Update on my horse rearing up?

My Husband is a farrier and that makes no sense. But it's a good gimmick for the Farrier to make more money.

As in my last answer, I had a horse just like this, but he didn't rear.

This is a very dangerous horse, and it would be worth your time, just selling, and getting a better Horse, with no bad habits in it.

As a Trainer I wouldn't try and retrain him for anything. This is how I broke my back and pelvis, was from a Horse with bad habits, and did not want to move forward!

As a Farriers Wife and Trainer, a lot of Farriers will tell you wise tales to make more money.

If anything, you could have his saddle check, and have a Vet look at him, if you decide to continue training him.

I know when I bought Goliath a 17.3 hand high beauty, and after three months of exercise Ground work, and with another Trainer, it turned useless.

Here is an excellent Web-Site I want you to try!

It is loaded with information to the top Trainer of the Country. You can even e-mail her! And she will give you some tools to work with!

http://www.juliegoodnight.com/q&a.php

Please try it!

And please don't get hurt!

I'm not an expert, far from it. However I have a 14 month old colt that has a tendency to "play rear" when he's bored with what ever we are doing. He also rears when he's scared.

Now my first reaction is a little like this... If you went to victoria secret bought a super awesome bra and whoops it's about 2 sizes too small around your waist. But being determined like you are, you force that clasp into the other end and bear it out hoping that strap around your chest will eventually stretch out. Wrong... your sore, pissy, and just plain hateful towards that bra ever after. Well... the girth of your saddle "could" have the same effect on your horse. Might want to add a wool padding type or a softer foam type girth if you think that may be a problem.

Now if your horse is just being playful/spiteful and there really isn't anything wrong you can do several things. For my little tyke during ground-working when he gets bored and rears, I make him back up. I don't care if he's straight when he does it, long as it's quick and he's going back. To him, rearing up means backing up, that's no fun! The other thing you can do is make the horse go around in tight circles after a buck or rear. This will put the horses attention back on you. Do about 2-3 circles then switch directions. Suddenly your asking something weird, why?! It's a new puzzle to decipher. To the horse it also means when he bucks or rears he will have to go in tight circles, that's a bit of work for a horse.

Finally, I saw a clinic for bucking horses that comes to mind and may help. You can take a lunge line, loop it around the horse right before the hind legs where a buck strap would go on a bronco at rodeo. Keep it loose, keep a safe distance between you and the horse (leave the saddle on and moderately tighten so it won't fall off). Set the horse off at a trot, lope, canter, what ever you feel he needs at that time and slowly tighten the loop the lunge one makes around the horse. Once it's tight, let him/her buck till his little heart is content. He'll figure out pretty quickly it's a LOT more work to buck then it is to keep all four on the ground and behave.

I don't think the size of her hooves has anything to do with it. The rearing and bucking might be a physical problem such as pain somewhere, but if she's not doing it consistently, that's likely not it.

To identify pain issues analyze when she acts improperly what's just happened - did you just request a faster gait, did you ask for something that always causes her to buck or rear? Look for patterns that will give you ideas about what's up - then have her checked by a vet or chiropractor - or even a dentist as the problem can be the teeth -maybe wolf teeth that haven't been cared for or something.

If there are no patterns or she's fine, then blows up at inconsistent times, look at what's happening - are you in an area you are not usually in? Fore example, my mare is pretty comfortable in an arena of any type, but when we go outside the arena she lacks confidence and is looking for something to spook her. Therefore until we gain confidence together, she tends to spook, buck or bolt if I am not paying close attention and seeing the signs of her getting anxious.

if she's a laid back horse in all situations, but blows up at no perceived pattern or activity, she's likely learned she can unsettle you and get what she wants by doing so. I know horses who've got their owners pegged - they know exactly what to do and when to get out of doing what they are being requested to do. Perhaps this horse has found your hot buttons or learned by testing the hot buttons they've been successful with before that you cannot be flustered, then when the old owner got on, the hot buttons were known and used against her. Some are just really that smart and you have to know a lot about her mindset to battle it. You must keep in mind, however, that if a horse is not in pain, is comfortable in most all situations you put her in, if she's not having fun and you aren't engaging her mind like giving her a job to do or asking her to do a boring job over and over again, she'll act out like this because what you're doing with her is work - she'll learn to get out of work by acting up.

Good luck!

I had horse that did that and found three problems. One was teeth another was saddle and third was horses back needed adjusted several times.