Marv Walker ~

Helping Horses & Humans Around The World Quickly Past Attention, Trust, Fear & Respect Issues

I am currently lying in bed with a fractured pelvis, broken leg and a smile on my face that I am still alive.

My 6 year old Spanish gelding reared 3 weeks ago and having managed to rear high, combined with the weight of the spanish saddle and my weight, over we went. You have my permission to tell anyone who would think of pulling a horse over intentionally that being rolled on one is a dangerous game.

Well, yeah! Having a 1000 lbs - give or take a few hundred - of flailing meat dropping on you from about eight feet can really mess up your day. Even if you can avoid the splat it can also do major damage to the horse and your tack.

Physically dealing with the rear at the moment of rearing from the horse's back is a crap shoot. I often hear folks say that they - or someone they knew, heard of or seen - cured horses of rearing by hitting them between the ears with water filled balloons or bottles, raw eggs and the like. This is supposed to make them think they are bleeding to death and give them second thoughts about doing it again.

So far, no one has convinced me this type of "cure" works. I have seen horses gushing blood from a wide range of wounds and many of them were only concerned about missing a meal.

I said all that to say this; dealing with rearing horses is probably one of the most difficult things you'll ever do with horses. Rearing can have any number of causes: fear, physical issues, tack, rider error, resistance, to name a few.

My husband had Omar checked immediately after the initial care for me was dealt with (ambulance etc) by our vet who is trained in osteopathy...if thats the right word. She confirms that there was nothing wrong with him.

I know nothing about your vet but I do know about vets in general; if it isn't swollen, oozing, bruised, bleeding, over heated or otherwise visibly obvious they generally won't see it.

Nothing against vets, they tend to diagnose what they see and people seldom bring horses to them who aren't swollen, oozing, bruised, bleeding, over heated or displaying otherwise visibly obvious conditions. A horse can have serious physical issues and have them go unnoticed by a vet.

In our problem solving work we often find severe physical issues that have gone unnoticed by vets. And just so you don't think we're perfect, people, including vets, often find things we miss and we eat, breathe and sleep ferreting out foundation causes.

I have had Omar for 16 months with no problems save for a few days before my accident when I wanted to take him out before his breakfast - he threw a buck and a little rear and galloped up my path, which hed never done before (my horses are kept at home) - and the next time i rode him (when the accident happened) i was taking him out before his dinner.

I have 3 horses and Omar favours one mare over the other and the one we were going to hack with the day of the accident was his least favourtie mare.

I know my horses. I work from home, they are never left longer than 4 hours if i ever have to go out - they have high quality feed without oats - forage freely available - plenty of exercise - their teeth are checked 6 monthly and their bits have not been changed.

Yes, even teeth can cause rearing, but I don't think teeth are your problem. I don't know what kind of dental attention your horses get which but floating or "rasping" the teeth is NOT dental care. Equine dental care is every bit as involved, if not more so, as human dental care.

As long as we're talking teeth, bits can cause rearing as well. One that is especially good at it is the American Tom Thumb bit. The TT is considered a mild "colt starting" bit but as a broken curb bit it has numerous pinch points and a nut cracker effect. It is impossible to apply ANY rein movement without pinching the horse.

SInce the accident I have invested in a bareback saddle (bought via the internet as i have a laptop in bed with me) because I felt that the weight of the spanish one made the situation worse and I had a friend come over to spain from the UK (a horseman) and school Omar. Omar was fine every time until the last day when my friend wanted to ride him about half an hour before he is usually fed and he was not happy. He didnt rear but then my friend is a lot heavier and was expecting it, but he played up. I therefore think that during the winter months my boy has just got used to the 8pm feedtime and needs careful management of change. We need to ride later in the summer so mealtimes will need to be later.

These saddles also allow rider faults to more easily transfer to the horse's back. If a rider rides heavy to one side the saddle just makes way for fault's effects to flow to the heavy side. Any test of air pockets will show that air travels to the area of least pressure. If a saddle has a pressure spot, the air will be forced out of that spot with little effect on the pressure spot.

I recognise what you are saying in that there has to be a reason and yes - we need to work on the discipline but more so his anxiety about going out before eating. Omar is a beautiful horse who will sometimes need telling twice but never more (well even horses try their luck) and I think that his way of protesting to change was to rear. He hates being in the stable and so in the winter he flys out and is like a rocking horse when hes first allowed out. Sadly I found out the hard way what it was he was trying to tell me....and i wish i had listened to him the ride before. Had I - i would have known that he needed some guidance to get used to the new regime.

I hope that my story demonstrates that sometimes the reasons dont need to be complex and can be easily resolved with some basic tweaks to a regime and some reassurance to a horse who is a little attached to his mealtime routine.

I certainly would concede that if the horse is fed at a fairly rigid time it may cause the horse to become irritated if it is not fed at that time. In essence a set feeding time is a contract and when you break the contract the horse feels it has a right to resent it. I tell people hand treats are a no-no for that same reason. If you give a horse a treat every time you see it or it does a particular behavior it grows to expect it. It does its part and it expects you to do yours. Then when you don't provide the treat in return it gets bent out of shape.

Our horses are not fed on a rigid schedule. They will get fed sometime during the day. Regardless, we also teach our horses that we come before food. If they are eating and we take them away to work they are expected to accept it, not that we do it that often. They are to respect and honor our leadership.

And here's another rearing email...

Hi

Please can you send me your bonding techniques. My mare reared today quite high and at the moment i am puting it down to a change in her daily pattern to do with feeding. She is very territorial and aggressive about her short feed.

She has just turned 6 and she doesn't like being told off...for want of better words......she will have a go back.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Ennyways..

As I said earlier, I can see that certain types of feed and feeding patterns can have an effect on a horse's behavior. I think that not accepting you as a leader is also a major part of the behavior.

If the rearing is respect / leader oriented and not caused by some physical issue the "bonder" may be helpful in resolving it. The bonder, actually, a herd dynamics procedure, drives home the leader follower concept and makes the horse more accepting of the human's leadership.