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Re: [RC] advice on Twh? - Chris PausHi Lori, You got some excellent point by point advice. I'd like to add to it. 1. I think there's always a period of time it takes for horse and human to get to know each other. I call it the "new horse jitters." I get it every time with a new horse and it just takes me awhile to learn the horse's movements and idiosyncracies. 2. Make sure that you aren't asking for "whoa" and "go" at the same time. Many people do that. I've been guilty myself. We tip forward or squeeze with our legs in a death grip on the horse, and then pull the reins back. The horse doesn't know if we want to go forward or to stop. So often the response is "rear," or some other behavior we weren't looking for. Like has already been suggested, have teeth and mouth checked first, maybe a milder bit. There's no reason a gaited horse can't be ridden in a snaffle (without shanks.. if
it has shanks, it's a broken curb). Have back and saddle checked by someone very knowledgable, and I agree with having a chiro checkup. If a horse is misbehaving, I first rule out pain or even discomfort. Most of us don't speak horse and the horse doesn't speak English, so there's only one way for him to tell you that somethign isn't right. If a pain issue is ruled out, then start looking at rider issues. Most of the time it's rider error. It's pretty seldom that a horse acts up just for the sake of acting up. But I agree that a rearing horse is dangerous, no matter what the reason. I had a horse rear up and flip over on top of me. I was told by his previous owner to keep a tie down on him. WRONG. A tie down will not prevent a horse from rearing, so don't even think of that! Our first reaction when a horse rears, is to pull the reins and stop him and clutch with our legs. In
reality, we should use those legs and rein aids to drive the horse forward, out of the rear. It could be the horse started this with a miscue, or pain, or problem with a previous rider. And now that he knows it works and he gets the reaction he wants (you quit asking) he is likely to keep doing it. In this case, you have to go backwards in his training to doing what he consistently does right and then move forward again toward this issue. i hope this makes sense to you and I hope and pray you wear a riding helmet. chris Lori Greene <lorickg@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
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