Rearing Horses...stupid fixes! Rearing horses seems to be a real hot topic on the different horse forums. Time and again the question that comes up is how to stop a horse from rearing. I want to share with you some of the most stupid things I came across.
1. First, a real life experience of one of the worst remedies I have come across. Tie the head down. This resulted in the horse going up and falling on the rider. When all was said and done the horse learned how to rear with a tie down and the rider found themselves in the hospital with a broken jaw! Now onto to the forums: 2. Here's some real good advice- NOT! Something that an old horseman told me once was to tie a piece of bailing twine from the halter to her tail. It has to be short enough that she doesn't tangle in it but long enough that it doesn't bother her. When she rears, she ends up pulling against herself. 3. One remedy out there is to turn or circle the horse when they rear, until you read this; When my horse would go up, I used to yank the rein hard left, it would knock him off balance and he'd have to drop to the ground but he got smart and while he was in air, right about the time I reached for rein to pull hard left, he swung right and I FLEW out of the saddle.
or this
4. I tried spinning with a gelding who reared....he ended up rearing in circles. I spun him to the left and ended up with the saddle horn in the right side of my ribcage and losing my right stirrup. Same gelding dumped my mom halfway out of the saddle when she spun him. Oops! 5. How about just a good scolding? If she does it under saddle, do not let her get away with whatever she was doing. Stay calm, tell her off for rearing and go straight back to work. Just like with any other bad habit, like starting to trot when you ask for walk or whatever. 6. Then there is the old egg trick! I also heard of cracking an egg between the horse's ears if you're riding them and they rear...never tried it, though. I think it was supposed to give the horse the impression of having hit his head and begun bleeding. 7. Of course you can try hitting them on the legs. I had a ..... certified trainer working with me and a problematic horse a few years back. For ground work, if the horse reared while facing me, we would take the lunge whip and just smack its front legs. As soon as the horse came down, we would ask her to back up a step and stand. About half way through the thread our friend shared with the folks the results of all this great advice; Wow, I am so happy with all the people responding. Thanks so much. I just got back from lunging... It was interesting. I tried the whole hitting her front legs, but found it very challenging because it was hard to coordinate while this animal is high up in the air. I did it like twice, and every time I did it she would get more and more worked up. She had two little hissy fits, for the first time ever. (I have only lunged her like 4 times) Today when I asked her to go to the left, she would rear, then I would send her forward, and she would rear. This lasted for about 5 minutes the first time, and probably 3 minutes the second time of just rearing, then asking to go forward, but she would rear, and rear and rear! Hmm! Sounds like things just aren't working properly. Of all the things that were offered I like this one the best- The egg thing is rather silly actually...
You just need to tell the horse that it's not ok to rear, and that he won't get rid of the work that way. I chuckle every time I read that. Why? Because it does not give you one piece of useable information! It just sounds good. For all you out there who surf the forums- BE CAREFULL!!!
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Wearing