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[RC] Rearing and "Smacking" them - LynetteHe is herd-sour and when he's ready to go home and my sister doesn't make the corner back, he throws a tantrum and takes to rearing. That is DISOBEDIANT no matter >how you put it. As someone described it earlier, he is a "spoiled shit." We don't beat him or abuse him, but you damned right we smack the hell out of him. I've never Because you are still having problems with him throwing tantrums and rearing even though you are "smacking the hell out of him" just goes to show that you are not teaching him any thing. The problem with this idea of hitting a horse over the head if he rears is that it is almost impossible to get the timing right so the horses learns. If you can hit the horse over the head just as he is going up, maybe he might learn not to do it again, (notice I said "might"). But chances are most people are just trying to hang on and ride out the rear, then "after" the horse is done with the act they hit them over the head. The horse is not associating the punishment, pain, (however you want to put it), with the rear. The only thing that he is learning at this point is that he can not trust you, because he does not understand why you are hitting him. And they will get "bratty" because they do not know when they are going to start being "hit." Stress over being "hit," smacked, whacked, beaten or abused, not matter how you want to put it, in itself will cause a horse to misbehave. When I was 13 I liked to watch the Lone Ranger, ( I know some of you are saying, "who?") And he had a horse named Silver. He would rear the horse up and say HI-HO Silver and Away..... At the end of the words and the rear the horse would take off down the trail. At 13 I thought this was cool and taught my Arab/pony cross how to do this. He did it very well and the good part was I learned how to ride a rear. The bad part was when I sold him, the lady that bought him, did not think this trick was cool. :-) So she asked me to train him "not to do that." Teaching a horse not to rear is simple. Disengage the rear! You just have to get and keep the horse moving. A horse has to stop to rear. If he is in a situation where you know he rears, or you can feel him starting to set up to rear, kick him, use a crop at the leg, (not the head), whatever it takes to get him moving. He may still go up, but it will be a small rear, because he or she will be busy trying to avoid your cues. Then always make the horse do what he was refusing to do by rearing. And always, always make sure the horse is rearing because he trying to avoid doing something like going away from other horses or crossing water, and not because of pain. Because anytime you are hitting a horse who is rearing to avoid pain, you are abusing him. Sorry this is so long. One of the reasons I don't post very much, too windy. :-) Lynette Helgeson, from the windy state of ND. PS. I also like the post about teaching to give to the bit. The horse may be rearing to avoid the bit. Be sure and figure out why the horse is rearing and go from there, but I personally don't believe that hitting them teaches them anything and I hope that no one reading his list goes out and try's hitting as a tool to teach. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= http://www.endurance.net/ads/seabiscuit.html Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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