Barbaric, abusive, and dangerous as some horse training techniques are, it is surprising to me how many are still used. Bicycle chain bits and hackamores, sharp pointed rowels on spurs, gag bits and excessively long shanks. Pepper under the tail to make the horse hold its tail higher. Horse trainers tying a horse’s head to the barn rafters overnight so its neck will be sore forcing the horse to carry its head low at the show. Taking a branch or scary object behind a horse to make it cross an obstacle. Hitting the horse’s neck with a wooden bat to make it neck rein or spin faster. Leaving a horse with its head tied to its side with a twisted wire snaffle on to ‘soften’ their neck. The list goes on, but one of my ‘favorites’ is pulling a horse over when it rears.
The first time I came across this idea I was a teen teaching my first youngster to lead. She had a habit of rearing and I read that pulling the horse over backward would stop it from rearing. Well, if it’s in print it must be true, right? Wrong! I pulled my weanling filly over, but guess what, she went the wrong way and fell into the barbed wire fence and ripped a 15″ gash in her neck. It wasn’t too hard to figure out that this was a method with too many risk and that thought was later validated with other horses.
Since that time I have experienced firsthand the real and true dangers associated with rearing. I later had a 16hh Paint mare that was pretty easy going and level headed, so what she did at a 4-H meeting took me off guard. We were working on “Trail” obstacles and I was trying to get her to cross a piece of plywood that was on the ground. She froze in front of it and the 4-H leader told me keep at her. I tried to pull her across it and quick as a cat she went up, started falling over backward and caught my leg with her back leg as she flipped over knocking me to the ground as well. Only by the grace of God did she not fall on top of me.
Much later we purchased an Arabian filly that I later found out had a bad habit of rearing. Although at this point I knew the proper way to stop the behavior, she was slated to be used in an upcoming clinic and they wanted minimal work done on her. So we tried to keep her out situations that would lead to her rearing. Unfortunately, one day I was taken off guard. I was leading her out of her stall to turn her out on a normal day when out of nowhere she went up much like my Paint mare, too quick to react. She lost her balance, fell backward and broke a rib.
The next time I was riding a horse for another trainer and I was not warned that the horse was a chronic flipper. The first and last time I rode her, she decided the lesson was over. She came up and flipped over on me so fast I didn’t know what was happening until I saw the saddle horn headed right for my chest. By the grace of God, the horse twisted at the last moment and fell to the side of me instead of crushing me and possibly killing me.
And most recently an owner told me their young and somewhat unruly colt that had developed this bad habit, reared up, lost his balance and fell back on the pipe fencing. They did not know at that time, but found out later the horse had actually broken his neck. The horse started refusing to allow it’s feet to be picked up and was having trouble walking. They were dumbfounded when they got the x-rays and saw the break near the withers. The horse would never be ridden and would most likely stay in that condition for the rest of its life.
The point I am making is that rearing is dangerous, period. Pulling a horse over while its rearing is plain stupid. Once you find out your horse rears, sets back when being lead or pulls back when tied, you need to take it seriously. You need to work a lesson plan that teaches the horse the proper response to the pressure across the poll and decisively correct the rear before the horse falls and hurt itself or possibly kills someone. New horse owners do not have the experience of seeing firsthand the danger that surrounds this particular vice and how quickly it can turn into a deadly situation. Therefore many times they will not address the issue and simply skirt around it by making excuses or even find it ‘fun’ when the horse rears.
At no point do I ever want my horse to get the idea that taking those front feet off the ground is acceptable and the sooner I can convey it to my horse the safer we both become. In as much, never do I use a technique that has such potential for harm and even death like pulling it over when it rears. I will go through a series of steps starting with teaching the horse to drop its nose to the ground when pressure is applied to the poll. Then I will teach the horse to drop its nose and go forward to the pressure and from there work on lessons specific for the type of rearing the horse does. I will NEVER ride a horse that has gotten into the habit of rearing for any reason. He has learned this to be an acceptable response to pressure and will at some point choice it while being ridden.
I had an owners husband tell me, “Trainers don’t teach riders the right way to get off a horse when it bolts. Riders need to know how to get off if their horse runs off!” My answer to that comment is that I do not teach a rider how to bail, that’s correct. I teach them how to get connections to their horse’s body that will eliminate the bolting in the first place. We need to focus on the performance of our horses, not the problems. We need to become proactive riders asking our horse to do things and stop reacting to what our horse has already done. When we do these two things we don’t have to worry about bailing. We don’t have to worry. We will be too busy teaching our horses how to correctly respond to our requests and they will be too busy learning for either to even be thinking of bolting, rearing, etc.
