Things they dont teach you when you learn to ride?

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djlynwood

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Ive just read a post about someones horse who bolted and it made me think, what exactly do you do when your horse takes off? Ok, apart from screeming obscenities
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I understand that they cant teach you in a school but is it one of those things where you learn by it just happening? I would like to have an idea about what to do in case it does happen.

Also, Ive heard that if you think your horse is about to rear, you should try and turn him.

Does anyone know of other things that they dont teach you to deal with in lessons?
 
My instructor was always very good at telling me how to deal with a situation once it had happened
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She told me how to stop a bucking horse, after I'd been bucket off 3 times in as many minutes in a dressage test, so it wasn't the fact of not being taught how to deal with some things, it was the timing in which I was taught them!
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Yeh how do you stop a horse bucking, would be nice to know.
I tend to just deal with things as it happens, just try not to panic is the only thing I can say to you
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Oh that dont work on the ones I ride lol. they are buggers they can buck for fun and their head will be nowhere near the floor. Oh its very fun
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they don't tell you when your ex racer takes off for the one and only time it will ever do it - because he just wanted to gallop full out - that it is terrifying, fantastic fun and very very fast all at the same time. Oh and that there was absolutely bugger all I could do about it! That was in 2000 and I still remember it like it was yesterday! oh and once said horses ears have locked onto a gate/bench/hedge/wall, you're jumping it!
 
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oh and once said horses ears have locked onto a gate/bench/hedge/wall, you're jumping it!

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stuff that!, i'd be jumping off it!
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there is a vid on you tube (which i'll try and find ) called the one rein stop, looks very affective. Here's hoping that i never have to find out if it works.....

years ago i had a pony decide to take off along the whole length of the old railway line which was over a mile before i managed to stop the git. I then galloped it all the way back ..he never tried that one again
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As a child, I was taught an "emergency stop" where you grab his mane with one hand about 2/3 up the neck, and haul back on the other (shortened) rein as hard and fast as you can. Is that the "one rein" stop you mean? I've used it when a horse bolted, and it did work pretty well.
 
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it sounds similar , have a look at the video,they explain much better than i could even start to!

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Yeah, that looks like much the same idea. Ah, now I understand WHY we were supposed to move the outside hand up the neck---it causes the outside rein to slacken. Hmm, useful vid!
 
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Ive just read a post about someones horse who bolted and it made me think, what exactly do you do when your horse takes off? Ok, apart from screeming obscenities
grin.gif




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Sorry but 99.9% of horse's will never bolt in their life (yes I made that statistic up but I've been round horses for 20 year and have yet to find one that actually bolts) Some horse cart, some horses tank off very few actually bolt.

There is absolutely nothing you can do if a horse bolts other than throw yourself from said horse in the hope that any injuries you incur falling will be less than you would incur when the horse runs threw the gate/wall/hedge/car while bolting.

When I was learning to ride I was taught how to try to stop a carting/tanking horse. We used to take the ponies for gallops (read canters, we were only 7!) and the instructor used to always say don't let them lock their neck, you learn quite quickly what a locked neck feels like and how to try and avoid it (bending, both hands on one reins) then if you did get carted she would shout 'One hand on the neck and pull with the other rein' that now translates to left hand on neck right hand jabbing til the unlock.

Bolting was never mention til I was older, I was shown a picture of a horse mid bolt and it was made very clear that you never get on anything that had a history of bolting. A horse that truely bolts is a serious danger to itself, the rider and any poor person that gets in it's way. To be honest if my horse ever bolted with me I'd probably have her put down.
 
Think positive - as the reply above says, the vast majority of horses don't bolt. Bomb off with us yes, but true bolting not often.

I went for a beach ride on holiday with a horsey friend once (sorry, one of my long stories coming up, but it's too cold to muck out as my ramp is frozen) and we each got on and waited for the others. Her horse started messing about, mine stood like a rock. We swapped as I was the more experienced, but then the horse I was on calmed down and the one she got on got fractious. She realised it was her, and said,

When I get on a horse, I always expect the worse to happen, I am waiting for it to buck, misbehave, whatever.

And I realised I expect the opposite, I get on assuming said horse is 'normal' and will behave. Later on she managed to fall off the original horse (no harm done) but I am sure she was expecting the worst so it happened.

Moral of story - think positive!
 
Agreed. Vast majority of horses do NOT bolt.
My mare bolted once after the lightening hit in the field and scared her sh*tless. Thank god i was not on her at the time.
She bolted,charged through the stone wall, towards the stables, didnt even see the transit van parked in the way and smashed through the windscreen of it. she clambered off the van and bolted the opposite way and straight through the middle of a 5 bar wooden gate which she smashed clean in half. she stopped several miles later..
A truely bolting horse is blinded by panic and will not stop for anything....a rider pulling on its rein will NOT stop it.
My mare luckily escaped with cuts and bruises (tough welshie) but i doubt id have got off so lightly had i been on her.
 
I saw a horse bolt in the summer at XC training with a little girl on and I have never been so scared in my life. 'Luckily' it lost her after about a mile don't know what happened to the horse but hope she didn't get back on. It just seemed to snap!

but with the just running off I was taught to relax your reins and drop contact. Then the horse has nothing to tug of war against and if a horse has a habit of taking off ride it on the buckle. They always take off to start then get bored and slow down. also should you need to stop dont pull constant do it in pulsesso not yanking just pressure and release and pressure again.
I have previously had to stop a pony on a hack by reaching down and catching the reins myself as the rider was panicking.
 
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Ive just read a post about someones horse who bolted and it made me think, what exactly do you do when your horse takes off? Ok, apart from screeming obscenities
grin.gif




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Sorry but 99.9% of horse's will never bolt in their life (yes I made that statistic up but I've been round horses for 20 year and have yet to find one that actually bolts) Some horse cart, some horses tank off very few actually bolt.



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But the OP was talking about "taking off" which IMO isn't the same as bolting!!
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I think there are some things that RSs just can't teach, like rearing or taking off, that you have to deal with as you experience it. What RSs can teach however, is how to have a good enough seat and hands to be able to sit things out!
 
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Ive just read a post about someones horse who bolted and it made me think, what exactly do you do when your horse takes off? Ok, apart from screeming obscenities
grin.gif




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But the OP was talking about "taking off" which IMO isn't the same as bolting!!
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Ok the OP read about bolting then posted saying what do you do when your horse takes off....sorry but to go from talking about bolting to talking about taking off without specifically saying you are talking about different behaviours makes me think the OP is not appreciating the difference.
 
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Ive just read a post about someones horse who bolted and it made me think, what exactly do you do when your horse takes off? Ok, apart from screeming obscenities
grin.gif




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But the OP was talking about "taking off" which IMO isn't the same as bolting!!
tongue.gif


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Ok the OP read about bolting then posted saying what do you do when your horse takes off....sorry but to go from talking about bolting to talking about taking off without specifically saying you are talking about different behaviours makes me think the OP is not appreciating the difference.

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I dunno, I read it that the OP was differentiating (sp?!) the two by refering to it as taking off, rather than bolting...the thread about bolting just got her thinking. Either way, it's not really important. I do agree with you that most horses don't truely bolt though.
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oh and once said horses ears have locked onto a gate/bench/hedge/wall, you're jumping it!

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stuff that!, i'd be jumping off it!
grin.gif
there is a vid on you tube (which i'll try and find ) called the one rein stop, looks very affective. Here's hoping that i never have to find out if it works.....

years ago i had a pony decide to take off along the whole length of the old railway line which was over a mile before i managed to stop the git. I then galloped it all the way back ..he never tried that one again
grin.gif


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lol - I went on a disused railway line with him, he galloped the whole way, then back, then back down again and so on...
He never scared me when jumping as in 4 years he never stopped or ran out, I learnt not to canter towards five bar gates tho
 
My old loan pony did bolt...some clyclists in bright colours spooked her on a track she always found spooky, i had been planning on galloping her, as i had for the first time the day before and loved it, but she felt quite tired so i was taking a short cut home...i dont think anyone could have stopped her, i went for the- look for a soft place to land option, and landed in some nettles head first, if it wasnt for my hypermobility i would have broken my shoulder, and probably my neck.
she carried on for at least another mile, broke her reins....and was found by some man.

Only time shes ever done it.

It didnt help that i lost both reins somehow, and stirrups, in her spinning and was clinging onto her neck with my arms, thinking well....this is it.

Also,slightly off topic, would market harbourers (obviously fitted correctly) stop bucking?
And also, anyone know how to balance themselves when doing the one rein stop and the horse spins if it worked?
 
My mare used to tank off sometimes - i developed a method of grabbing the buckle end with the left hand and sliding the right hand down the rein then pulling hard to turn her neck. She was a bugger for grabbing the bit and running for fun!

She did bolt once on a hack and it was bloody scary. Funnily enough we didn't arrive home together, she beat me by about half an hour! I was so thankful she didn't meet a car or fall
 
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