What is the difference between running away and bolting?

EternalVetBills

EternalVetBills

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I've heard people say on hear quite a few times that there's a difference, but I don't really know what it is. I personally say if my horse decides to have a little jolly that I was run away with and I've always just assumed that people that say their horse 'bolted' are over exaggerating. So my question is, is there a difference and if so what is it?
Thanks,
Ellie xx
 
If you ever get a horse bolt with you it will be very obvious what the difference is . Bolting is a panic mode ,there is no stopping and totally without control.
 
Having sat on a real bolter I completely agree with popsdosh - you WILL know the difference.

Having a horse run off with you means it is harder to stop than you would want. Having a horse bolt means you can't stop it and it will run blind.
 
To me a true bolter has no steering or brakes and will run through or if you are lucky jump a fence if it gets in the way. Most horses are just running off or tanking which is scary enough for most people but as has been said you do not want to be sitting on one when it does bolt.
 
I dont think its a stupid question, and agree that if you've ridden a 'bolt' then you will know the difference. My daughter always says her mare has bolted - it hasnt, the truth being the mare knows she is bigger and more powerful and takes the mick! Runs off when shes had enough...
I have only ridden one horse that bolted, and omg the fear has stayed with me 15 yrs on. I had absolutely no brakes, no steering, and the horse didn't stop till it got home, a mile away. Very, very scary.
 
I've been run away with/ tanked off with - no brakes but had steering - & bolted with & horse hit a tree! It was blind, literally, panic at full gallop.
 
I once had an arab which bolted with me. It is the most terrifying thing. there is no steering and no brakes and absolutely nothing you can do about it. A friends horse once bolted after he fell off, it galloped sown a road and crashed head on into a concrete bus shelter, knocked itself out. everyone thought it was dead. Yes, bolting is quite different to be run away with.
 
I've only ever been bolted with in 24 years, last autumn I went to ride a friend of a friends mare and it bolted in the school with me, round and round we went. How the hell she didn't fall over I don't know. I tried to pull her into the wall, then the corner but no luck. In the end I bailed out.
 
popsdosh said:
If you ever get a horse bolt with you it will be very obvious what the difference is . Bolting is a panic mode ,there is no stopping and totally without control.
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^^this^^

I had a welsh pony used to take great delight in 'running off' with a rider when he felt like it. Sometimes it was only trot, but he took a hold and he was in control.
Does not compare with the experience of a horse bolting in harness, which I only stopped by running him into a barbed wire fence (which he jumped). Even then, he'd have kept going if the fence hadn't stopped the cart / harness. Utterly without sense or control and terrifying.
 
EquestrianEllie01 said:
Ah, okay, thank you guys sorry for the stupid question :)
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I agree with showaddy1 - it's not a stupid question, and the answers given could help others in the future who ask the same thing. It would be a shame for someone to label their horse a bolter if, in reality, it *just* ran off (not saying being run off with is too much fun, as I know from personal experience!)

To me, it's a little like saying you've got 'flu when you've got a cold. No matter how bad your cold is, and how bad you feel, if you really had 'flu you'd know about it.
 
I've had a horse bolt with me and its truly terrifying. My old mare used to turn and bolt for home regularly. When I say bolt I mean she would tank off at a flat out gallop with no regard for her safety or mine. I had no brakes or steering either. She'd bolt through ditches, hedges, even bolted down a steep high banking with me.

My gelding on the other hand had a little moment the other week. At first I thought he had bolted but looking back it wasn't. He just decided to take off and due to my past experience I panicked. He was just enjoying himself, but wasn't just blindly tanking off without a thought for where he was going. Had I been thinking clearly I know I could have easily stopped him had I just circled him or been a bit firmed with my reins.

So there's definitely a difference between the two.
 
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Agree with the above- ive been run away with, resulting in horse panicking and bolting once in my life (I was 13) which resulted in us crashing through a barbed wire fence and losing the horse up the bridle path... (She was still running in a blind panic)

I had to bully my younger friend and her (as a result) lame pony up to the yard to get help

It's only the last few years that I can now happily go top speed without worrying too much about it happening again, but I still find Im always super aware of my stopping distance (I'm 28) and it took me years to truly believe that it wasn't actually my fault.

Experience and forcing myself to be brave has conquered it now tho.

However, my mum had a lovely horse who could literally 'run away' with you at a trot, hahaha! She was fantastic, the naughty thing!
 
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I think my mare is a true bolter, but I would love it if someone corrected me!

Exhibit A: she took off with me in the indoor school, I bailed after a while, she carried on and galloped laps of the school until she fell over, which seemed to break the spell and she trotted over to be caught. No hitting walls/gates just ran around the outside track.

Exhibit B: she took off with me on a farm ride, I had some steering but no brakes. We hit a metal gate, I came off, she fell over. She then got up and galloped another 3 miles (including through some wire by the look of her chest).

Thoughts?
 
GLW said:
I think my mare is a true bolter, but I would love it if someone corrected me!

Exhibit A: she took off with me in the indoor school, I bailed after a while, she carried on and galloped laps of the school until she fell over, which seemed to break the spell and she trotted over to be caught. No hitting walls/gates just ran around the outside track.

Exhibit B: she took off with me on a farm ride, I had some steering but no brakes. We hit a metal gate, I came off, she fell over. She then got up and galloped another 3 miles (including through some wire by the look of her chest).

Thoughts?
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sounds like a true bolter and my honest thoughts-shoot it before it seriously injures someone. horses that bolt are not in control and it is not something you can train out of them, the flight instinct in a bolter is strong and you cannot stop instinct
 
I only truly understood the difference when the horse I got free because of his tendency to uncontrolled speed was heading straight for a cattle grid with no indication he was going to stop. I baled and he did actually stop but with literally an inch to spare. I was hysterical because I thought I was going to watch him break his legs.
 
My horse has bolted and just ran off. When she ran off she would not run into anything and she would stop and be calm she was just taking the piss. When she bolts something sets in off and frightens her like she sees another horse then she just goes straight into a gallop and will not stop she will smash into people and other horses there is no stopping her and when she does stop she is nervous and scared
 
My last one was a true bolter, He had no regard for his own safety let alone mine, He went head first into walls (fractured skull) through post and rail fences, Into tree's. When he went he was blind, there was no steering, there was no brakes, the safest thing was to bale because that horse would have gone off a cliff if he was headed for one.
If he bolted in an indoor he would hit the wall normaly, and I did know of one bolter (not mine) who went through the wall of one indoor school (yorkshire boarding).
My lad was bolting due to pain (fractured pelvis, but was completly sound in full lamenes work up) once we fixed the problem the bolting stopped.

With taking off, normaly you can get some form of steering back and if you point it into a wall it will stop.
 
GLW said:
I think my mare is a true bolter, but I would love it if someone corrected me!

Exhibit A: she took off with me in the indoor school, I bailed after a while, she carried on and galloped laps of the school until she fell over, which seemed to break the spell and she trotted over to be caught. No hitting walls/gates just ran around the outside track.

Exhibit B: she took off with me on a farm ride, I had some steering but no brakes. We hit a metal gate, I came off, she fell over. She then got up and galloped another 3 miles (including through some wire by the look of her chest).

Thoughts?
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I'd say that was a proper bolt too. When mine went I still had some steering - which is why I didn't bale from the carriage. I was fairly sure that I was going to die, but I needed to stop him causing a big RTA. There was oncoming traffic and I was able to keep him to the left side of the road, and pull him around 180 where there was space...he did turn, but without slowing. Christ knows how he didn't go over.
 
I get really annoyed when people say their horse bolted but they pulled it up after a few strides..thats not a bolt
I have a bolter the last time he was ridden I don't know how we both survived the bolt that was when I decided he wasn't to be ridden again,I've had people say they will ride him for me that they can cure him but he's happy as a companion to my youngsters and i wouldn't put his or anyone's life at risk
 
Don't think it was but thoughts on the following:

Couple of years ago was hacking down the lanes with friend and came across lady hearing cows, these were supposed to go down a road away from one we were going down. They didn't and started heading towards us. Turn round ready to walk back up road so they don't head too close to us, both mine and friends horse take off in gallop down the road unable to pull up so lucky we didn'tmeet any cars went aabout 500 metres or so before I was able to head him into a lay by and stop. Guessing this was just panicked running off (not surprised given the number of cows plus adrenaline of there being two of them and fact we were able to stop? That was scary enough with the fear of knowing there could be a car around corner and not knowing if/ when we could pull up wouldn't ever want to knowingly get on a known bolter.
 
There's definitely a difference, and it's one of my pet hates when people confuse the two. I've ridden plenty of horses that will take off with you, because they're excited or spooking or whatever. I've only ridden one horse that I would call a true bolter. Galloping flat out along a main road and almost jumping a land rover is not an experience I'd care to repeat in a hurry.
 
twiggy2 said:
sounds like a true bolter and my honest thoughts-shoot it before it seriously injures someone. horses that bolt are not in control and it is not something you can train out of them, the flight instinct in a bolter is strong and you cannot stop instinct
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She'll never be sold, that's for sure. Flight is her response to feeling stressed or pressured, so I work around it by not putting her under pressure. If I feel she is getting stressed, I back off and we do something else or I get off. The only times we have had a problem is where I have ignored my gut feeling and pushed on - I like to think I won't do that again, but we all make mistakes. I'm happy to work around her, but I wouldn't expect others to, so if I couldn't keep her (or if she became truly unpredictable) she would be shot.
 
My horse has properly tanked with me once. We were heading down hill towards a HUGE hedge which had a barbed wire fence on the landing side which was much higher. I knew turning him at it wouldn't mean we'd stop as when he did something similar with a friend out hunting, she turned him at a gate to stop him and he jumped it (no blind panic so not a bolt, just enjoying running with the pack a bit too much). It was very scary, I'd hate to think what a proper bolt feels like. Going through that field fills me with dread even now, 5 or 6 years later. I always ask my friends to let me stay in front and only go at a very steady canter at most. I'd happily walk it but my friends always like to canter there as we don't get much opportunity elsewhere.
 
Interesting thread for me to read, my friends 5 yr old is doing something similar atm, im not sure whether or not to class him as a bolter.

He sometimes just goes, can be from a halt, walk, trot or canter he picks up speed and wont stop, if you apply pressure to the bit he goes faster, but he doesnt go through things! the rider has no steering (myself and my friend have had him do this with us) but he steers himself round the corners of the arena so he does have some self preservation! We cant find a trigger for it and somedays he doesnt put a foot wrong, he is a very quiet shy laidback lad and its like a switch is flicked in his head. Sadly he has had my friend off resulting in her waking up in an ambulance, we arent sure where to go from here, 99% of the time he's a gem... the other 1% he's not!

I have always been under the impression that a horse bolting with keep going no matter what is in their way!
 
Arniebear. I have similar issue my 6 year old started tanking off when out on her own but was perfect in company. Then she did it with me while out with another, did huge bounce first so I lost stirrups but managed to stop her more by telling her calmly to walk. She has been away for schooling and has been perfect for last 2 months. I now don't know whether to sell her to more confident rider (I would be totally honest about her) or try and get my confidence back with her which at present is zero
 
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