What do you do?

[Birker2020]

I must admit to being surprised by the wow emojis and the 'politically correct' question Bitzandbobs

Surely if you're in a dangerous position where your horse is bolting then you use whatever means you have available to try and slow down and stop? I know the original question was 'in a hack environment with other riders,' but translating that scenario to being run away with on a road or where you know that continuing at that speed is likely to end badly I personally wouldn't care how I reached that stop. Only that I did and we and any third party got to see another day

 

[Cloball]

I do tend to go for the push on if there is space and it's safe, in the past this has mainly happened in big fields and especially beaches. We used to take the riding school ponies to the beach after exams at uni and one mare scared on of the more nervous riders so I hoped on and we had an absolute ball ... But I had about 100miles of empty beach to play with.
My current mare if you use to strong a rein the back end objects and she doesn't have much neck so I tend to go softly softly with half halts and use my core and catch her before she gets unruly. But our canter tracks are mostly narrow tracks so they have to stay at the pace and position you want for safety.
I have pointed two horses at walls one Clydesdale who was bolting... He jumped it . One fell pony who disagreed with me she slowed down and promptly tried to climb it like a goat.... Do not point at walls see previous statement re hedges.

 

[Red-1]

If one tanks off, I usually have one rein short and braced on/over the neck and the other brings them up short. It is a powerful emergency stop where the one on the neck takes the strain and the other is high and twists the head. Horses don't like the horizon on the wonk and that usually brings them up sharply enough to sit them on the hocks.

If one gets away, I would circle if I could, but, if one did 'get away' I would certainly not be putting myself back in that situation without a major re-think. I like the Cheltenham Gag for this. Ride on the snaffle the majority of the time, then a hard pull on the slide part to bring them up short. I have fitted a standing martingale to do this to protect my nose! Of course, proper acclimatisation in schooling would also follow.

 

[Lois Lame]

I must admit to being surprised by the wow emojis and the 'politically correct' question Bitzandbobs

Surely if you're in a dangerous position where your horse is bolting then you use whatever means you have available to try and slow down and stop? I know the original question was 'in a hack environment with other riders,' but translating that scenario to being run away with on a road or where you know that continuing at that speed is likely to end badly I personally wouldn't care how I reached that stop. Only that I did and we and any third party got to see another day

I guess I am one of those wowsers, Birker. Sorry about that. I wasn't thinking of a 'what if you're in a dangerous situation where you are heading for certain death?' though; I was thinking more the 'I don't want to be going this fast or feeling this out of control'.

 

[rabatsa]

Note to any clever clogs out there, I did make a rookie error once yrs ago, just had a little steering so pointed at a hefty wall.... blooming didn't work as sailed over it and took another frantic 2 minutes to actually get anchored! Don't try aiming at solid things.....

My error was a 6' privit hadge. The horse sailed over it and onto a bowling green.

 

[Birker2020]

I guess I am one of those wowsers, Birker. Sorry about that. I wasn't thinking of a 'what if you're in a dangerous situation where you are heading for certain death?' though; I was thinking more the 'I don't want to be going this fast or feeling this out of control'.

It's OK LL lol

 

[Errin Paddywack]

My error was a 6' privit hadge. The horse sailed over it and onto a bowling green.

I bet you were popular with the greensman.

 

[suestowford]

I have been in similar situations - this was before I had my own horse and was riding at various stables. It's even worse when the horse is unfamiliar to you and you have no idea how it will react. I've always counted it as a win if I am still with the horse when everything stops!

I remember once riding in Wales with about a dozen other people. There was a wasp nest and the horses in front were stung and went mad. It was many years ago so I can't remember how we stopped them, I expect we all just waited until they'd run far enough that they felt safe to stop, and picked up any bodies afterwards.

 

[Mrs. Glittery Jingle Balls]

The Irish creature that came before him was way better if you just threw the reins at him the first few strides and let him do what he wanted THEN asked him to come back a bit if needed. If you tried to hold him he’d just get strong and fight you for his head but after he’d had his fun he was open to suggestions.

It must be an Irish horse thing. I had two who would regularly try their might at speed, like you, if I just relaxed and threw the reins at them it took the steam and mischief straight out of their fun.

Other than that I am a great advocate of just pushing them on, and on, and on it can be a great training method especially for a young horse who tries to set the pace. They seldom do it twice IME.