I may be wrong, but I am going to guess that you might have inadvertently 'cued' the bolt. Leaning forward can be a cue to 'go forward'. Given that she was already worried, she may have interpreted your leaning forward for the apple tree as "Yikes - your right ! ... Move it !".
So - perhaps one way to avoid another fright would be to work on teaching her that leaning forward does not necessarily mean "go forward" or "speed up".
On Sep 1, 2009, at 2:30 PM, Coles wrote:
Hi Alexis,
.... Now right in front of us was an old apple tree with it gnarled skin mangling limbs hanging over the trail, so I leant forward to duck under them.
Now remember that she was already a bit light on her feet, so I was riding with contact, and not just lolly-gagging along on the buckle.
Just as I leant forward she made the first lunge for the bolt. As I was straightening up and grabbing to shorter the reins ALOT more she was making the second stride in the bolt. By the time I was actually upright she was on the third stride and we were GONE!
I have been riding for almost 40 years and this is my first bolt! I could feel the blind panic for the first 15-20 strides. I was just reading on another list about "bolting", and they say that you have 2 strides to get control, if they hit the third stride they are gone. She actually "ran out" of her back Renegades. they were still on, but the soles of the boots were now facing her head infront of her pasterns. After about 20 strides I could feel a change in her blind bolting to "we are now running". At this point I had regained my wits and instead of trying to haul the lower jaw off of her, I was using a pulley rein and release, pull, release, pull release. I couldn't circle as we would have gone crashing through thick trees. I was desperately hoping that I was going to be able to get her stopped by the time I hit the road. I had visions of us bolting infront of oncoming traffic. after about 200m we were in a hand gallop, and from there I was able to get her trot just as we hit the pavement and I had enough area to circle her to a stop.
......
I will pay more attention in the future!!!
DL and Solara
Jeff and Donna Lee Cole Turning Point Stables Browns Flat, NB
