If your horse has a tantrum on the road, what do you do?

T

trundle

Well-Known Member
Joined
30 April 2007
Messages
2,297
Location
Beds / Bucks borders
Visit site
Ella is on strictly walking exercise (on vet orders) as she has arthritic knees and has been out of work for a few months because of lameness caused by the arthritis, the rubbish weather hasn't helped.

She is always quite joggy on hacks, which doesnt matter quite so much on the farm, but is scary on the road, especially when it is icy, like this morning. When i asked her to calm down and walk, she threw a temper tantrum, bouncing up and down, cantering on the spot, even tiny little tantrummy bucks. I was with another horse who behaved perfectly, and ignored Ella pratting about, fortunately.

In the end I made her trot on up the road (Oh God, those knees) and kept her trotting even when she wanted to slow down. Then we got to the lane leading back to the farm and she threw another tantrum that i wouldn't let her canter down it all the way home, more bouncing, mini-bucks, cantering on the spot, etc. I made her walk up the lane in leg-yield in the end, because she wouldn't listen to me any other way, but she was NOT happy.

What do you do if your horse throws a tantrum on the road? I was seriously considering getting off at one point. A campervan thing backfired as it was going past us and that made her jump about even more, which didnt help!
 
It really depends on so many factors.
In an ideal world I would never back down if my horse started having one, but on the other hand you have to consider the safety of yourself, your horse and other road users.
 
Not a lot you can do. I generally just sit quietly, grit my teeth, swear a lot under my breath and hope nobody I know comes past us whilst my nutter of a horse shows me up.
We once held a bus up because he was being a complete loon and then had the embarassment of him bouncing and spinning past the length of the bus so everybody could get a good look at the reason for the delay!!
 
i tend to sit it out when we're on the roads. he doesnt do it often, but when he does it'll be because he wants to get home faster than i want to and he'll hve been a wally the whole way round! i wont let him get away with it in this situation. however, when he's in the open fields, my nerves dont always hold out,so i would turn off the hill onto the road, for some reason i feel safer dealing with tantrums on the road than on the hill.
 
I agree depends on the situation.

A gelding tb I rode last weekend had a paddy as a lorry let its brakes go as it came past us (you know when it makes that horridly loud hissy noise) and the horse next to us spooked and he just decided to flail about in the middle of the road and almost sat on the car behind the lorry.

I gave him an almighty wallop and apologised profusely to the woman in the car (she was v nice about it and just said so long as we hadnt touched her car it was ok, which we hadnt so...)

However, a mare I rode before xmas had a paddy on the way back on a hack with 3 other horses. A horse in a field ran along the hedge next to us and she bronked and reared. I managed to kick her past and she aclmed down, then a tractor came storming up our bum with a loose (and therefore noisy, bangy) bucket on the front of it so banging up behind us, cue another bronking spinning fit, managed to get her into a bus stop and the other 3 pinned me in until she calmed down.

Then (yes there was more on this hack! I was just impressed I hadnt fallen off!) we got to a mini round about, (gave way to the right, and went across it) and a car emergency stopped into the left hand side of us, just missed us. This was the last straw and she totally lost it and just reared, span, ran backwards, bronked the whole shabang! note: I stayed on! However, this guy stopped and decided to swear abuse at us.

She got herself in such a state I got off and lead her back, which I was quite grateful about as she reared at 2 more lorries before we got back to the yard!

That prob was much longer than I meant it to be!
frown.gif
 
i had this the other day, we were on the road and came to a steep ish hill, i'll mention again... WE WERE ON THE ROAD,but he still felt that he should be able to canter up this hill. and then comes the tantrum as i made him walk. we held up the traffic and all sorts. lots of leaping, cantering sideways on the spot etc etc. not pleasant ut i gritted my teeth and swore alot at him.
 
It goes back to the debate of whether you wuss out and get off and walk OR stick up there and hope for the best doesn't it. I was riding along a main road once and it was on my dear old boy that never put a foot wrong, anyway, I could feel the girth wasn't right so put my leg over to get off, and I was riding in a saddle with a really high cantle to it and my knee got stuck over the frigging saddle and I was stuck there, slowly slipping down the side of the horse and there was nuffin I could do about it. To add to my ignominy there were a couple of lorry drivers grinning like monkeys, OMiGod was it embarrassing.
 
I would flex and bend the horse, put it into shoulder fore and insist that it listens to me... you're not a passenger afterall and you've got to be in control
smile.gif

Kate x
 
Mine does it pretty regularily. He just gets a smack to tell him off and my leg on pretty strongly. Tonight he excelled himself! Spooking at a hubcap by the side of the road and a horse from the yard next door coming in the opposite direction. I cant get off of him, as he is a strapping great cob and he has managed to learn his own strength with his last owners. Its easier to stay on board, no matter what stunts he manages to pull. By the way, this was the horse sold to me 6 years ago as 'Suitable for a first horse'. Not!
 
With Daisy I never ever got off. She could be awkward to lead and its all too easy to pull the reins out of your hands in a tantrum and then they're galloping around loose in traffic. Unless you're going to get yourself killed or seriously injured I would always stay on.
 
If this was a normal i.e. not being told to only walk horse I would probably agree with most of the above that you don't back down and a quick smack and you are the boss scenario but as your horse has arthritic problems that you are trying to work through I might take a different route.
Sometimes walking in hand is better than being on board in these situations as you may have slightly more control and if he was a good horse hacking before I don't think walking in hand would be a bad thing just for the short term.
If you have confidence in the horse, and it you, I don't think getting off if it's not going quite as planned would be wrong as you need to keep it in walk and if thats the top priority I would do anything to keep it in walk.
I breed so walking out youngsters with someone who is on board and enjoying a nice hack is not always the most satisfying but when you think horse and not human there are times when this is the best option.
I hope you and your your horse get everything sorted and all works out well but dont think you are doing anything wrong if you have to give and take for the short term.
 
My TB given half the chance would spook at everything. Sometimes I find getting off and walking him past something particularly scary and then getting back on is much safer than him backing up into anything and everything behind him on a main road. His problem is confidence...he would rather pootle alongside me walking and be an angel but as soon as i'm on board he panics that he has to be the one to walk past first.
 
It amazes me sometimes the kind of things we have to deal with out hacking. There is nothing worse when we have cars both ways and something scary is in the road like roadworks or whatever, you can always guarantee there is a barking dog or something else adding to the frenzy of the matter!

I think sometimes you have to deal with the matter as it is. i.e do the safest thing for NOW. But if you can get away with it, you need to think about the future and get over the little ordeal you are going to through to try ensure these tantrums get less and less or don't start to rise because you have let said horse get away with it.

It's funny, as when I read posts like this we can all completely sympathise with the OP, as we have all been there on the roads haveing issues with the Lorries with their bloody noisy air breaks, dogs jumping out and barking as you walk past gardens, Horses galloping up the hedge line as you walk past.
Went through a farm yesterday with squeeling pigs, geese flapping around and loads of cows and literally had to walk through the middle of it and climb over a wall to get out (yes, this farmer doesn't actually want anyone to use this bridle path) But one of the hardest things was getting our horses over a blue hosepipe on the floor... lol

xx
 
Ditto this.
If I suspect we coudl have a problem (young horse starting hacking for instance) I have safe companion with lead rope, they can lead me if necessary.
With older horse who is just arsing about - then just sit it out & grimace.
 
I would do whatever has to be done to be safe. I have stopped traffic before, I mean, do they want a horse sat on the bonnet? Or worse? Then get him into a safe place where you can deal with the issues at that time. So long as you and he are safe then everything else comes second.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top