What would you do?

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Agent XXX999

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Situation.

Your friend gets on her horse, he starts messing about - threatening to buck, mini rears, cantering on the spot.

She gets off.

You think to yourself....that horse is taking the P***!!!!!!!!!!!

She says she is going to lunge instead.

Would you lunge, or push the bugger forward, kick it on and make it go?

In the end, got off Bruce, on him, had a 5 minute arguement which involved me smacking him. and a couple of huge bucks...and then had a lovely hack...frend on Bruce.

Is that right or would you have lunged????

BTW her horse is great!!!! I took him in the school after our hack and he was doing flying changes, leg yield and shoulder in beautifully.....LOL when said this to friend and she says

"ooooh he doesnt know how to do flying changes are you sure"

Well yeeeeesssss. he is a very clever boy then!!! Just a naughty one!
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I would have done exactly what you did - get on and show the bugger whose boss but that takes confidence and i can see how a less confident rider would have problems 'riding through it' (as happy horse said) but then maybe wrong horse for the wrong person if they are scared of it
 
mine had a funny 3 turns in 3 minutes, a rear, a buck and a little bolt, all half hearted to test me out cos he is too nice to be scary but i got livid and insisted we carry on even tho i didnt know whether i should or not and we had 3hrs of bliss. another ride recently went mental in the school so i dragged her out for a hack (partly terrified) and again, perfect. must not let them win
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well done tho, not sure i would have got on someone elses horse to do it, its one thing to brave your own!!
 
Would have pushed him on as Im stubborn as a mule ... but she obviously didnt feel confident enough to do this , so she did possibly the right thing , might have ended up on her possibly coming off and getting hurt
 
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he was fine with me, he was taking the P out of his owner!

I just dont see the point in changing what you are doing, surely that means they have won then
 
She has asked me to ride and compete him all summer so going to have the glory for free|!

Ahhh we love the gimger pomy!
 
I would have persevered and got the horse going forward even if the outline was ugly. I think if you allow your horse to dictate the shots then there will be problems later.

Horses learn what they can get away with!!

Diana
 
Please don't shoot me down here, I'm just trying to say what is in my mind going from what has been said and not here to cause an argument or anything.

so here goes....It all depends on safe she felt and if getting off was what she thought best then so be it.

Yes it is good to work through these situations but staying on board isn't always the right answer and gettimg into a battle isn't either.

What was the horse trying to tell her?

Over all if lass is happy doing what she is doing then it's no ones business unless she asks for help which hopefully is given without critizism or with a "I told you so" attitude.

I wouldn't resort to "working the b**ger hard" as suggested. Yes maybe dismount and do some lunge work or long lining but not in a bossy attitude way. Working tjem hard , tiring them out does not help the horse, just makes him tired and doesn't solve the issue.

The horse will pick up on your emotions and who wants an unhappy horse.

I wouldn't get into bullying mode in the saddle either but I would be firm.

"I'd suggest she sell it" why? Not very good advice my thinks... unless the horse is getting to a point where your safety is in danger. But then who do you sell a dangerous horse to?

Horses are not mechanical robots they do have emotions and feelings, they do react to these just like we do. Only problem is we can voice our emotions, horses can't so they have to display them in the only way they know how.

I'd have thought it best to try and find the underlying cause rather than battle the result. I've also found through years of experiencing difficult horses that a kind gentle approach works better than pushing a horses and showing it who's the boss in a negative way.

Of course I am only going on what I have read and because I was not there to seee it I don't know to what extent the horse acted up.
 
Quote....

"I would Suggest she sell it"

I think this may have been a tounge in cheek reference to the fact I got on really well with the horse?!!!!

I can see what you are saying HDT, That is great, however surely if you dont push the horse on and through he will just do the same next time?
 
If the horse is obviously just taking the P then I'd persevere, I think if you let them get away with bad behaviour the next time it will be even worse! If there was any hint of an underlying cause tho I would stop and get it checked first.
 
If your friend is having a few issues with her horse and lack the confidence to deal with it from the saddle then lunging or long reining for a while to re-confirm submission is the best thing to do.

You are obviously a more competent and confident rider than your friend, however you getting on and sorting it will not help her the next time she has to get on and will probably reduce her confidence further. If you want to help your friend you need to do so by trying to increase her confidence and by encouraging her to have a go without taking over the job.

Just my opinion.
 
Would you not have more confidence knowing that your horse was fine and did it with a small argument than 'thinking' that you are going to get bucked off?
 
I dont think your friend was in danger of being bucked off because she had decided to lunge the horse and presumably would have got back on again afterwards.
 
Thought you said in your first post that your friend was going to get off and lunge the horse - have I 'speed' read that bit wrong?
 
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I dont think your friend was in danger of being bucked off because she had decided to lunge the horse and presumably would have got back on again afterwards.

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Sorry I dont understand the point you are trying to make here?

My point was is that she 'thought' that she was going to get off, and even though she was looking forward to our ride she would have got off and lunged.

The fact now she has seen me get on and kick him forward and knows that he is OK and will be fine next time?

BTW She asked me to ride him, I didnt offer.
 
When ty bucked me off mangobiscuit and my other mate refused to ride him till I got back on - I owe them both so much for that as if I hadn't pushed myself I'd have ended up being one of those people who's too scared to ride their own horse.....

Sure you did what you thought best but maybe stick her on horse on lunge next time and get her confidence up a bit?

Well done for getting him through it tho
 
Ps - the only way ty and I rebuilt our relationship was 2 weeks of lonreining and lunging so that he could rebuild his trust in me and me in him - may not work for everyone tho x
 
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I dont think your friend was in danger of being bucked off because she had decided to lunge the horse and presumably would have got back on again afterwards.

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Sorry I dont understand the point you are trying to make here?

My point was is that she 'thought' that she was going to get off, and even though she was looking forward to our ride she would have got off and lunged.

The fact now she has seen me get on and kick him forward and knows that he is OK and will be fine next time?

BTW She asked me to ride him, I didnt offer.

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Now you're confusing me - in your opening post you said she was 'going' to lunge, not that that she 'thought' she was going to lunge. You also did not state that she had asked you to get on the horse. I was only basing my reponse on what you stated in the first place.

It seemed to me when I read your opening post that your friend decided to lunge but you had thought it was a bad idea (hence your thread) and that you had got on the horse because you believed that to lunge would be counter-productive as it was a change of direction.

I have no wish to argue with you but was merely commenting that if your friend has a big loss of confidence and had decided to lunge instead of ride because her horse was messing about and you had told her it was a bad idea and got on it instead it may well have dented her confidence further.

Yes you probably did get a tune out of it and I understand that you were demonstrating to her that all she needed to do was give it a kick and it would start to behave but my view was in doing so you may well have demonstrated to her that she cannot ride her own horse and your assistance may have not have helped that much.

She is the only one that can tell you that though.

It was merely my opinion - please feel free to ignore it if you wish but I hope that is clearer.
 
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