The True Definition of Bolting?

tandp said:
In theory...

You ask people to define bolting and you get this image of a horse going flat out and the rider stood up in the stirrups, hanging onto the reins for dear life and shouting

"WOOOOOOOAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!
WOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!":mad::eek::mad::eek:

What's happened here is the 'bolting' has escalated to flat out full speed.

Surely though the bolting began when the rider mounted and the horse walked off without waiting for the riders aids.

And when the rider asks the horse to go from walk to halt and it takes 10 metres to get the transition.

This is my definition of bolting. Whether it is in walk or gallop, it's when the horse is off the rider's line.
:D
Click to expand...

No no no. Walking off without the riders aids is hardly bolting for heavens sake. As stated before :- blind panic, totally unaware of surroundings, rider, the environment, galloping full pelt with absolutely NO control and unable to influence the horse in any way.
If a horse walked off without being given an aid, it is pulled up and reprimanded. Two quite different things. That is not just my opinion it is a fact.
 
I have to say i don't consider 'minor brake loss' bolting, when the horse gallops off un-expectently is bolting. Not when your going along and can't stop for a few extra meters.

But i call galloping off un-expectently bolting wether it's thru sheer terror or excitement!
 
I think all this defensiveness is quite strange, and irrelevant - the OP wasn't referring to anyone in particular, or commenting on anyone's spelling or language - she was making a valid point about the use of words.

After all, words are all we have to communicate with on here. It's worth getting them right.
 
This is my definition of bolting. Whether it is in walk or gallop, it's when the horse is off the rider's line.
Click to expand...

Oh dear, that's all of mine then at some time or another! ;) ;)

The other day, Frnces and I were out driving the boys and they got higher and higher and higher until we were being carted home, totally out of control, full pelt gallop in pairs up the middle of the road. I turned to Frances in the back and asked her if she realised that I was completely out of control at that moment in time. However, to my way of thinking this was not a bolt, both horses were in think and compete mode and were racing each other, That woman behind, holding the reins can take a running jump, They were both in control of their thoughts and I got them back under control eventually, and very contrite they were.....NOT!!! It was not a bolt, it was a bad mannered episode where they both forgot their manners, fear didn't enter into it, it was pure devilry.

However, I don't mind admitting it gave me quite a fright, so much so that I withdrew them from the RHS as a pair and had a rush of blood to the head and entered them as a tandem instead, as they can't get into cometing/racing mode in tandem.

IME a bolt comes from fear, so much so that the brain shuts down and they stop thinking and just gallop. Manners don't come into it, crocodile brain kicks in and all other communication ports go offline.
 
Wally said:
IME a bolt comes from fear, so much so that the brain shuts down and they stop thinking and just gallop. Manners don't come into it, crocodile brain kicks in and all other communication ports go offline.
Click to expand...

Ahh, Wally, the Yoda of the board once again shows the depth of her pool of wisdom! ;) :D Clever is you, yes?! *said in best Yoda voice!*

Totally agree with this, the old fight or flight reaction kicks into gear in a true bolt and nothing you try and say to your trusty steed is going to convince them to stop and get into combat with the lion! :D
 
I guess I agree 'bolting' is then the horse is scared and runs and nothing the rider does can influence it.

I rode an ex-racer last year though. there was about 14 of us in the indoor arena in walk and trot (it is huge arena:p). i was walking and the horse goes from walk to gallop (not canter!) and wouldn't stop. I'd never been so fast in my life. It went on for about two minutes which doesn't sound long but it was pretty long.

What's that called then?! 'buggaring off?!'
 
to me, method_acting, that could possibly have been bolting. but it's hard to say without having been there (not that I fancy swapping with you for that experience!!) but in an indoor arena, obviously no option other than going round and round.

The thing is, losing control, being run off with etc. etc. can also be scary, very scary even - but there is still a difference. The trouble is that if you are being run off with, and do the automatic leg clamp trying to stay on, you can turn horse darting off being rude, into horse terrified and actually bolting because riders legs are clamped round him and rider has actually become the scary monster!

Not saying this is what you did - but it has happened to most of us...

and clarabella_78, re. 'minor brake loss in field' i refer to an actual occasion when I was out cantering with jojo_82 in a field, suffering minor brake loss - not your cob!

the thread was bumped to allow discussion here rather than on your thread, so that your thread didn't become wildly off topic - best of intentions and all that...
 
What's that called then?! 'buggaring off?!
Click to expand...

The other day, Frnces and I were out driving the boys and they got higher and higher and higher until we were being carted home, totally out of control, full pelt gallop in pairs up the middle of the road. I turned to Frances in the back and asked her if she realised that I was completely out of control at that moment in time. However, to my way of thinking this was not a bolt, both horses were in think and compete mode and were racing each other, That woman behind, holding the reins can take a running jump, They were both in control of their thoughts and I got them back under control eventually, and very contrite they were.....NOT!!! It was not a bolt, it was a bad mannered episode where they both forgot their manners, fear didn't enter into it, it was pure devilry.
Click to expand...

Your description in a nutshell :D :D
 
I'd go with bolting as a total fear response on the part of the horse too.

Wilfully running off or ignoring the rider is something else, and can stem from what t and p was talking about.
 
A Horse bolting is the most terrifying experience in the in my opinion

I have been bolted with on a number of occassions and it left me with zero confidence

First time, month or so after buying my very first horse, lovely haflinger gelding called Jip

riding along minding our own business when kids on trials bike think it'll be funny to round us up. Round and round they went, inches from my horse, until Jip bolted! Thankfully we were on open fields, he bolted across 2 fields until eventually he saw a tethered horse and headed for it, still at a terrifying speed, i'm certain he would have ran straight into it if it hadn't been for a very brave man near the horse reaching out and grabbing the reins

second time, we were just pootling around the roads, keeping to back streets as i was still recovering from the first bolt. For no reason whatsoever that i could see, Jip spun round and bolted for home, as we galloped into the yard where he was being kept at the time someone heard us and again grabbed the reins

Moved him from the yard to home and started riding out in company and for a few months things went ok to the point i went for a small hack alone, on the way back, 100 metres from home, jip goes into bolt mode again, on a busy road. I remember seeing the bus drivers face as we flew across the road in front of the bus and thinking this is going to end very painfully. I really believed either i was going to be seriously injured or worse and so was my horse. We only stopped when he ran in between a brick wall and a parked caravan and i jumped off before he could turn round and flee again

After that i couldn't get on him again and now 2 years on, 2 horses later i am slowly starting to regain my confidence

After the first bolt i thought maybe the ensuing bolts were my fault, maybe i froze up or something but have since found out that in the first 12 months of me selling him to an experianced home that said they could deal with it he was sold on 5 more times because of it

I think you only really appreciate what a true bolt is if you have experienced it
 
RachelEvent said:
re 'minor brake loss in field' i refer to an actual occasion when I was out cantering with jojo_82 in a field, suffering minor brake loss - not your cob!
Click to expand...

*Ahem!* One would like to make it quite clear please, that one was totally in control of ones steed... one was merely trying to demonstrate the difference in bolting and rapid, unexpected, acceleration! Tsch! One is appalled one didn't realise it was for display purposes only! :mad: :rolleyes: :D




























Yah... right!! :rolleyes: ;) :D
 
Thing is, and I am going to go against my preachings here, if the rider was pooing bricks and they felt they had no control, and they were going faster than they wanted, and in a direction they didn't want to go; who's to say they were not being bolted with ???

It all comes down to perception again dunnit?

An old fart like me, who has been carted on many an occasion and bolted with on fewer can tell the difference, but the first time it happens to you it can knock your confidence and scare the pants off you.

So a bolt is in the eyes of the boltee!

What might be one mans bolt will be anothers bit of fun.

So I reckon there's no real answer.....is there??
 
......wasn't Miss Bolting Joyce Grenfell's piano teacher in the "George, Don't do That" sketches??
 
IMO bolting is when instinct takes over, schooling goes out of the window, the neck turns to iron and they're not stopping for love nor money no matter how hard you pull, how much you shout or how high the things in their way are. But i can see where Wally is coming from - if the person sitting on the horse can't stop at all, even if the horse isn't genuinely bolting - then it's going to certainally feel like a bolt if you genuinely, physically cannot get them to pull up. I've been tanked off with a lot and although it feels blooming scary and a lot of the time i've convinced myself i'm going to die :o:p, it was only tanking off, not actual bolting - but i think it's the same sort of panic on the rider's part, just on a smaller scale. So i think in terms of the rider then tanking off could be seen as a bolt, too, but in the sense of what the horse is doing; a bolt is a horse who is NOT going to stop until they calm themselves down or just get so exhausted they have to stop. The difference beingthat a horse tanking off will usually listen to the rider in the end or achieve their goal, say, bogging off back to their mates or just proving to the rider 'i'm stronger thsn you so i'm going to take the pee'. Does that make sense :confused::o? Well it made sense to me :p!
 
Last edited:
A 'true' bolter will run straight into a brick wall and kill itself (and yes, I have known this happen).

There are horses who dont trust the rider and tank off until they feel safe and then stop but IMO this is not bolting.

If you find yourself on a 'TRUE' bolter, you need to get off cos the horse will kill itself and you.
 
Yup, they would run over a cliff or under a lorry in a true fearful bolt.

I still like to stay put, I know at least if I can stay on I won't kill myself in the fall, IF the horse stops I am still alive, if we both go under a bus.....well, it's a chance I am going to take.
 
tandp said:
In theory...

You ask people to define bolting and you get this image of a horse going flat out and the rider stood up in the stirrups, hanging onto the reins for dear life and shouting

"WOOOOOOOAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!
WOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!":mad::eek::mad::eek:

What's happened here is the 'bolting' has escalated to flat out full speed.

Surely though the bolting began when the rider mounted and the horse walked off without waiting for the riders aids.

And when the rider asks the horse to go from walk to halt and it takes 10 metres to get the transition.

This is my definition of bolting. Whether it is in walk or gallop, it's when the horse is off the rider's line.
:D
Click to expand...


Bolting in walk?? That's a new one to me i must say :p! If that be the case then flony_pony's Flo; the sweetest, most well mannered little mare you could wish to meet, 'bolted' with me when i mounted her on the yard and saw we were all going out ;). Come to think of it, that means i was bolted with last week when Mable the equine armchair decided to take a bite of grass when we stopped to sort out our stirrups. Goodness me i must've had so many hundreds of horses bolt with me over the years then! Sorry to sound overly sarcastic but walking off without being told to is NOT a bolt ;)!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
newrider.com
Top Bottom