Rearing

[MagicMelon]

Mairi - But she is obviously NOT going to get rid of her purely because someone said to on a forum! She does not want to be told to get rid of the horse, she clearly loves the horse and wants to try everything before even thinking about selling her (and thus passing the problem on....).

How can you "get fed up with hearing that horses are misunderstood" - I very much doubt horses do this just for the hell of it, purely to be nasty! Horses have reasons behind everything they do! That is the type of animal they are. They do not misbehave just to spite us! A lot of the time we dont sit back and try to see things from their point of view. Like I said, my horse reared at XC's because basically he didnt enjoy them! Put in a situation like he's in now where he purely hacks, he adores it and never rears anymore. I think that says something: that not all horses want to do what we ask. Why should they?! They are all different, yet a lot of the time we expect them to behave like machines.

One of my horses can bolt - he has bolted down a road and even through a barbed wire fence with me. He keeps going and bucks like hell until I fall off. Thankfully he has only done it about 5 times in the 3yrs I have had him. Yes, it is dangerous but I simply take myself out of the worst situations - for example, I do not hack anymore. However this horse is fabulous in every other way, he is an amazing competition horse and the nicest horse to know. This is simply one of his 'quirks' I have to live with.

I think this girl probably gains a great deal out of the pony when it is NOT rearing which likely makes up for the times it does. That is what makes many of us want to put our horses right and not just sell them as soon as things get testing.

 

[Bossanova]

but MM, she already says 'so now she rears at anything even when shes not scared and just riding in general.' and 'she does it when ever she feels like it so hacking or schooling'

so taking her out of the triggering situation is impossible as she does it randomly whenever!!

I'm sure she does love the pony and yes, 50% of the time she prob really enjoys her but there are countless ponies out there who are willing and fun 100% of the time- why waste time and risk your neck for 1 pony?

 

[emma69]

It's tough to decide what to do here - I've seen it from both sides. One horse I used to ride and compete had a real 'naughty' rearing habit - he had done it a couple of times with his old owner, she jumped off, so he learnt it was a way to avoid work. He had never gone over back wards, and I was a (probably over confident) teenager, so I took him on. He did it with me on a regular basis, hacking, schooling, jumping etc. When he went up, I went forward, pushing my forearm over his neck and stayed there till he went down. When he was down we went immediatly into whatever we were supposed to be doing, no fuss, no nonsense, no smacks. It took a while, but he realised that it didn't get him out of work, didn't really make a difference.

On the other hand, we had a horse at the riding school who was lovely in every way apart from his rearing, another instructor and myself lunged, long reined, flicked him under the belly with a lunge line, poured water over his head etc. None of it worked. He was utterly useless as a horse for clients, and far too unpredictable for staff. The final straw was when he went over backwards (on the lunge thank god) and got right back up and did it all over again. One livery couldn't bear to see him put down, which was our very difficult advise to the owner, and bought him. Long story short, he got worse and worse, had no regards for his own safety, and was put down. On PM they found a brain tumour.

There you go, two cases that I have direct experience of, and two very different outcomes. I do think some rearers can be sorted out, but you need either the experience, or the guidance of someone who does - i.e. an instructor. I've helped other people with rearers in lessons (tho none of them were vertical - more 'I'm going to muck around' than 'I want you off' rears) sometimes it helps to have someone who is not emotionaly involved. I also think that there are some rearers, the ones that have no concept of their own safety more often than not, can't be helped, and they will end up hurting either their rider, or themselves - the though of a horse breaking it's back going over backwards, and being in agony until the vet could come out goes right through me

- as does that of a rider being hurt in the same sort of way

It sounds like you need some help, otherwise you wouldn't be posting on here. Get a good instructor to come down and see the horse, see the triggers etc. Get her backed checked again, and the saddle checked again, and her teeth checked again. It is possible something was missed first time around. And good luck

 

[emma69]

As a teenager I got on anything and everything, and had some sucesses, and some terrible falls. I know now that some horses really do have nasty streaks, and their aim in life is to get the rider on the floor. Like people, they are few and far between, but I do believe they exist. Even teh nicest horses can have off days, and we all accept these risks when we ride, but why compound those risks by getting on something with a history? It's one thing for a horse to get over-excited and do something once, but 5 times - not odds I'd care to play with.