When your horse rears...

[air78]

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If he does it again, even a small one, If you whack him between the ears with your whip, he'll associate going up with a sore head

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not really the best solution -considering horses go into pressure

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Well said Madhector

 

[Spudlet]

OP, you might want to consider getting your horse's saddle checked, they change shape so much and the fit of tack also changes with normal wear so it may be pinching. This can cause all sorts of bad behaviour. You might also want to get teeth, back etc checked out to make sure nothing is causing pain.

If I feel a horse is backing up and may be about to go up I ride forward hard while keeping a contact. I am fortunate however in that the only rears I have ever experienced are little 'I'm just so excited' ones.

 

[Chestnutter]

I feel like a stupid little forum-novice but what does OP stand for?

 

[TequilaMist]

Ah Araminta thats what I do with daughters horse.Must admit didn't know to do it just common sense figured(well hoped) she couldn't do it if not in balance with head.
Will say she rarely does it now tho you can feel her wanting to when stressed .

 

[Chestnutter]

Bob_Rob_n_Tiff..
how strange!
Where your picture is taken is exactly where my rear happened today!! Odd...

 

[Spudlet]

Oh I'm sorry! It means Original Poster - so you!

 

[diggerbez]

it means "original poster"...so you!

 

[tilly17]

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OP, you might want to consider getting your horse's saddle checked, they change shape so much and the fit of tack also changes with normal wear so it may be pinching. This can cause all sorts of bad behaviour. You might also want to get teeth, back etc checked out to make sure nothing is causing pain.

If I feel a horse is backing up and may be about to go up I ride forward hard while keeping a contact. I am fortunate however in that the only rears I have ever experienced are little 'I'm just so excited' ones.

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I think that this is the most sensible post yet. The bottom line is that if your horse rears it is dangerous as anyone who has ended up with their horse sitting on their lap will agree. You need to deal with it to the best of your ability, hopefully we have progressed from cracking eggs over horses heads but at the end of the day if you have a horse that rears and you can't sort it out you need to find someone that can otherwise you will either end up frightened of your horse, injured, or selling on a horse that will injure someone else and be passed on to progressively worse owners until it ends up with the meat man.

 

[Chestnutter]

It seemed as though it was aimed at me, just checking

But yes, a few people have mentioned that so i'm looking for a "saddle-checker" as we speak.

however, that does sound about right, so in a way i'm hoping it is something that can be solved as easy as just a new saddle as opposed to hitting heads, cracking eggs or re-schooling!!

 

[Chestnutter]

[ QUOTE ]
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OP, you might want to consider getting your horse's saddle checked, they change shape so much and the fit of tack also changes with normal wear so it may be pinching. This can cause all sorts of bad behaviour. You might also want to get teeth, back etc checked out to make sure nothing is causing pain.

If I feel a horse is backing up and may be about to go up I ride forward hard while keeping a contact. I am fortunate however in that the only rears I have ever experienced are little 'I'm just so excited' ones.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think that this is the most sensible post yet. The bottom line is that if your horse rears it is dangerous as anyone who has ended up with their horse sitting on their lap will agree. You need to deal with it to the best of your ability, hopefully we have progressed from cracking eggs over horses heads but at the end of the day if you have a horse that rears and you can't sort it out you need to find someone that can otherwise you will either end up frightened of your horse, injured, or selling on a horse that will injure someone else and be passed on to progressively worse owners until it ends up with the meat man.

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totally agreed!

 

[jenbleep]

I have been told that horses have to use their neck to get them up to rear, so if when I have ridden any horses that had a tendency to rear I would get them moving forwards in trot in a small circle (head turned *right* in so it is physically impossible for them to get up) if they had already reared or are threatening to.

When I was at a riding school it was said to 'smack a rearer between the ears with a whip' but imo if a horse is in such a state to actually rear then smacking it is quite silly! I would imagine that that would wind it up/scare it even more

 

[Spudlet]

I tells ya, qualified saddlers are the way forwards. I'm assuming you're in the UK, so try here http://www.mastersaddlers.co.uk/

If it does turn out to be a pain issue, even after the problem that caused the pain is solved the unwanted behaviour can continue because the horse will remember that something hurt and will try to avoid doing whatever it was that hurt without actually stopping to realise 'hey it doesn't actually hurt any more!' However with time and patience there is a good chance this will improve, a good instructor can help you out there as well.

Good luck with it hun.

 

[FRESHMAN]

To both yourself & Sarahsmum I never suggested I would whack them over the head did I? I said I would not be worried about the consequences of a horse becoming headshy or worried about it's ears being touched.

 

[Box_Of_Frogs]

Richard Maxwell advises riders in this predicament to lean forward and down, whilst holding one arm round the horse's neck and whack him under the belly with your crop. The horse will be shocked to find an attack coming from underneath. Mind you, he does stress that you need to be a world class rider to even attempt this.

 

[somethingorother]

And i was simply pointing out that your concerns would not be avoided by not worrying about being head shy. It was pretty irrelevant actually as of course that is the concern of rearing (going over and being squashed and permanently damaged), and the discussion is about the best ways to stop/deal with/ sit rearing.

I was noting that a good way to go about ending up in a wheelchair would be to aggravate an already upset horse. Therefore head hitting imo is not a good way to deal with rearing...

Am i making sense?

 

[rara007]

QR With Tally, who just reared almost the whole time you tried to make him do anything I used an egg

This was before he was broken, and he simply was doing it out od naughtyness, As much as you can say train him better, when you can't even tie up for more than 3 seconds without a full rear and getting in from the field needs special planning telling him no doesn't work. Using this was much kinder IMO than using a anti-rear or bit of sort- although shocked the egg of the head doesn't cause pain like these things can. He has only done 2 rears under saddle- One I clung round his neck, the other I was caught unaware and the second time he went up the only way I could have stayed on would have pulled his mouth so I threw myself away. None of the others rear- Pip never does under saddle except prehaps occasionally if I have overdone the stand/reinback schooling and he gets confused he may 'hop' and a few others get wound up at the gate but that is like a hop and not worth getting worked up over as the 2 that do it are both very nervy sorts and it has take previous trainers years to get them to trust people.
OP- If you keeping in balance and not pulling atall means giving away the reins fowards I think this is best. Prehaps some riders are good enough to do somthing more advanced but when I get to that point I just go to safety position! With a horse like yours who just rears through exctiment I guess the key is to keep them moving fowrards really, IMHO.

 

[FRESHMAN]

Actually BOF is he advocating whacking under the belly, or does he mean smack it on it's sheath if a gelding or it's udder if a mare! Either way will have the same effect as it is very sensitive area. Sometimes you have to use lateral thinking. "World Class" or Pro riders will often use this technique.

 

[Spudlet]

QR

Please try to establish the cause of the problem before you start smacking your horses anywhere. If something is hurting and frightening him there is absolutely no point in hitting him, this will only either push him into displaying other unwanted behaviours or will make the rearing even worse as it will confirm that there really is something to be scared of. You need to work out why he is doing this and remove the cause before you can solve the problem.

 

[Chestnutter]

Whacking on the sheath/udder sounds even worse than whacking between the ears... :\
what will you achieve by that?
with hitting between the ears, i can see more logic behind that, being the head and all,
but wouldnt hitting them from underneath make them just rear higher?


and another thing;
whilst your horse is in mid-rear, does anybody here, even the professionals amongst you, actually have time to take in the rear and act on it ?