who lets go? and who hangs on?

[Arniebear]

when horses start p!$$ing around and your leading do you let go or hang on?? obviously i know this depends on many many factors like where they are, whos around etc etc like if it was at a comp would you hang on? but when at home do you let go??

so lets pretend you are getting them in from a field and your leading two, they both start p!$$ing around, kicking each other, rearing etc etc do you let go or hang on? at what point do you think, sod them i dont want to get kicked

just wandering

 

[FfionWinnie]

I would never intentionally let go and I would never be in a situation where I felt I had to.

 

[Slightlyconfused]

My horses know not to mess about when I'm leading both of them in or they get a telling off. There is no way I would lead two if they both were known to be trouble coming in.

 

[Arniebear]

I would never intentionally let go and I would never be in a situation where I felt I had to.

fair point, but then horses can always be unpredictable

 

[nativepony]

Ermm have let go in the past & would do again - as long as horse won't be in any danger (ie. road etc) by me doing so. Afraid to say that these days with young children to look after I'm a bit of a wimp about being injured!!

 

[horseandshoes77]

Try to hang on regardless ...altho have gravel skied a few time because of this...now though my horses are much more co-operative lol

 

[mandyroberts]

My old boy is in chiffany so I have to hang on in case he treads on rope and cuts his mouth but I don't want my younger horse to learn bad habits. If I think they will play up I bring in separately as with just one I don't let go.....
Old boy learnt bad habits when i used to bring in 3 - which was usually OK but they learnt how easy it was to escape.
Safety for all has to be the main priority, so gates are shut so if anyone does escape they can't get on road - my lawn has taken the impact a few times.

Avoid the situation if you can....but don't get squashed!

 

[RubysGold]

I always tend to let go :$
Its not that I think Oh ill let go now, its oh ****, i cant hold on hes going. And I let go, and then go after them.
My horses are good though and they dont make me let go

 

[FfionWinnie]

Can they be unpredictable tho. If you know your horse you know how it could react worse case scenario.

If its a new horse it could predictably do something you didn't expect so I'd want to minimise the risk.

I have two at the moment, both are fairly inexperienced. They have never mucked about but I wouldn't lead them together because they are young. I want to be able to nip any bad behaviour in the bud. If I do lead one out off the other for instance, I will do the ground work first to ensure they understand what is expected of them.

I have never let go of a horse intentionally in my life. A couple have got away from me and both incidents still irk me 10+ years on and I took steps to ensure neither did it again. One was a big beast of an ID called Gnasher (and he did!) who would wait til you nearly had him in from the field to take off and the other was my own mare and it was loading her at home. Both times they didn't "get anywhere" but it annoys me to this day lol. Gnasher broke two fingers the time I let go.

 

[Elsiecat]

Hold on. Although when I look back to some of the things I've held on through I've know idea how Adrenaline makes me the hulk

 

[Foxhunter49]

Mine know better than to arse around and make me very, very cross!

It can happen for one reason or another but one always starts it so, I would probably let go of the one who was copying and hang on to the instigator whereby he would soon learn the meaning of what happens when they annoy me!

 

[HLOEquestrian]

I never let go unless I have absolutely no choice and they get away from me

 

[Holly Hocks]

Wait until you've held onto a galloping horse which has become spooked and is dragging you along the road, kicking you in the back as it goes....I wish I'd let go earlier. I wouldn't have ended up in hospital and 20 years later probably wouldn't have continual back problems...

 

[Slightlyconfused]

Also I forgot to say my sisters old pony we had to let go when he started as he was as good and quick with his front legs as his back and if you didn't let go you got a kicking from which ever leg was closer to you.......he broke my dads hand, my friends rib and I have been black and blue from him. As soon as he started to set his neck and tense that was it we dropped and ran!!

My others are fine, my old mare doesn't like the wind but as soon as the leadrope is through her mouth she walks like a donkey.

 

[Happy Hunter]

Actually i would be half and half!
Usually there is one 'who started it' - I would hang onto them - let go of the less naughty one

And march the naughty one in for some talking to!

edited to say - Field to Stable is an enclosed track - NOT to be done where they can escape ect

 

[milesjess]

Try to hang on unless they bomb off into the field or school then I let go... Recapture and educate until they learn how to do it right

 

[Honey08]

All horses can be unpredictable - even the ones we think we know inside out. Its naive to say it will never happen!

I'm of the genre that does their level best not to let go, or allow the horse to know it is possible, but if the situation was getting dangerous, I would always let go.

My poor stepson used to get dragged around by his ponies and I used to shout at him not to give in. One day one of them dragged him in the field and he fell over and got towed through the mud face down. "Why didn't you let go?" I said. "You said not to unless it was dangerous..." he replied. Cue massive guilt trip for me! We concluded that being face down in the mud, being towed along next to the horse's feet might just fall into the let go its dangerous catagory!!

 

[devonlass]

Assuming it's at home like you said and safe I would say let go every time.No horse @rsing about is worth getting injured for,see no gain in that personally.

However what i say and what I actually do are two different things,as every time it's happened (hardly ever until I got new cob who can be bad mannered on the ground,several times since he arrived),I always instinctively hang on and dig my heels in so to speak.I don't even mean to,just a reaction that seem to have no control over

 

[Littlelegs]

I'd tell them to pack their behavior in before it got to a serious stage. If one was bad mannered I'd only lead it with something I could rely on to behave. If it comes to it though I'm a holder on. Let go once years ago in my teens. Walking back from field I had a cob & a tb, my friend was leading 2 ponies. We were halfway back to yard when an adult livery left the gate open & let all the horses out. About 10 came racing past us. As the yard was the only place they could go, I unclipped the cob so I could concentrate on the tb. Cob could be trusted to make it back to yard in one piece, the tb was highly strung & likely to either fall galloping back on concrete, or kill itself running into something. I just used the two ponies like a giant road block.

 

[Shysmum]

I have been dragged thru a nearly ripe crop field for refusing to let go , but at least it minimised the damage. I do seem to have the knack of holding on, tho why with Shy - he stops instantly to eat.

 

[Pixxie]

I would always always make my best effort to hold on unless truly truly impossible

 

[happyhacking:)]

I would never intentionally let go and I would never be in a situation where I felt I had to.

a year ago i might have said that. however now my lovely sweet mare is on significant amounts of drugs having been ill and on several occasions she has become very difficult and the safest thing for all concerned was to let go. never say never!

 

[Cinnamontoast]

Let go when I first got him and he was very naughty, galloped off, nearly running me down in the process as the whole herd charged!


Let him go over winter when I couldn't stay upright in the thick mud: he had a lovely time running after the girls as we had to come though their field.

 

[Shooting Star]

generally hang on but if by not letting go they're putting me in danger (i.e friends horse that repeatedly reared on top of me!) then I'll let them loose but I'm not nice when I catch them again and they can forget about any chance of getting dinner!!!

 

[The wife]

so lets pretend you are getting them in from a field and your leading two, they both start p!$$ing around, kicking each other, rearing etc etc do you let go or hang on? at what point do you think, sod them i dont want to get kicked

I'd always keep hold because knowing my luck the buggers would kick me running away. Plus the tirade of abuse that would follow would be enough to make a soldier blush and I'd hope to god that they went straight off back to their stables, changed their own rugs and picked each others feet out by the time I got back and have a dry set of clothes neatly folded in the tack room for me. Otherwise it's simple solution...

Chifney or a bullet.

 

[Nicnac]

I don't let go as a rule and have rope burn scars on my hands to prove it and have also practised my mud skiing technique.

The only time I did let go was with my Friesian who when leading her up from the field, touched her big apple bum on the electric fencing, spooked and threw me onto the electric fencing - we were both bouncing off it like Laurel & Hardy spooking as much as each other!

 

[Boulty]

If I just had the one horse then unless I was in a safe, enclosed area (or somewhere I could rapidly turn into one) and the behaviour was dangerous then I would probably hang on. If I was leading two horses then I would let go of whichever horse I felt was going to be easiest to re-catch / least likely to do anything stupid (or if one was mine and one wasn't I'd let go of mine ) although again only in a safe area (I will only lead more than 1 horse in an area where I can let go of one if I ever need to). Obviously how well you know the horse comes into it as well. My own horse I would hang on to in all but the most extreme situations because I know him and his reactions very well (I have been tripped up by this once and got pulled over when he tried to bolt away from a horse that was charging him because I had been expecting him to stand up for himself, not taking into account that we'd only moved yards recently... the charging pony got the fright of its life when I got up swearing at it!). He is also the first horse I would let go if I was leading multiple horses that started acting up because I know that he'd get himself out of the way and be able to be grabbed later.

 

[spotty_pony]

I try my absolute best not to let go but usually if I know a horse is likely to be difficult then I will put a bridle on it. I work with Stallions and so have to be always ready for what could happen next!

 

[showjumpingfilly]

I was in this situation a couple of days ago.

Bringing two horses in through a fenced walkway with gates at both ends.

Halfway along an engine starts up behind a brick wall.

Cue one horse being frightened out of her mind, trying to spin reverse you name it, bashing into the other one, in a right panic.

She had a bridle on so i tried my best to hang on but she was terrified and suddenly i was between her and the fence and
Almost being squashed and or trampled so i let go.

I let the other one go because
I couldnt hold on.

As soon as they got past the machine they stood good as gold waiting for me.

I made the right choice for that situation. I know my horses and it was freak timing.

Have tried to hold on to other horses and broken bones in process.

 

[mandwhy]

Have often let go of my loan horse because he is rather big and takes off at a moments notice sometimes but this is when lunging and he gets excited (i do try to hold on as best I can but he launches into gallop) or leading near other horses it has happened but in that case I know where he's headed - if there were any danger like a road or we were in a public place I would hang on for dear life and probably risk the rope burns (i've had many of those) and dislocated fingers etc to keep him safe - not worth it when he can only go so far as the field!