What Can You Do With A Rearer And Would You Try?

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Mithras

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The horse I recently bought has turned out to be a terrible rearer. No warning, just 5 or 6 rears, completely vertical, threatning to go over. Now I'm very lucky in that the dealer I bought him from is going to exchange him with no problem but I just wonder if I'm giving up too easily. He is such a gorgeous looking, well bred horse, amazing movement, huge (if unschooled) jump, good stable manners. The down side is he won't hack as he rears, he rears in the school when he can't be bothered working with no warning, he spins and bucks and is rather excitable. Had teeth, back and saddle all checked and are all 100%. Would anyone else continue with such a horse or admit defeat and give up? I suspect the dealer will somehow manage to get him out of the habit and out competing as he has really good people to ride for him and all the facilities with lots of people around all the time.
 
I personally would send him back if you can, he sounds dangerous and I hate rearers.

Things that I have heard stop rearers are -

Smashing an egg in their poll every time they rear - makes them think they have hit there head so scares them a bit.

Pulling them over - Scares the sh!t out of them, should stop them doing it in future.


I have never tried either of these, the egg one may be possible for you to try but I really wouldn't recommend pulling the horse over, that's just asking to be squished!
 
GET RID !!!
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It depends, for me it would scare me and I am by no means well enough equipped to deal with something like that.

So only you can decide whether or not you are up for the long haul or cut your losses. Has he made improvements since you had him?

Goodluck eitherway.
 
the only effective thing i've found with proper rearers is to sort of pull them to the side (not over) the second you feel them starting to go up...then i'd kick forward into a tightish circle. having said all of this i won't get on something i know rears properly. as per my above post i'm not frightened of falling off but rearing is a totally different kettle of fish. a good friend of mine nearly died when her horse came over on her and it made me re-evaluate. i'd get my money back and get something just as nice without the issues....
 
If the dealer is happy to exchange him, then I reckon go for that. I'm inclined to try and fix things but it can turn out to be pouring a lot of time, energy, and money down the drain. You don't know if perseverance will get you anywhere until you've tried it - by which time if you find out you're wasting your time, its too late to return the horse. If you're in a position to just swap the horse IMO its the most sensible course of action.
 
My tb went through a stage of rearing out hacking due to us having to hack the same route every day for three months so when the time came to go somewhere else it was a deffono onhis part.Again saddle ,teeth back etc all ok so I started to hack him out in draw reins which helped a little bit and he began to come round to the idea that a new path wasn't so scary. I took the draw reins back off and he did revert back to the rearing. He always spun to the left before rearing so I always tried to keep him tight up agaisnt the fence,hedge etc to try and take away that escape route. Eventually it has got less and less and although my riding at times hasn't been particulary pretty ,I hope it has been effective. On a slightly seperate note my horse had also misbehaved in the school not as bad out hacking and my instructor has had me riding him really forward again not always particulary pretty but it has stopped alll the kickbacks,bucks etc . It took a few sessions but the moment he backed off my contact it was leg,voice,whip if needed on him and left him in no doubt about where he needed to be . Hope this is some help and good luck with everything
 
He sounds like too much horse for you so I would take up the offer and exchange him, they may well have him competing and performing on his return but as you say these are prof. riders who know what they are doing and will have dealt with worse. Send him back now while the horse still has a chance of turning himself around.
 
Having seen a horse rear, go over backwards, smash its head on the concrete and kill itself, I don't think I'd ever tollerate a rearer. Baby rears are one thing. Full on, vertical rears are just something that completely give me nightmares after that incident!
 
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It depends, for me it would scare me and I am by no means well enough equipped to deal with something like that.

So only you can decide whether or not you are up for the long haul or cut your losses. Has he made improvements since you had him?

Goodluck eitherway.

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Not a chestnut!
He's got worse since I got him - it started with napping out hacking, which turned into half rears, which didn't bother me too much, I could always get him to go. So a couple of nice calm hacks and some schoolwork later he decides to do a series of full on vertical rears instead of the half rears. I sat them but all you can do is sit there with your arms round his neck as he goes so high. This is full on, vertical rearing like something out of a circus. Did it with a pro rider I got in too. He goes forwards afterwards but sometimes does it twice in one ride. As he gets fitter, they seem to be getting worse - 6 in a row is the record. In the school, out of the school and being led out to the field.

I think its probably started with sharp teeth and a nervous former owner who he was completely in charge of, but its a pretty extreme response and this horse does it as a first option, not after having exhausted other options.

I don't like giving in, I know once he gets out of the habit, he'll be a good horse. But I just feel there is nothing I can do with him. Never felt like that with a horse before :-(

I won't get as nice a horse in exchange, I'll get a safe, less well bred horse with less potential. But I'm not complaining. Dealer has been both helpful and fair and the rearing has only developed as I've asked him to do a little harder work.

I very much get the feeling that if you did anything like smash an egg over this horse's head, smack him or pull him over backwards, he would just deliberately go over backwards as he pushes the boundaries of whats safe too far. He knows exactly what he's doing.

Turning the head to the side and shoulder in is the best option but he is so sneaky, the minute you relax, he goes up. So you would have to go everywhere sideways, and even then I'm sure he'd find out a way of doing it. Plus I'm scared I`ll pull him over backwards.

Such a pity - he's gorgeous and has so much ability.
 
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Is he chestnut by any chance?

Friend on here bought a horse from a dealer and that is exactly what the horse did with her.

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What did she end up doing with the horse?
 
Have you ever thought that this is probably the reason he's with a dealer?

You are looking at all the plus points of the horse & a reason to keep him. The rearing problem dwarfs all the possitives. You've been given the opportunity to send the horse back.... do yourself probably the best favor ever..... & send the horse back.
 
If you're determined to keep trying and are a confident rider, I'd get Richard Maxwell in. He says the egg thing is useless and a rearing horse would not assume it's head had suddenly started to bleed. He advises that the only way to cure a habitual rearer - and only THE most confident rider should attempt this - is to carry a crop and when the horse rears and you are holding round its neck, you lean downward and whack it as hard as you can under its belly. This "assault" from the underside astonishes them so much that they stop to think it through. You're likely to find that the horse will immediately rear again just to see if it was a mistake the first time, so whack him again under his belly. RM advises that pretty much sorts it. Do bear in mind though that if you've never tried this before, it could have an alternative ending with you and horse ending up in hospital. Or the morgue. Sending it back is the safest.
 
Rearing never use to worry me overly much, my bay can go up when he's excited but he throws himself forward out of it - leaps through it. I was always told to push them forward with your legs, when they go back down, send them forward....

However...

I did a friend a favour by going xc schooling with her for her young event horses back on 11th July 2009. Biggest mistake of my life.
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Her mare reared over ontop of me and landed on me. I sat up and my foot was facing the wrong way - luckily that's all what was!!!
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I have a really serious ankle break of the talus bone. No where near walking yet, only just started partial weight bearing.
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Here is a link to my bookface picture diary of my injury, if you are squeamish DON'T look! xx

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=125127&id=626507929#/album.php?aid=125127&id=626507929

In my honest opinion, sell the horse on and be honest about the rearing, if somebody wants to tackle a rearer (and good for them if they succeed) that's their decision. My opinion of 'preferring a rearer to something that bucks' has most definitely changed - CLEARLY
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. I just think, in the back of your mind, if you know (s)he has got it in them, can you ever trust them??..... and if not, you're not the owner that the horse needs, and the horse is not for you!
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xx
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Once a rearer always a rearer. They never 'unlearn' it, they just stop wanting to do it.

It sounds like his rearer is temper-tantrum based. If you can work through the tantrums, and sort out the dominace and respect issues that caused them, you will have a nice horse. But he will never be a 'non-rearer' and rearing will always be his answer to things he finds hard/scary/annoying etc.

His kind of rearing ( i.e tottering about on back legs) is dangerous so it entirely depends on whether you want to take the risk. Maybe if his talent and potential is great enough (and it's imporant enough to you) that you'd be hard pushed to get it in another horse, but for me that wouldn't be worth it.

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If you're determined to keep trying and are a confident rider, I'd get Richard Maxwell in. He says the egg thing is useless and a rearing horse would not assume it's head had suddenly started to bleed. He advises that the only way to cure a habitual rearer - and only THE most confident rider should attempt this - is to carry a crop and when the horse rears and you are holding round its neck, you lean downward and whack it as hard as you can under its belly. This "assault" from the underside astonishes them so much that they stop to think it through. You're likely to find that the horse will immediately rear again just to see if it was a mistake the first time, so whack him again under his belly. RM advises that pretty much sorts it.

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I had a cob who used to rear and this worked for her. Her rearing was temper-tantrum based as she was, initially, a stroppy little witch. After a bit of work the rearing reduced greatly but didn't stop until she earned herself a hard smack on the belly (from the saddle - I'd tied a leather throng to the end of a long schooling whip so it got her right down between the back legs). She slammed her feet back down so hard and fast I though she'd break something! She did it again 15sec later, same result, and never tried it again. HOWEVER, her rearing was balanced squating on her hind quarters (she could hold it for up to a minute!) not right up with front feet flailing in the air. And therefore safe enough to be worth tackling.
 
there are lots of tricks to try to prevent a horse from rearing but in this case i would send back.

and as another poster says, once a rearer always a rearer- you never know what will set it off again and thats something i wouldn't deal with if given the choice.
 
You can persevere and send the horse to somebody experienced and specialises in this sort of behaviour which may be costly without guarantee of success or exchange the horse.

Its up to you, how much do you like the horse?

If it was me, I would be very torn, but would have to err on the side caution and exchange him.
 
I agree with the saying "once a rearer, always a rearer".

Send him back before he does you serious damage. There are too many lovely horses out there to take such a risk.
 
Rearers are reacting to stimulus from their surroundings or in reaction to the cues/signals/ pressures of the rider. That is all.
They are not being naughty - they have a learned response (probably due to fear or pain historically)

Go to www.aebc.com.au and see the explanation for rearing by Dr Andrew McLean - recognised as the world leader on the ethological behaviours in the TRAINED HORSE.

If you are not experianced in riding rearers pass him back othewise you need to change all of your training to incorporate equine learning theory - conflict free principles....before he is labeled a problem horse and we all know where that leads him too...

what a pity as he sounds nice - somebody is to blame for upsetting him before you ...it seems...

BTW old wives tales and dogma about cracking eggs, tieing up legs etc are cruel, outdated, dangerous and DONT WORK!!
 
my mare used to rear, i sent her to a professional rider and worked with her to figure out what made her tick and how to avoid situations where she is likely to rear and so far touch wood she hasn't reared since june. she has threatened to a couple of time but she was told not to (i.e push forward) and she didn't.
 
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I wouldn't do anything, I'd get rid of it before it seriously injured me.

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this ^^^
I'm not a brave rider anyway, but I do have all the patience in the world with some things - including a horse that refused to walk over a teeny black line in the road. It took an hour, but he did it!
Rearers though - I won't even get on a rearer let alone entertain having one
 
Persoanlly I couldn't put up with a rearer - my sister's old horse established his rears (I hadn't established sitting to them), he went right up one day at a SJ event, I went smack on the floor and thought he was coming over on me. Thankfully he didn;t but when i tried to get up i realuised I had lost the feeling in my legs completely. Luckily it was only temporary - a few minutes as I must have bashed a nerve but it made me think it wasn't really worth it, what if that had been permanent!

If you REALLY wanted to keep him and are not experienced yourself then it may be worthwhile getting Richard Maxwell in to help. I guess alot of these thinsg depend on how old the horse is (has it learned this behaviour gets it out of doing stuff?) and why it's doing it.

I was told an effective remedy was to tie the tail to the horse's girth (ie plait the end of the tail and use bailer twine/string to attach to the girth) as they need the tail to balance their rear. Without the tail it is difficult for them to go up. It may work with a horse like this as from what you say it does it frequently not just random occasions. A friend did try this and worked with his rearer.

However, if it was me, I want to enjoy my horse so it'd be going back unless I truly believed I could 'cure' it - ie if the rearing was down to a lack of confidence - that I feel can be worked on. Problem is I am not sure I'd ever be able to trust it.
 
Having bought a horse this summer from some well known dealers/event riders in Leicestershire which reared and span round I would NEVER EVER try to work through rearing with another horse. Its just not worth it. Luckily for me the dealers took the horse back - thankfully we came from that area and knew a lot of people so were in a slightly better off position to be able to return it. I think he must have had a slight reputation for rearing out hunting and seeing as we came from the neighbouring hunt (OH terrierman) they obviously thought it was a sensible idea to take him back.

He terrified me out cubbing one day - just kept rearing and spinning round and was doing it to get me off. He reduced me to tears and I actually got off and led him home. I never rode him again - he went back the following weekend.

Depends how much you value your life really!! Personally I think there are a lot of other horses out there that don't rear. So why bother with one that does? It just causes heart ache and accidents if you can't stop the horse rearing and will eventually wear you down so you don't ride the horse anymore. If the horse just does it without warning, your confidence will just go and you will always be scared of riding the horse. Find something nice instead!!
 
I had a bad injury from a rearer stupidly rode a friends horse for her and he'd only been on the yard a week and he was fine on a short hack and got back to the yard sisters pony went out of sight and he gave no warning and straight up and over on top of me in a second. he landed on my leg and broke my femur, i tried to stand up and my whole leg bend in half. Had 2 have it pined in place. If I ever fall off I can risk my leg shattering Or have the pins out and if the bone is not strong enough then my leg can re-break. I do ride but spent a long time in walk and only canter my horse 1st time this week, luckly I have a fantastic horse who build my confidence up.
Every1 who saw the accident said any closer and it could of been a spinal injury or worse lights out.

I dont think u can trust a rearer, I know accidents can always happen on horses but with a reared your putting yourself in the situation to be injuried.

Sending him back or getting Professional would be my advice
 
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