I just bought a new horse, 5 yo apply gelding. I have had him for 2 weeks and he has started full out rearing in the paddock. He runs right at me and rears, it looks as if he would be playing with another horse and messing around but it is very dominant and scary and I don’t know how to gain his respect to stop it. He has been used to riding in an arena and I don’t have one where I am so there are a lot of distractions when I work him, how do I gain his attention and trust without being afraid of his rearing habit?
[QUOTE=hszentim;8667445]
I just bought a new horse, 5 yo apply gelding. I have had him for 2 weeks and he has started full out rearing in the paddock. He runs right at me and rears, it looks as if he would be playing with another horse and messing around but it is very dominant and scary and I don’t know how to gain his respect to stop it. He has been used to riding in an arena and I don’t have one where I am so there are a lot of distractions when I work him, how do I gain his attention and trust without being afraid of his rearing habit?[/QUOTE]
If you have to ask what to do about this, then you need to seek the help of an experienced trainer/horseperson immediately. And not just on a message board. Maybe start by contacting the people you bought him from and explaining the behavior and then asking if they have any suggestions for someone who can help you with the horse.
Please be careful.
Please wear a helmet at all times and never handle him without letting someone know where you are and having a crop in hand.
Rearing in the pasture can quickly escalate to charging, striking, etc. and is best addressed by a professional. If he’s testing it may be quickly fixed if addressed appropriately but could quickly spiral if allowed to continue or incorrectly handled.
Do you know of a firm but kind trainer in the area who would be wiling to travel to you?
I had bought an out of control horse (from my trainer!) and I got sick of dealing with trainers who just wanted me to be dependent on them. So I learned how to train a horse myself. I read the book “Respect and Control” by Clinton Anderson and I followed the exercises to a T. I got immediate results. In two weeks I had the best damned horse on the property. I began watching the early episodes of Clinton Anderson (20 years ago on public channel now available on his website.) Look, this is NOT rocket science. If you can raise children, you can train a freakin’ horse. Don’t listen to people who tell you he’s this or that -those people have never actually watched his full length training videos. He does round penning and on-lunge line training and it works. I am the most gentle, indulgent, loving owner any horse could ask for. I would never do anything harsh or unkind. The only humans who ever hurt my horse were trainers. Learning how to gentle and train a horse was the best thing I ever did for my horse or myself. Trainers take the long road to the airport, charging you by the hour, and they cannot divest themselves from their own self-interest or myopic education. The more you can train your own horse, the better you will be at selecting and managing trainers. That’s my advice.
As far as rearing goes, my horse was doing that as long as it scared me. Scared trainers too. (Trainers flipped my horse getting into pissing contests with my horse.). C.A .said, “don’t worry about it. They can’t do that forever.” And that was a game changer!!! I stopped being scared of it (of course you keep safe in the moment) and then I carried on. He quit doing it when it didn’t scare me anymore!!! Helps A LOT to watch C.A. handle it and see how it works. Step aside, let him have his tantrum, then back to work. Watch the tv shows or videos. It works. Clinton Anderson is a 2x world champion colt starter and it’s not for nothing that he’s made millions. I think it’s funny how two-bit local trainers will disparage him. YOU try making millions giving advice. It had better work or people will go else where. Join his website and watch the first 20 episodes of his earliest work. You will not regret it!
[QUOTE=RhythmNCruise;8667492]
If you have to ask what to do about this, then you need to seek the help of an experienced trainer/horseperson immediately. And not just on a message board. Maybe start by contacting the people you bought him from and explaining the behavior and then asking if they have any suggestions for someone who can help you with the horse.
Please be careful.[/QUOTE]
Thank you and your right I have been reaching out for help from the family I bought him from. I was really searching for a family friendly horse and I have never been afraid of a horse before now. I am trying to be as careful as possible I am so frustrated. If he proves to be too much for me I will have to give him up this behaviour is really not what I signed up for.
See my horse isn’t rearing during my work he is going out of his way in the pasture to come to me and rear at me. Besides holding a whip in the paddock to keep him away I’m not sure what my options are for discipline. I’ve been watching parelli but I don’t honk that the natural horsemanship method is going to help
Me, I don’t want to get killed trying to understand a dangerous horse if I’m not qualified
Lol that came across kind of vapid, I don’t want to be killed by a horse qualified or not…
Return horse to seller. Buy or better still lease quiet broke older safe horse. Stop watching natural horsemanship videos and find a qualified trainer to lesson with and learn from
Be safe.
[QUOTE=ladyj79;8667907]
Return horse to seller. Buy or better still lease quiet broke older safe horse. Stop watching natural horsemanship videos and find a qualified trainer to lesson with and learn from
Be safe.[/QUOTE]
This^^^^^^^^
You didn’t sign up for this. You clearly understand the risk of working with this horse. There are so many good horses out there you don’t need to mess with this one. Send him on his way and find yourself a more suitable horse for your skills before you get hurt. Best wishes.
[QUOTE=hszentim;8667776]
See my horse isn’t rearing during my work he is going out of his way in the pasture to come to me and rear at me. Besides holding a whip in the paddock to keep him away I’m not sure what my options are for discipline. I’ve been watching parelli but I don’t honk that the natural horsemanship method is going to help
Me, I don’t want to get killed trying to understand a dangerous horse if I’m not qualified[/QUOTE]
- Get a trainer involved if you aren’t going to send him back
- Rearing is generally what they do with their friends to play and assert dominance and should not be done or tolerated as a person. You are the boss. He must acquiesce to you. Period.
Some general questions:
- Did his turn out, feed, etc change?
- Does he go out with friends? By himself? What is the situation?
If he isn’t doing it under saddle, in the barn, when you work with him I’d be less likely to just toss him out (me, in my experience- and I hate rearers) realizing of course if he knows he can get away with it with you in the field, it could escalate to other areas.
Best horse I ever owned would rear and walk on his back legs in the field, but never at me. 2 of my gelding play hard and rear at each other (not all the time). Biggest heartbreak was a gelding who developed a pain issue under tack and started to rear, but that’s a different topic.
Wanted a family friendly horse?
Find an older (10+yrs old), smaller (15h3 max), well trained/all around who’s been there done that - trail/parade/shows, that can be clipped-loaded-dressed up- shower and can be left in a field for a month and still be good to ride.
Don’t buy an athletic flashy young horse that needs training you can’t provide.
Send the horse back as quickly as possible before you get hurt and he gets bad habits.
Wow. Running at you in the pasture, when he has plenty of room to go somewhere else, but instead chooses to run at you and rear up? This is bizarre behavior.
Could be he’s been trained to do it - some folks think this is a good trick, go figure. Or he’s got a screw loose. Or maybe he’s just never learned to respect people’s space? I’ve known some poorly raised foals who thought this kind of thing was OK to do to people as play.
Anyway, you wanted a family friendly horse and he’s certainly not one! In your place I’d ask the seller to take him back and give me a refund. This is going to be a retraining project and some family member is liable to get hurt in the process.
My course of action would be to return him immediately. This is not a family friendly horse at this time.
If you cannot send him back (for whatever reason), I agree with the others about finding a trainer [and I see that you agree].
In the meantime, wear a helmet around this horse at all times.
How do you catch him to work him? Does he do this rearing a few times and then knock it off so you can just put a halter on and go about your business? Or is it at a point that you can’t even halter him because he’s doing this all the time?
Either way, I would carry a whip, not just a crop because I want something that I can literally reach out and touch him with if need be, and a crop is too short. If he comes at you rearing, I wouldn’t be afraid to use the whip and mean business.
Out of curiosity, are there mares in the paddock?
I had a normally safe, non-violent horse turn into a raging jackass when he was turned next to a band of fillies. He had never in the six years I owned him threatened to strike or kick out at a human and when we moved to VT for the summer he was turned next to fillies and he was a changed man. He would belligerently charge at me in the paddock, rear, strike out, and then wouldn’t let me catch him. Nothing, including some very serious CTJ sessions changed his behavior… but the second I moved him to a different paddock surrounded by geldings he was back to his placid self.
He was fine with mares after, but I think the babies (fillies) really set him off.
Obviously this is a dangerous stunt and I agree that you should think about returning him.
Thank you to everyone for the extremely valuable discussion and tough love. This discussion has helped me immensely. This horse is young and I do admit I need help I think it is extremely important to recognize when you have shortcomings and try to work on them. I have talked with the former owners of this horse and am looking into training options. He is so well behaved in the saddle and when haltered he only acts up in the field and with professional help I feel as if he will learn some respect. With professional help I believe I will reach the goals I have, if after some time there is no improvement or the horse still seems to be too much I will admit that I am not the right owner and move on. Thanks again
Good luck. 
What did the former owners have to say about this behavior? Any insight into the cause?
Thank you! My horse was born and broke at the farm where I bought him, he is experiencing a major change right now coming from one farm to another. Where he was when the worked with him it was all business but when he was in the field that was his space to be a horse and the never entered his space without intention to do work. Now I must accept some of the responsibility for his behaviour, I have a 17 year old thoroughbred gelding who is a complete dream. I have had him for 11 years and his paddock is our ‘chill and be silent together’ space. Clearly the new horse is not used to this kind of atmosphere and now that I am wanting to share that space he is acting like a horse wanting to play with another horse. Admittedly I have a lot to learn, but I am accepting a huge portion of the blame here as I need to understand that he is not a pet he is a horse. With help from a trainer I hope to teach him a thing or two and learn a lot myself.
I don’t know that you should accept a whole lot of blame for wanting to walk into your own paddock without some equine miscreant waving his hooves at you!
But if you think you are maybe doing something to invite this behavior then certainly you’re doing the right thing getting a trainer involved. :yes: It is very easy to unwittingly encourage undesirable behavior - I know this firsthand, and thanks to a wonderful teacher I learned how to stop doing most of it.
Although - and this is just my personal opinion - my neighbor has that same idea of letting the horse have the paddock as his space and not asking him to work there. Me, I think it’s my dang paddock and I let him live there and with all the free time he gets while I’m working to support him he can darn well do as I ask no matter where we happen to be standing at the time. Whew. OK, I feel better now. 
I wish you all the best with your young’un. Keep us posted!
I agree with you eventually I want to take that space back, but I need to safely demand respect first. I feel ya!
