Update in Post 85- Possible horse purchase: WWYD/advice?

[danhelm441]

No, it’s because rearers will flip over on you. Maybe the ones you’ve worked with haven’t (yet) but it is not uncommon. Getting flipped on is nearly certain to land you in the hospital, maybe even in a casket.

I’m not trying to downplay the seriousness of rearing. But I do genuinely feel it is overstated on this forum. The overwhelming majority of rider deaths are caused by head and neck injuries, not the thoracic or abdominal injuries you would expect from being crushed. It’s not the hill I want to die on, if there’s research or something out there showing that a rear is appreciably more dangerous than other vices, I would let it go.

[atr]

I think you all are losing sight of the fact that the original question was asked by someone who is looking for their first horse, who was being told by a sales barn that the horse had a rear in it. I think we’d all agree that this would be a questionable purchase!

I think you made the right decision, OP. And, as someone who has made every horse buying mistake in the book at least once over the last many decades, don’t overface yourself on your first horse. Confidence is a fragile thing, and if you stay in this sport, you are going to want to have retained every precious ounce of it as you age and have less of a bounce…

[Warmblood1]

It is totally unwise to convince any beginner rider, such as the OP of this thread, that rearing isn’t “that bad.” This is one of the only sports where people are reliably killed, every year, pursuing the sport and negligent advice such as what you are giving is totally unnecessary.

And no, I’m not unfamiliar with rearing. Quite the opposite. Ive ridden and rehabilitated some nasty, rank horses that would either buck, bolt, spin, rear, some that would try to throw you off their backs with their teeth, or the combination of - and due to the nature of rearing, I consider it the worst evasion of all. Wondering if it’s perhaps your limited experience that is making you dish out negligent advice, not ours. If you’ve only ridden horses that offer balanced, small rears, consider yourself quite lucky.

[Sdel]

@Sdel

This! I would take this as a subconscious acknowledgment that this horse is not at safe as advertised. I have bought drugged horses before. The seller at the last minute “took off” some because her teeth and feet needs done. That “needing done” was a broken jaw and accessed tooth and holes in the navicular bones.

So, in keeping with this theme….went to look at a horse and the seller said “you can’t put a little kid on her because she’ll just ignore them and go stand at the gate. Guess who tried to walk out the gate/avoid turning away from the gate the entire time. She wasn’t temperamental about it, but she sure was bored to tears at being in the arena.

[MissusS]

Update:

I was very lucky to find a great new mare. She arrived yesterday and is settling in well. She is a 9 year old appendix mare, she has some fancy buttons and the previous owner showed her hunter/all around western. She’ll definitely be in much less demanding work with me but I think she’ll adjust to the new lifestyle well

IMG_6400.HEIC (2.6 MB)

[JBCool]

Terrific!

[MissusS]

Last post for this thread… first day in the saddle after 2 weeks of groundwork and getting to know each other (and it’s my birthday!!)

[Bluey]

Happy birthday and best wishes all around.

[Badger]

Congratulations. She’s adorable!

[Posting_Trot]

She’s looking very chill.

Happy birthday!

[outerbanks77]

I read this thread on my phone last night and was happy to see the OP decide against the “one time” rearer. I agree that there was probably more to the story than that. OP, you look thrilled with your new mare and she sounds perfect. Best of luck with her!

@danhelm441

The silver lining is that those horses can rear in a balanced way, and also aren’t necessarily panicked and worked up when they do it. It’s like it happens in slow motion. Just a vertical balk. Not hard to ride it out, not hard to emergency dismount either.

My WB mare is this way. She reared with me I think three times when I was starting her. The first was a blustery day when she had about 30 rides and another horse in the arena was freaking out. I vaulted off and read her the riot act. She was a very balky horse, and that is where the rearing came from. I rode her in a running martingale for several months after that, and a couple other times she tried to rear instead of going forward, it was very balanced and calculated, and the running martingale gave me some leverage to use one rein and get her back on the ground. It was also helpful during that tough phase to keep her between the aids. Knock wood it’s been about 1.5 years since she last volunteered any thought of rearing, and she is almost over her balkiness.

My other mare reared with me in a clinic situation when she was just freaked out and full of adrenalin. Rearing is part of her spooking/free-form freaking out mode. I saw her do it once on the lunge where she was straight up and started to get unbalanced, and when she came back down she’d clearly humbled herself. Luckily at age 9 she is getting a lot more chill, and it totally would not occur to me to describe her as a rearer.

[Spudsmyguy]

My first TB would only rear if, when lunging, the side reins were too tight. Assuming she felt too constricted, I loosened them right away and she went back to being her same willing self.

Unfortunately, the person I sold her to was an advanced beginner and her “trainer” was a young woman who thought she knew it all. I later find out that my mare had died because they were lunging her in side reins and she went up and over and broke her neck. I had asked if this was a regular occurrence for her to rear while they lunged and they said it was. I then asked, did you think for a minute that maybe you had the side reins a little too tight and maybe try something different instead of forcing her? So idiotic “trainer” thought she needed to submit to the pressure of the side reins and ultimately caused her death.