What did you do when your horse reared with you?

all health checks done before he went to be restarted and went with his own fitted saddle -going to get his back done asap now hes chilled out a bit to make sure thats ok still. petrified of men so monty roberts would be no good. he has serious trust issues with strangers so having a stranger turn up and try to make him do things would most likely be very stressful for him and not get anywhere .will not pass him on so will be field ornament .cant justify spending anymore money on him unfortunatly .have owned him since a foal so know his history. weve tried to drive and hes petrified and doesnt do well with anything behind him. weve more or less come to the conclusion hes a pet
 
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I laughed loads actually as he's a highland pony so rearing took quite a lot of effort for him. I was having a lesson at the time and he was refusing to do lateral work. After some waving at the audience with his hooves I made him trot like mad round the arena.
Tbh I felt very safe during the rear and certainly would not have been laughing if my other horse tried it on!
 
My mare used to rear a lot when I first got her. Think she was just trying to find the boundaries.

The rears would start off tiny little jumps to the side then gradually they got bigger if I persisted. She mainly reared out hacking, especially when she was alone. She doesn't have much confidence when she is on her own and always relies on other horses. We managed to get her going out alone, but she would inevitably rear. For a while, she tried it on in the arena as well.

At first I was a bit nervous and scared when she started rearing (see earlier threads) but I was determined not to let her get the better of me.

When she initially started to rear, it felt like she did it out of the blue - I could never tell when she was going to do it. However as time went on, I started to pick up on things she would do before she was about to go up. In order for her to rear, she obviously had to stop. As soon as I started to feel her slowing down or hesitating, I would keep my leg on her until it passed. It sounds easy, but she was so bloomin' stubborn!

Before I started to notice any pre-warning of her rearing, I just had to sit it out. If the rears were high or consistent (ie she would go up and down constantly) I would sit forward wrap my arms around her neck. Sometimes I would pull the rein downwards as she went up in order to bring her back down. The minute she hit the ground I would have my leg on her constantly to get her to go forward. If she didn't listen, I would turn her which obviously made her use her feet and then I would leg on from there.

Eventually she got the hint that I wasn't going to give in to her so she surrendered :o
 
the last horse that reared with me was a 14.2 coloured cob that belongs to a friend - we'd gone out for a quiet hack [ i am not the bravest hacker] - we were mooching along a bridle way - pony does a little rear - cos he's a little cob - i laugh - he does a slightly bigger rear - i'm more concerened about dropping my camera [ as i'm trying to take pics] - he rears again a bit more seriously - friend looks like this:eek: - i start the sentence "i'm going to get off now" i'm off before i get to the second word & by a complete fluke manage to land neatly on my feet still holding onto the reins
my friend has a sadly warped view of my riding ability now:)
[ i did get back on at the next fence & make the little git trot briskly for the rest of the hack]
 
My horse has only reared once with me and I didn't actually notice at the time! Was a PC x-country lesson, I was the last to set off for a particular fence, horse wouldon't move forwards amd it was only then I realised I was quite high up!

He'd have been 4 or 5 a the time, he's never done it since and that was about 17 years ago. My sister's horse did it with me once - what did I do? Fall off! Right smack on my back and lost feeling in my legs for a while. Made me realise, a horse that rears isn't really my cup of tea!!!
 
first time i had a horse rear with me was out on a hack, someone fell off and another gave me her horse to hold so she could check on the person who had fallen off. The (young) horse got stroppy because the others were a little way ahead of him and so he reared. Quick crack inbetween the ears and the horse has never done it since.

second time, i was on a stroppy appaloosa mare who wanted to be in front, leading the ride. she started trying to rear but i knew that if i hit her she would freak out so i just kicked her on and did a few transitions.

every horse is different, if it were another horse i may react completely differently, luckily we dont have any rearers at the moment and if we do get any then we usually get on top of it quite quickly.
 
archiepoo said:
all health checks done before he went to be restarted and went with his own fitted saddle -going to get his back done asap now hes chilled out a bit to make sure thats ok still. petrified of men so monty roberts would be no good. he has serious trust issues with strangers so having a stranger turn up and try to make him do things would most likely be very stressful for him and not get anywhere .will not pass him on so will be field ornament .cant justify spending anymore money on him unfortunatly .have owned him since a foal so know his history. weve tried to drive and hes petrified and doesnt do well with anything behind him. weve more or less come to the conclusion hes a pet
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Speak to JanetGeorge on here, and search her threads for the "unbreakable" horse :)
 
CMH said:
only applicable obviously if they have or did. If so, how many times on seperate occasions did they continue to do it? How did you handle it? Did it put you off? How did you fix it?

Last question is, does it de value the horse?
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Well when i was 15 i had a lady send her mare along to my dads for me to ride...she said she napped and reared...and boy she did..totally upright..but i was young fearless and quite frankly thought it was great, after watching cowboy films i thought fantastic..so she reared i did nothing except smile and laugh...2 months on she was a darling didnt rear anymore and never napped ..i was gutted owners came took her back...move on 20 years and now i panick...lean forward worry and try to use a rein to unbalance them...problem is they still do it now and then and i bloody hate it...moral of the story its like everything else the less you care or fuss the less they do it!
 
My youngster (not yet backed) went through a phase of rearing when she was first led into the school. I totally ignored her, waited 'til she got down and carried on as if nothing had happened. She gave up after a week or so. If it happens again, I'll rethink.

My old boy (when he was a lot younger) reared once - straight up, spin around, shoot off, type rear. But a very large stray pig had just hurtled out of a gateway straight underneath him, so I got him back under control and comforted him for that one!

My life partner mare reared twice at her very first show under saddle, just as we walked onto the grounds. I sat tight, ignored it, let her have a look around both times. Then asked her quietly to walk on and that was that, she was fine, only ever did it again once - after six weeks of box rest just coming into walk work. Again, ignored it, put her in an outline and asked for leg-yield a few steps, got her concentrating, then back to just gentle walking. The distraction was all she needed.

I did, however, once try a horse that reared repeatedly when napping. She also ran backwards into walls, ditches, traffic. Needless to say, I did NOT buy her! I also used to ride a friend's horse who would nap and rear in gateways (great fun on country lanes in a farming area!). He used to get a "get on with it you s&!£*£(@(!!!" and a sharp urging forward. Total nuisance to hack and always started out like that, but would give up if you insisted he went forward.

The odd rear wouldn't devalue a horse from my point of view (unless it was meant to be a bombproof or kid's pony), but confirmed rearing, that's a different story!
 
Reading the replies I wish I could say I sat and pushed through it but I didnt, had no idea it was coming. not my horse but we were just plodding along on a long lead rope/ lunge line at walk she went up. I fell off (she was coming back on herself too), tried to get out her way as quick as poss, her head/ neck landed on my leg, as soon as I could I got away and cried with shock :o (horse was still on long line :rolleyes:). I then hobbled away, had a cup of coffee (loads of sugar) went home and reality hit about what happened. cue a strong drink :p My confidence is shattered but will get better eventually :) I now know she is prone to rearing and flipping over on hereslf... hard way to learn the lesson of finding out all you can before getting on board and trusting your instincts no matter who tells you its ok!
 
I swore... a lot. Then I asked him what the heck that was all about, and tried moving out again. He did it again. All checks were fine, tack fit, he wasn't in any pain that we could find, so when I rode him I started turning him in circles when he would start to gather up to rear. He'd been out of work for awhile before I started working with him, and was pretty high strung to start with. He'd been bred by my friend's mother (his owner), sold as a youngster and then bought back. He hadn't been well treated with the other people, and we think that was part of his problem. He would only go about half way up most of the time, but for safety his owner eventually put a strap on him so that he couldn't get his head up enough to rear. Unfortunately, he didn't like it, and pitched me half way across the arena (literally) after taking off with me at a show, demonstrating for the audience that an ASB can make a fine bronc indeed. :rolleyes: By the time I could get off the ground they had taken him out and untacked him. I tacked him straight back up and went into our next class... WITHOUT the strap! I told the owner I'd rather have him half-rear than trying to put me in orbit. At least that I had some control over as he wasn't nasty about it. Eventually he just stopped doing it. Maybe he realized that we were going to continue to ride him, tantrums or not! So I guess with him, it was a matter of patience and letting him know he would NOT get away with his silly games. I'm not sure about devaluation for sale, but I do know that I wouldn't buy a horse that was known to rear. My boy turned out to be a fantastic ride in the end, but I wouldn't want to go through it all again!
 
First time I rode my mare out (told she was backed, actually wasn't). Walked down the rode fine, reached a house, where a family friend was outside. They walked towards her and she freaked out. Done a little rear, which was fine, then done to biggest rear ever! Toppled herself out and landed on me (result was two slipped discs) and shot off down the road, she was brought back to me, I somehow and for some reason got on again and she freaked out again, my dad managed to grab me off before she landed on me. She was fine, and then all of a sudden she freaked out and reared again and landed on the bonnet of a car and was sort of passed out for 10-15 mins, thought we were going to loose her, vet was called blah blah before the vet arrived she was up about and eating.

All tack, back, teeth etc were fine, just something flipped inside her, I've never got back on. It sounds extremely dramatic but I value my life too much. She is a loving mare to handle etc but something just flips and she doesn't listen to anything, she is the total opposite to my other one
 
We bought a mare from auction and had to get her out within 48 hours under the warranty. OH rode her out the first time and she napped a little but eventually walked the block with Sami and I walking alongside her. I took her out the next day, along with 2 other horses for a hack, we were out a couple of hours and she spent most of that on her back legs. I have never ridden a rearer before and it is something I don't really handle well on the ground - it scares me! I quickly got used to keeping my weight forward whilst she went up and immediately she landed spun her and then drove forward. She wasn't doing little rears, they were almost vertical and I was very aware that I didn't want her going over on me but all in all I think I managed her well and we got back in one piece, if I am honest (and probably stupid) I actually enjoyed it, made a change from plodding around). OH rode her in the field a few days later and she just exploded, broncing across the field until she got him off. I suspect that, at 5, she was very green and hadn't been started properly. We decided to keep her because she is a lovely mare and turned her away with the intention of restarting her but as yet haven't done anything other than a bit of lunging with her.
 
Mine did, but they weren't normally bolt upright or anything. He's pretty much stopped now and he just tries occasionally if he gets very upset in a new environment or something happens to panic him. I got him from the track and it seemed to be his default, on the ground or under saddle if something scared him.

I just turn him in a circle before it happens if I can, and kick on. When he did manage to go up, it was a case of sit tight, then when he got back down..kick on.

Kick on, really ;)
 
NoltonSeaShell said:
First time I rode my mare out (told she was backed, actually wasn't). Walked down the rode fine, reached a house, where a family friend was outside. They walked towards her and she freaked out. Done a little rear, which was fine, then done to biggest rear ever! Toppled herself out and landed on me (result was two slipped discs) and shot off down the road, she was brought back to me, I somehow and for some reason got on again and she freaked out again, my dad managed to grab me off before she landed on me. She was fine, and then all of a sudden she freaked out and reared again and landed on the bonnet of a car and was sort of passed out for 10-15 mins, thought we were going to loose her, vet was called blah blah before the vet arrived she was up about and eating.

All tack, back, teeth etc were fine, just something flipped inside her, I've never got back on. It sounds extremely dramatic but I value my life too much. She is a loving mare to handle etc but something just flips and she doesn't listen to anything, she is the total opposite to my other one
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That sounds hellish, what an experience, glad you and her are okay.
She might have just been really scared if she was just backed, but to rear as her way to demonstrate it is scary as hell if youre not confident dealing with it.
 
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