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   This post is right... horses are different.    Is he trying it for the
first time, or is this a deeply ingrained habit.     I just went through
this rearing problem with a 4yo I bought this spring.  In his case he had
never been out on the trail and when faced with the obstacle (water, bridge,
ditch, etc.) he would rear and do a 180 away from it.   He is not a bad
horse, it's not a bad habit, he was just concerned about what was being
asked and instead of moving forward, would go up.   (I had led him through
things and exposed him )   In this case I would NEVER have hit him, could
have done more damage than good.  But on the other hand I didn't want this
to become a habit either.  So the simple answer was to put a tie-down (yes,
the dreaded tie down) on him.  The first movement for him to rear was for
his head to come up, this stopped that.  Anyway... I rode with the tie-down
for about 4 or 5 times and he felt that he couldn't rear, and would move
forward through anything with encouragement.    After that initial
"training", I don't use the tie-down, he doesn't need it.  But if he should
ever try it again... I'll snap it back on there and tell him that that is
unacceptable.    Although I don't use tie-downs normally, I don't have a
problem using them as a "training aid".
   On the other hand, if this was a bad habit, I wouldn't have any
hesitation with "whacking him".
   Another very famous clinician says....  "Use as little as possible, but
as much as necessary!"

Linda



> You know, each horse is different, and each training issue and situation
is
> different. If I had a horse that had never, ever before reared, and one
day,
> decided to try it, I very well, might whack him a good one between the
ears.
> I think habits form and develop by how much they have gotten away with in
> the past. if they rear that first time, and in their little pea brains,
get
> away with it, then it becomes a whole different situation to deal with, as
> it is habitual. The original post, was about a horse that sounds like it
has
> developed rearing as a habit. Smacking it now, very well might not work,
and
> indeed cause more, different kinds of problems to deal with.


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