Please help - we've started rearing!

[Bossanova]

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He told us when he has a rearer he always finds that when the horse rears the rider leans forward and letting go of the contact (putting hands forward) so he gets on and when the horse rears he doesn't let go of the contact in the mouth. He leans forward so he doesn't pull horse back but the horse doesn't get away from the contact.


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Thats an extremely dangerous statement- unless you are very experienced and well balanced you should aways give with your hands when they rear. It's the most common way of pulling a horse over- rider tenses up, doesnt release hands, loses their balance back slighty et voila, horse does too.

 

[Zebedee]

Kayleigh I had a very similar thing happen years ago, when one of my ponies reared up. I did what you have done, made excuses, got off & led him for a while. Within a week or two instead of a decent competition pony I had an animal that was dangerous to himself as well as to me, and on occassion to traffic, as he would spin round in the road with no warning & go up on end when I tried to turn him back around. He soon learnt that in those circumstances I had no option but to get off.
I don't know how far your ride today was, but is there any chance that you could long rein him around the same route? That way you can get after him if he tries it again without putting yourself in any danger. My take on this is that there's nothing wrong with him, he only tried it when he didn't want to go past the spooky objects, & at this stage I wouldn't waste any money on an 'MOT', concentrate on resolving the problem.

 

[SouthWestWhippet]

We're going through this with a little pony at the yard actually. It started when the owner took him in the SJ arena. He would just stop in front of the fillers and rear and rear. She was brave as anything at first but gradually it wore her confidence down and she retired him a couple of times.

She had his back checked and, indeed, he was sore in his back. One of the yard staff also spotted that the snaffle bit was in backwards (silly mistake

) and corrected this. We all figured that once the back/bit was better he would stop but he'd learnt a very effective new party trick and he wasn't about to quit.

My very experienced adult friend took him out hacking with me and my pony the other day and he reared twice, both times out of the blue, completely vertical and she slid off. Both time she gave him a couple of serious smacks before getting back on but she and I both felt he was dangerous as he clearly intended on going over backwards if he couldn't dislodge a rider any other way.

Then one of our BSJA girls got on him and took him in the 2' class. He stopped in front of the first fence, reared and reared etc etc and then walked on 2 legs to the door and clawed at the walls. He looked like a circus pony. She just sat there and waited till he got tired then proceeded to jump him round the whole course. (good for her)

Anyway, since then he has started doing it much less and is far less inclined to persist if 1 or 2 little rears don't achieve anything. so I guess my advice would be to you

> check the back and teeth/bit/saddle fit etc BEFORE you ride again. You don't want him starting to rear from pain then learning it as a useful trick
> if it is naughtiness and you (understandably) don't feel you want to fight through it FIND SOMEONE WHO DOES rather than getting off and letting him win. The girl who fixed that pony is seriously amazing and will sit on anything. There is no way I would have taken him on

> don't get off if you can possibly help it.
> don't get into battles you can't win because he will learn real fast that standing on 2 legs works.

I hope this helps, we had a rotten time with this pony. Hopefully it was just a one off with Rocky and he won't bother to try it again. Good luck

 

[MillionDollar]

I did say it was easier said than done and as long as you lean forward there should be no problem. Its not my own advice anyway!

 

[samp]

Being the owner of a horse that will try and rear if there is something new she has not seen I have learnt that if I take the pressure off her mouth slightly and really kick her forward she doesn't go up. If I hang on to her then its straight up we go.
Personally as your horse has never done it before I would call this a pain response and would get the physio out and mouth checked

 

[Bossanova]

Sorry wasnt having a go at you, more the paerson who said that originally!
A friend's partner was killed by a horse going over on her, it's not something you want to start messing with when theyre in the air if you dont know exactly what you're doing

 

[MillionDollar]

No worries, i totally understand and i know what you are saying. And i def agree you need to balanced to do that or else it could end up in disaster, or even better get the expert to do it.