what is this dumb attraction

fburton said:
Totally mad stuff in the YouTube links below. It's only a matter of time before someone gets seriously hurt, or even killed!?!? :mad: At least he's wearing a hat some of the time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIwwuC0MHi4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znU6YVLBcTY
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i was going to say an amazing horseman in the making but i think i will cut out the latter becuase he already is an amazing horseman, absolutely wanderful to watch. Can't see your problem fburton he obviously has a seriously great bond with his horse!!!
 
Matt and Jack said:
Sorry but had to laugh at this :D ... mum look i can do it... can i have a treat now...pleeeeeaaaassssseeeee!!!!... :D
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Well yes, unfortunately when you train horses with treats it will often occur to them to use their new trick as a way to demand food ;)
 
I thought fburton was being sarcastic about the links... I was expecting the SRS when I clicked tbh!
 
JFTD said:
I thought fburton was being sarcastic about the links... I was expecting the SRS when I clicked tbh!
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Was fburton not being sarcastic about the comment above as well - I had to reread it several times to check I was reading what was written :confused:
 
DabDab said:
Was fburton not being sarcastic about the comment above as well - I had to reread it several times to check I was reading what was written :confused:
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I admit to a teeny bit of sarcasm creeping in to my posts here. :o

Pretty much everything we do with horses, especially when mounted (I would say), is potentially dangerous and so the value of doing it depends on what we get out of it - basically a subjective judgment. I don't think that training a horse to rear on command is intrinsically more or less valuable than training a horse to jump XC obstacles, and I'd only be concerned if it were done in a blatantly unsafe way, or compromised the horse's welfare or safety of other people in the long run. Otherwise, it is surely up to the owner what he/she does with their horses and no business whatever of other people. Calling the attraction 'dumb' is unjustified and unfair, in my opinion. Should the young man in the YouTube video be scorned or scolded for teaching his mare to rear like that? I don't think so!
 
fburton said:
I admit to a teeny bit of sarcasm creeping in to my posts here. :o

Pretty much everything we do with horses, especially when mounted (I would say), is potentially dangerous and so the value of doing it depends on what we get out of it - basically a subjective judgment. I don't think that training a horse to rear on command is intrinsically more or less valuable than training a horse to jump XC obstacles, and I'd only be concerned if it were done in a blatantly unsafe way, or compromised the horse's welfare or safety of other people in the long run. Otherwise, it is surely up to the owner what he/she does with their horses and no business whatever of other people. Calling the attraction 'dumb' is unjustified and unfair, in my opinion. Should the young man in the YouTube video be scorned or scolded for teaching his mare to rear like that? I don't think so!
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tut tut for sracasm :rolleyes: :D but redeemed with the other bit!!!! ;)
 
One of mine has been taught to rear. Given a choice of who's rear I would prefer out of my one that has been taught to rear with someone on his back or my OTTB when his brain is fried, I can tell you which one I feel safer on, especially as said OTTB has flipped himself over twice when freaked out (thankfully with no one on board and that was sorted out by an experienced and knowledgeable trainer before it got any worse)

I have played around on the ground with my gelding heaps to try and figure out his cue, but haven't managed yet. I have never felt in danger of flipping and he has never felt unbalanced, even when he has been scared by something.

If you are going to teach a horse a trick there are right and wrong ways to go about it. Is rearing really an appropriate trick to teach? Prob not, especially when kids are teaching it to show off to each other. My question is, where are the kids parents? Why are they not putting a stop to this idiocy? How can someone encouraging this behaviour honestly think they are a good parent? Guaranteed mummy with the camcorder would be the first to cry out and raise a fuss is little Suzy gets hurt because she fell off her rearing pony.
 
I have watched the video and there is a huge difference between training skillfully and having a go by pulling on the pony to show off.
What I saw at the show was shocking. People did make complaints I believe, as I said they then went in the lead rein class to show a quiet child's mount. One that rears is not in my book a suitable child's mount-let alone letting a child teach it!
 
I have stupidy and quite ignorantly taught a horse in the past to 'give a paw' by using treats.... *facepalm* regretted it almost as soon as it clicked with him! :o
 
FfionWinnie said:
We are a while away from that then!

Actually it was a refusal to stand still and me insisting which triggered it, while in season. I'm still quite shocked it happened after 9 months, out of the blue really (but of course wasn't coming in to season until recently so now I am worrying this will be the norm when in season, crazy hormonal behaviour:().
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Got exactly the same from mine after about the same period of time. Mares :rolleyes:

I have seen someone other than JFTD ask Ferga to rear, I really don't think you could ever, ever get it by accident. Honestly

As fburton says, everything we do on a horses back is unnatural and pointless to the horse. Why is rearing different from jumping or passaging or half passing? It isn't really. It is all just about perception and pulic opinion
 
Well I Never said:
Jumping and passage isn't considered a vice, rearing is.
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It is possible to dispute this. If you define bucking and rearing as natural behaviours that are normally undesirable under saddle (remember that levade and capriole which are desirable in haute ecole trained horses are essentially fancy, trained rears and bucks).

Vices would then be defined as things like cribbing, door banging, winsucking etc... (stereotypical behaviour, rather then a normal, natural one).

You shouldn't tar all 'trained to rear horses' with the same brush - although I do totally agree that your example in your first post was a bad thing.
 
Well I Never said:
Jumping and passage isn't considered a vice, rearing is.
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Is it?? :confused: Untrained and unwanted rearing is certainly a dangerous habit, but it is a behavioural issue not a 'vice' in the strict sense of the word, which refers to stereotypical behaviour, something completely different. It isn't one of the behaviours that has to be declared if the buyer or vet asks "Does this horse have any vices?", although of course honesty would dictate that any rearing problems be mentioned if applicable.
 
Faracat said:
You shouldn't tar all 'trained to rear horses' with the same brush - although I do totally agree that your example in your first post was a bad thing.
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Yes, I agree it was too. However, I also think blanket generalizations are unhelpful and unfair.
 
Just back from the field where, at the end of a lovely in-hand training session, I told my horse he could do his favourite thing :D He does a good 'un too ;)

I wonder if people were actually taught how to train using food so that they understood about training and using cues properly - i.e. the horse does the behaviour when given the cue, only when given the cue, and never when given any other cue - would they be less horrified about behaviours like rearing? I know my horse loves doing it - and he gets to do it at the end of a good session of walking, trotting, leg yielding, sidepassing, backing up - as a reward for good behaviour. I know he's dying for me to give the cue, but he understands there's no reward for doing it without the cue, so he holds on until he gets the signal. And that approach means when he does get the cue, he puts everything into it :)

There's no point picking out a single behaviour and saying it's dangerous. We teach our horses to do lots of things - to walk when we give a cue, to stop when we give a cue, to canter when we give a cue. It's - IMO - just as dangerous to teach a horse to canter under saddle as it is to rear, because if they canter off with you without you asking you're in just as much trouble as if they rear without you asking. The key is that you have trained that they don't either canter or rear until you ask. And that they stop when you ask as well :)
 
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