The True Definition of Bolting?

bolting = blind panic, no stopping, usually fear related eg they're not being naughty, they really can't help themselves! i've only been bolted with properly once and it was terrifying!! out on a hack with a RS ... one horse went berserk for some reason, causing the others to freak out also ... two people fell off, resulting in two loose, panicked horses heading for home at breakneck speed, with the rest of them in hot pursuit :o it was HORRIBLE!! i was on a young horse that had only arrived from iceland 2 weeks before ... and i have to admit i did use the rotund horse in front as a breaking block/crash barrier .... it just happened :o

Julia
x
 
The great thing about forums is that there are so many differing opinions that its just a melting pot of what's 'right' and what's 'wrong'.

Under no circumstances do my horses stand still every time I mount them, but it is certainly a good place to start. So many horses do not know how to stand still under their riders (but thats a whole different thread!).

With a fearful horse, me personally, I'd get the issue sorted on the ground or try to head it off early. If the horse does bolt, well, what do you do if you jump out a plane with no parachute? Look for some trees! (Hopefully I'll live through the experience - no sarcasm).

My point, which got totally slated, it that with a more responsive horse (which is totally capable of bolting too) if my horse walks away without my asking, surely it is getting ahead of me. My own legs don't walk off without me ('Sorry I can't stop to talk, my legs are running off with me'), so if I had good things happening with my horse, his legs shouldn't walk off without me either.

For Christ's sake's, no wonder so many horses are unjustly labeled as 'dangerous'!!
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The horse is whatever the human makes of it. What is dangerous to one person might not be dangerous to somebody else, and lets face it, the very nature of riding a horse has its innate dangers. If you don't want to fall off, sell the horse and get some goldfish (again no sarcasm).

I am wanting to get nobody's back up, after all everyone has an opinion. To me, although it isn't 'dangerous', a horse that is ahead of the rider when they get on, it is a sign of the lack of unity...and the beginning of bolting.

But, at the end of the long and hard day... it's just an opinion!!! ;)
 
I have been bolted with once, horse took off in the school when a couple of horses escaped out the field, even after the saddle had slipped and I was thrown into the fence he still bombed around for a couple more laps before turning and snorting really loudy white with sweat and we had only been walking previous to the bolting episode.
 
whilst i agree with you tandp that the root of bad manners should be addressed - and that often you can tell a horse's 'issues' from the smallest things... I still don't think that bolting per se starts then - bad manners and fear are two different things, and whilst respect for the rider may help reassure the horse when it is fearful, I don't think any amount of respect and manners will stop the horse if it is actually terrified enough to bolt. I do see your point, but I think that it is more related to the bad-mannered tanking-off behaviour than to a horse that has reverted to flight mechanism with no consideration for it's own well-being...
 
a bolting to me is when your horse has no care for its self or you and goes into a mad panic and flat out gallop no matter were you are i rode a tb once and he bolted and jumped a style onto a country lane and i thought one of us was going to end up dead that to me is bolting and lucky nothing like thats ever happend since iv been tancked with but thats nothing to a bolt and its just pros and cons of a cheeky horse
 
When a horse 'runs' or 'just goes' at full pelt and you have no control, and no contact with the mouth ie horse has taken the bit and you cant stop except for trying to turn into hedge
 
My, this is a long thread..................
True bolt: at my old yard, a horse panicked, threw its rider, came back as if hell was after it, ran into a barn wall, and tragically, injured itself so badly it had to be PTS.
Also identify with all the "poo pants" scenarios where the horse is going a damn site faster than you asked it to, and doesnt show any signs of stopping. I have a memory of being "bolted" with on a roadside verge when I was about ten, but no doubt the pony just took off with me. I dont remember falling and it did stop eventually.
 
When your horse takes off from naught to what feels like sixty mph, and no, you can't do a darn thing about it 'cept stay in half-seat mode, grit your teeth, grip with every bit your legs will allow, pray this is not your day to die, hang on for dear life, and just go with it until she runs out of steam! That's bolting, in the true sense of the word!

This has only happened to me a couple of times, and it's truly terrifying - was for me anyway! :(

Roseanne xxx
 
i think iv been bolted with but only once and it was pretty terrifying, horse went into blind panic across a busy road over a ditch and kept going took a while to pull up and that was through voice trying to settle them as hands made absoloutly no difference. i think often when they're bolting out of blind panic the only way to stop them is trying to reassure them because they're not gona stop by you pulling htem in the gob if they're terrified!
 
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