Now, now, Lisa… we have HAD that discussion about thinking. I’d ask you not to do that anymore… don’t want to set off any smoke alarms 
If you try to hit the horse on the poll and miss, you may put out his eye.
I’ve got one who rears. For him, its a fear of being reprimanded when he’s fresh. He rears if he anticipates being pulled up hard. By correcting a spook by bending him away from whatever is bothering him, I have minimized his desire to rear. When he does rear out of fear, I try to reassure him rather than reprimand him. Its been more productive for this particular horse than beating him… I get the feeling he’s seen enough of that to last a lifetime already.
Horses like this one rear to evade the rider out of base fear. That’s always a good clue that it might be time to re-evaluate how you ride/treat the horse. Rearing is evading the rider, so if the horse rears figuring out what triggers it is the best way to decide on a course of action. If the horse rears because it can and he/she may be able to dislodge the rider, one may want to consider reprimanding the horse in a way that reinforces who is dominate in the relationship. Just my $0.02 or $0.08, depending on Greenspan’s plan for the economy.
On green horses, I would try the egg thing. But if they are older and they are still rearing, I believe that the crop thing does the job. I first tried it on a friends horse, and his front legs haven’t left the ground like that ever since. 
~*Megan Black*~Love ya JumpHigh83, but gotta disagree here…
<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> It costs just as much to keep a good horse as it does to keep a puke. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
If you know how to ride through a rear and prevent it from occuring again…you’ve won the battle!
I wouldn’t trade my horse for anything else in the world. Yep, he can rear…but since I now know how to prevent the rear from occuring…I can smell a potential rear from 500 miles away and am able to beat it!
[This message was edited by VTrider on Apr. 25, 2001 at 09:22 AM.]
… is that the fire truck I’m hearing?
My trainer did the egg thing on my pony mare - after we had ruled out physical pain, tack, rider error, etc. At first it was just those baby hops, but she went up with me several times pretty high - nothing close to flipping over, but enough to be quite dangerous. My trainer got on, and when she went up (really up), she cracked her over the head with a raw egg. She came right down & never did it again.
I still remember her shocked expression, with raw egg all over the top of her head.
Sounds crazy, but it worked on an ultra-b*tchy, VERY tempermental mare. I’ve heard other “success” stories with this method too - the pony mare I had was a little whipshy, and I don’t think whacking her over her head would have quite the same effect.
-Albion
<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>What worked for me was, As soon as I thought that he may even be thinking of rearing…I dug my left spur into him and pinned his head to my knee and made him do some tight circles for a while VTRIDER <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
From my little bit of experience, I agree with VTRIDER and DMK on this. Usually a rear is the beginning of a pivot/rollback to go the other way-so you need to catch and double them before they accomplish it. I’ve also found that to gallop them, hard, once you’ve got them facing the right direction, can reinforce the “go forward”.
I’ve been around people who subscribe to the whack them over the head theory, and have tried it myself- I think it’s done in frustration. If any thing I think you endanger your self doing it.
Another one that I’ve heard of and seen, but don’t quite have the kahungas to try (and hope to never have to) would be to step down and pull them over as they go up, and then sit on their neck. I’ve read that it can work, but quite honestly if a horse is that bad, I’d be shipping him or paying some one else to try it.
Second thought on the matter- a baggie of warm water broken open over the horses head when he rears will work even better than an egg. The temperature of the water makes them thinks they’re bleeding and will scare the daylights out of the horse. I wouldn’t recommend it unless the horse rears with malice.
the trick about the hill is brilliant but…I would never have been able to do it because if (big if) you don’t get out of way you are squished .Let me caution anyone with this problem unless you are very accomplished as a rider DO NOT tRY any of theses methods rearing has hurt crippled many people .
Yup, I’m with VT - a lot of horses try this out - either through fear, pain or stubborness (and while I will make sure that I eliminate the cause of pain or fear, that doesn’t mean I won’t punish the behavior). But if you catch them early and show them the foolishness of their ways, problem is usually solved.
Now a hardened, confirmed rearer who is unreformable, or will always test new riders is a different story. But who knows, maybe if the first time he tried it, somebody had attended to business rather than sending him down the road, he very well may have not turned into an unreformable character!
And just to clarify, I don’t think of it as going forward, but more of making sure his feet keep moving, especially the hind feet! A horse might could bounce forward out of a rear, but not if he can’t plant his hind feet!
<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> we have HAD that discussion about thinking. I’d ask you not to do that anymore <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
If I hadn’t met you in person I’d suspect you were some sort of BNT!!
heeheehee 
While I was riding last night, there was another rider on a horse who was having difficulties going down a line in the hunter ring. The horse did not want to jump the second fence, so would stop and then duck out to the side, but as soon as the rider put her legs on to send the horse forward, it would rear up. The first time it wasn’t so bad - more like little hops, but on the two more subsequent attempts the rearing got very dangerous and high up off the ground.
The girl riding him (who I should mentioned is a competent rider, and known for being patient with young horses etc.) made a point of going with the horse as he went up, and not pulling on the reins, and then trying to send him forward once he landed. Despite her patience and attempts to stop the rearing, the horse proceeded to rear again, and this time the girl gave him a good crack between the ears with the end of her crop just as he was leaving the ground - interestingly enough it worked, and obviously got the message across as the horse stopped. I have heard many people say never hit the horse over the poll when it rears, and then some say that that is what you should do.
This whole episode made me realize that I really don’t know what the correct method is in dealing with a horse that rears. Aside from not pulling back and staying with the horse.
So, what should you do if your horse rears, and what do you do to stop it if the horse continues to do so?
I’ve sat on a few bad rearers, and I do both the whip between the ears thing, and the tiny little circle thing. Both work well!
My boyfriend used to train horses and one was particulary horrible about rearing. Nothing worked. So as a last resort, he took it up a hill and when it reared up, he leaned back and pulled the horse over so the horse fell on his back (jumping very quickly out of the way!)
This had worked 100% of the time, except for this horse which proceeded to rear again almost immediately after my boyfriend got back on. So, my boyfriend told the owner to sell it straight away.
My method has been mentioned a lot before. I do the stick inbetween the poll thing. Except I used a stick that when you fling it, it does not bend. When they land, grab one rein up by the bit and let go of the other and just pull on it until s<he> settles.
My tb that I used to own reared straight up and fell over, luckly sending me flying off his butt and like 3 feet to the other side of him when he landed.
You really should be able to feel when your horse is sucking back behind your leg. When you feel that just do a 10 meter circle. Then go back to what you were doing.
I was told by an event trainer<Lynn Cotes Holmes> that you should be able to change your horse’s mind when he feels like hes’ going to blow up.
My tb almost hung me in an apple tree, he backed up and would not go forward if I looped the reins, kicked him or even used the whip on him… then she came over and yanked the reins out of my hand and then got me untangled from the branches of the apple tree and told me to get off him and she got on him. Granted, she had a set of legs that could squish the largest pumpkin… he would not even think of going up again.
so, all in all, a horse can not rear if he is going forward and a horse can not buck if s<he> is going forward
just my $.02
FORWARD FORWARD FORWARD
Every minute every hour every day!
A horse going forward can’t rear.
CndRdr describes a scenario that I know happened: The horse was in mid-rear, the rider used the spur and spin technique, and the horse flipped over and landed on the rider. Both were seriously injured. The horse hit his head, blacked out, and needless to say, is not right. The rider had to have serious knee reconstructive surgery.
The spinning technique works if, like DMK said, you know your horse. You have to be quick and spin before the horse gets completely off his/her front end. Thinking about it for more than a second is too long.
ROTFLMAO!!!
So I see this is an old post but I figure I would try.
Currently ride a horse that is super willing when I first get on. I get fantastic rides, w/t/c, lateral work etc. The problem comes after I am done my ride, I will walk around on a loose rein for 5-10 minutes and then I will pick my reins back up. He immediately pins his ears back and rears.
Saddle fit has been checked, teeth have been done, chiro has come out. It is only after he thinks ‘we are done’. Should I just keep working with him through it every ride until he gets it through his head that just because we take a break it does not mean we are done?
He has never gotten me off, and at this point I do not think it is a pain issue at all I think it is pure stubbornness. I do tight circles until I feel he is ready, I can do walk/halt another 5 times and then the 6th time he rears…
Anyone have any suggestions?
