse running off is a totally different issue and there are a multitude of things you can do to try and stop it- the one rein stop is very effective.

 

[VioletStripe]

Agree with Box of Frogs - by the way that story was awful! RIP - when a horse is well and truly bolting, nothing can stop it. As soft as it sounds, I would sit it out, instead of utterly socking the horse in the mouth. When it's truly bolting, I don't think even that would help, it would just leave the horse very sore and distressed afterwards. What I would do is sit deep, keep my legs firmly at the horse's side and sit back, softly speaking to the horse and give it encouraging half halts and an open rein to encourage it to run into a circle where I can get more control.. Probably not much use if there were roads about, but I honestly have no idea what I'd do if that were the case! xx

 

[vicijp]

I've only ever been bolted with once, and it took a post and rail fence to stop the f#cker!
Been ran away with loads, best way is to not let them go in the first place.

 

[Tinseltoes]

Before my horse was properly broken in,I was on the lunge rein,with one foot in the stirrup,all of a sudden he decided to take off,did a few circles and suddenly the lunge went thru my friends hand and he bolted with me.I aimed for the hedge but lost balance and came off.He has since been proffessionally broken in,but to be honest he scared the pants off me and I am very wary of this now..My 12 year old has no probs ,put her on lead rein hes as quiet as a mouse.Bolting is very scary.
They say aim for a fence/hedge or wall and the horse will stop dead in its tracks.

 

[Orangehorse]

I had one bolt on the lunge. It had a "training aid" round its bottom that it had accepted calmly and lunged in the day before, but this day he decided he had to run away from it. As he set off he pulled me straight over and pulled the lunge rein through my hand, but I managed to keep hold of the loop of the rein and watch him gallop round and round while I was on my bottom. I realised that he wasn't going to stop until the rope was removed from his hindquarters and that if he got away from me or something broke nothing would stop him until he hit something solid enough like a house/hedge/car and that the fences of timber/wire probably wouldn't stop him.

All this was going through my mind quite quickly, but he was still galloping in a panic on the end of the lunge rope. I was just wondering how on earth I was going to get to him, while speaking to him and telling him to "whoa" with no result when he slipped over and slid for a considerable distance. I was up and across to him in time to grab hold of his head and carefully undo the back rope. I decided I would have to "get back on" and lunged him a bit more and he was quite calm about it.

You are right, there is quite a difference between a horse in a panic bolt, when really nothing can stop it and it will run blindly into anything, until presumably it goes far enough to start to run out of puff, and a horse that has learned to run off/run home and has got a nasty habit, but in a way calculated. A ploughed field or a very steep hill is supposed to cure that, but as always it is having the right facilities and not everyone has them.

 

[Groom42]

I am afraid I am with BoF on this. There is a world of difference between a horse that is "tanking" and refusing to pull up, at whatever speed, and one that is bolting. A horse that is bolting is blind and deaf to anything you may say or do. Far safer to bale out than risk being seriously injured or worse.

 

[monkeybum13]

if a horse is truely bolting there is nothing on earth you can do to stop it.

a horse running off is a totally different issue and there are a multitude of things you can do to try and stop it- the one rein stop is very effective.

Yes, when a horse is truley bolting the only thing you can really do is sight tight (or bale out as I have done in the past )

 

[SuperSketch]

I was always told to never pull the horse onto a circle as it can become unbalanced and fall - obviously not what you want as the rider will most likely become trapped underneath. I've only never been truly bolted with twice, neither time was with my own horse thank goodness. I just sat there tbh, kept my bottom in the saddle and waited for the pace to steady and then tried to bring the horse back. The first time we went for about 5 minutes before there was even a slight hint of slowing down a gear.

 

[JackSpratt]

I was bolted off with a couple of times and I have found the only thing you can do is to instigate the "up and over" technique. This is raising your left rein high straight in the air and crossing the right rein over across the withers. Basically this disorientates the horse and they will pull up - mine did.

 

[Nari]

I'm another one who agrees with Box of Frogs, you will not stop a horse that's truly bolting. Fortunately very few horses truly bolt, the vast majority run away with riders & that's a very different thing - it drives me mad when people say a horse bolts when really it's run away with them.

A runaway can be stopped, though it may be very difficult. This is where all the tricks people have posted come into play - circles, one rein stops, pulling the head round, kicking on etc etc. Know your horse, know the circumstances & pick what you think wil work best. The biggest difference though, IMO, is that a runaway still has it's head switched on & won't knowingly put itself in danger.

A bolter is basically running blind. It's operating on instinct alone, it's mentally shut down & nothing you do is going to get through. It may well kill itself or put itself in extreme danger rather than stop, so you cannot assume that if you stay on you'll be fairly safe. Schooling won't make the slightest difference because the horse you school is gone.

The best advice I can offer to anyone thinking of riding a known bolter (I mean one that has done it repeatedly) is DON'T!

 

[MissJael]

I was on a bolter about 18mths ago - not a runaway - on a narrow path beside a river. 8ft hedges one side, water the other, with nowhere to go except straight ahead.
We came to the end of the trach which had a 5 bar gate with a cattle grid in front of it with a narrow entry beside it for walkers.
I steered him towards the entry as I knew a cattle grid would have been catastrophic - my leg hit a concrete post between gate and entry and flung me off sideways.
Up until that point I had tried to turn his head, my hands were practically at his mouth trying to stop him but he wasn't for slowing down.
After I came off he galloped through the village, the path led straight onto a road, and about 1.5 miles home.
How no-one, human or otherwise, was killed I have no idea.

If that ever happened again, I'd have bailed out rather than trying to sit it out!

 

[xloopylozzax]

had the misfortune to ride one bolt, which we both walked away from relatively unscathed (we walked away, which is the main thing!)

whoever said that when the horse bolts it doesnt feel like your horse, or like something you know is right. completely numb and empty- the only reason they stop is because they have run into something tougher than them (stone dead when they hit the floor) or because they cant run any further (in my case he flipped himself over a railway barrier and was trapped upside down with his legs still going)

they dont care/know? if they are gonna die, all that happens is they run- they dont see, hear or feel anything- you could be river dancing on their back for all they care nothing you do will make any difference.
makes me quite angry with all these tales of "bolters" who simply are running off, who still have their self preservation intact and yes are scary but nothing compared to a true bolt which i hope none of you experience and the few that have i am sorry to hear it.

I could quite easily have called it a day with riding after that experience, but i decided not to and even ride the horse in question still past the same place twice a day everyday.
the faintest sign of a potential bolt though is dealt with in one way- i jump off, and get ready to let go if there is no other optoin. no way am i proving that i can stick on as he goes into the side of a freight train.

 

[vandypip]

Grab one rein and pull the horses head round, this disengages the hind quarters. In theory that is!!!

 

[Snowysadude]

My boy did a proper panic bolt with me in the first couple of weeks that I owned him (sooo nearly sent him back then and wish I had before I got so bloody attached to him - but thats another story!!). I couldnt even move his head, he was going and had locked his whole body, i tried everything, pulling, pushing, crossing the reins, grabbing the bit, standing up and leaning back (although had dressage length styrups), he was not stopping. In the end I just let him go and of course he went as fast as he physically could for a long time and then exited the fields and galloped up the roads, that was the most dangerous part cause if a car had been coming that would have been it for us both. So when we hit the tarmac and were on the hill I sat as far back as I could and crossed my reins, to heave and put all my (at the time) 12st of weight on his mouth.... this resulted in us managing to get to a respectable fast trot before veering (still unable to stop in front of a car) right into the yard. Needless to say I nearly wet myself and schooled him still in shock for a good 30 mins after. Possibly shouldnt have done that as he was nackered.....

But what I learnt from that was to let them go, cause although it is stupidly scary when they go and you really have no control (especially when they are a very speedy 17hh warmblood, were not speaking 14hh cob!), you have more chance of getting their attention when you ask them to stop again then you do if you are just constantly holding on from the moment they go - they then just resist more . Of course this is only the case if the horse does a proper bolt, not just gallop off but being able to stop them at the end of the field or whatever.

 

[Kaylum]

Only had one horse bolt with me and she was a known bolter. Saw her go a couple of times and had never done it with me until this time. I was taking a ride out and she decided sod this and went and I could not pull her up. She was heading for the road so I managed to lean over and grab her bit to turn her and after what seemed like an age she stopped (probably only a minute). Got wise to her after that and was always ready for her and she didnt do it again, but she was very difficult and was 17.

 

[BeckyX]

Double reins, lessons and pratice

 

[Cedars]

Im not sure you guys are quite right. There are true "bolters", i.e. will run into stone walls before they stop. Then there are naughty horses who will just ignore and have a nice gallop off round the countryside. But I think there is also a middle ground when a horse "runs" because its terrified BUT you can pull it back to you. i.e. if you're in the middle of a huge field and gunshot goes off, the horse DOES bolt (in that its terrified, it runs and its not being naughty) BUT you can pull it back to you using the techniques suggested above.

 

[Nari]

I think it's very obvious from this thread that more people think they've been bolted with than actually have!