The True Definition of Bolting?

[Alle]

I've been run off with twice...once on the beach which resulted in a masty fall for me due mostly to my ineptness, and once when I was riding my mare and was severely jetlagged. Riding a fresh horse while jetlagged is not a good idea.

I hope I never experience a bolt. Being run off with is scary enough!

 

[STEFF79]

My little cob has tanked off with me on a number of occations but never truely bolted.. When he was a youngster I used to take rides out in windsor great park if the clients came too close he just used to gallop me other people who took rides out used to have trouble with clients over taking them I never had this trouble!!
I can only say ive truely been bolted with once I had a little mare called sparkle when we were out hacking some dog ran at her snapping her heals she went into a blind gallop usually she had a soft mouth I used to ride her in a happy mouth snaffle thankfully there was a few miles of track when I did stop her her mouth was bleeding I ended up using a hackamore for a couple of weeks..
I know what you meen about term bolting being over used a livery at my old yard took a ride out on her own horse in windsor great park and her horse bolted she ended up going head 1st into a tree and died.. very sad.. Her horse she had loved had to be sold can you imagine trying to sell a horse that had accidently killed it's last rider I saw her parents when they came down the yard it was terrible..

 

[Bex7]

I know how you feel about this word, RachelEvent, but fighting against misuse of words is a battle you can't win. Language change, for better or worse, is an unstoppable force .... The two that bother me are cob and manege, but I've given on them now.

QUOTE]

It certainly is a losing battle! Can I ask you to elaborate on the word cob? Obviously not it's meaning but in the way that the word is misused?

 

[theocat]

I know how you feel about this word, RachelEvent, but fighting against misuse of words is a battle you can't win. Language change, for better or worse, is an unstoppable force .... The two that bother me are cob and manege, but I've given on them now.

QUOTE]

It certainly is a losing battle! Can I ask you to elaborate on the word cob? Obviously not it's meaning but in the way that the word is misused?

If she's anything like me, she'll get annoyed at phrases like "cob x". I was brought up to believe that a cob was a type - so you could happily have a TB x, or an ID x, because those are specific breeds, but when you're talking about a type, the horse either is or it isn't. So a horse could be a TB x and ALSO a cob, but it's inappropriate to describe it as a cob x TB. It could, of course, be a cob that was a cross between a TB and something else, but I'd EITHER describe it as a TB x (if I was talking about breed), OR as a cob. I wouldn't run the two together because, for me, they have different uses, and cob is not a breed - I'd probably say something like "he's a cobby TB x".

Maybe it's just me .... I am very willing to be corrected!

 

[clarabella_78]

I know how you feel about this word, RachelEvent, but fighting against misuse of words is a battle you can't win. Language change, for better or worse, is an unstoppable force

I also get infuriated by poor language and bad spelling, but I don't really think that misuse of the words 'bolting' or 'cob' are examples of language change, more an example of misunderstanding of the true definition of the words. To me, language change is all too evident on here when posters can write in nothing but text speak and have no concept of what punctuation is for.

 

[Tre]

well i think too many people have started to bitch and fart over too many stupid things,
its starting to sound more like a working factory rather than a horse forum

 

[Wally]

Not read the whole of this thread.

My little horse used to bolt.

He used to have little "episodes" where he'd go and nothing on the face of the Earth would stop him. Even risking his own life and limb. Little shutters would come down in his head, and he'd be oblivious to his surroundings and he'd bolt.

Being carted home in a rude manner is very much another thing, generally the horse has some kind of thought process going on in his head.

 

[carrimclaren]

Only been bolted with once and i'd like to never have to re-live that one. I knew as soon as he went that the brain had shut down, he'd gone into his panic zone and there was nothing i could do. No brakes, no care for what was looming and absolutely nothing i could do apart from hold on and keep trying to remind him i was onboard. Nearly fell over at a turn in the field as he turned the corner. Luckily some part of him all of a sudden switched back on and i was able to point him at a row of trees and he had to stop.

 

[Dooley]

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quoted ------ "a timely bump?" -- have only added this bit because of the bumping up of this thread -- the thread itself is goodnatured but resurrected for what purpose ???

i can understand people having a bugbear about words -- my own bugbear is spelling (though sometimes what i think is a spelling error is simply typing too fast) BUT i maintain it is bad manners and churlish to pick people up on their grammar, terminology and/or spelling! you wouldn't do it to someones face so why do it on here

unless someone asks you do do so , or you are in a teaching situation it is simply uncalled for and unfriendly

the whole tone of NR has changed for the worse in the last few months -- i seem to find an unfriendly or argumentative post at least daily

i love a good debate, i love to hear peoples advice on thorny subjects but i am sick to death of meaningless unimportant nit picking on here --- not just the 'bolting' issue but in general

people please abide by the old adage

'do as you would be done by' and cut other folks some slack

I really don't think RachelEvent raised the subject to "nitpick". She is making a very valid point in my opinion, as the regular misuse of a word like "bolting" belittles the genuine and utter fear felt by people whose horses have really bolted. RachelEvent is not banging on meaninglessly about people using the wrong words generally, only this one word, and for reasons she explains.

People saying they got bolted with and stating that it was "great fun" or "hilarious" or whatever words are used don't mean to upset others but in my experience that sort of comment does upset people who have been deeply frightened by a bolting horse and then feel that their experience is not being taken seriously or that they are being made to feel "silly".

I also believe it is important on a forum used by all age groups that the correct use of terms should be encouraged. It helps to define exactly what is being discussed. RachelEvent may have worded her post in a way that put the emphasis on her annoyance at the misuse of this one word, but that doesn't take away the validity of her post and it doesn't make it meaningless in my opinion.

 

[jowyles]

I have one:
When you start at point A and then reach point B and dont really know how you got there!! That was my first bolt!
And just generally whatever you do, not being able to stop!
Ive only had one horse bolt on me, but he did it several times!
Luckily in the school!

 

[Wally]

If, by being carted home by a rude horse, you were terrified as a rider, then as far as the rider was concerend they were "bolted" with.

It is only us old crusty baggages, that know we are being tanked off with or there is a genuine terror from the horse.

I found that to get my boy back from his little episodes I had to pretend I was enjoying it, tell him he was a jolly good boy and to go with him. He used to come out of it by slamming his own brakes on (so you needed glue to stay on the part when he stopped bolting) smacking his lips, and doing a great big sigh.

Outwardly it looked like I had enjoyed it.......inwardly I used to poo bricks as I knew he was blind to anything including cliffs and cars!

 

[RachelEvent]

yes there is a big difference between language change, and misuse of words. Sure, a word can change in meaning over time, but the actual meaning of the word 'bolt' (in relation to a vice displayed by a horse) has not really changed, although it is misused.

There are many instances of misused words within horsey lexicon, and it's not that people try to mislead, but often misuse can be misleading. Other words for vices tend to be much clearer - rearing, napping, bucking seem to be better understood - and cribbing, kicking, biting, windsucking are dead obvious.

Usually it's the more technical areas of terminology that are misunderstood - ie. the description of what is known as a 'continental gag' or 'dutch gag' by definition isn't a gag, as it doesn't have a raising action - however the 'cheltenham gag' is a gag. The dutch gag would be more correctly known as a 3-ring snaffle with curb action... so if someone was talking about a 'dutch gag', you would know what bit they are referring to, but it would then be easy to assume that since it is being called a 'gag' that it will raise the head, which it doesn't - as essentially it is a snaffle with added poll pressure - but not a curb bit, since it doesn't act on the curb groove.

The above is misleading, but only in technicalities - as stated by other posters, using the word bolt inappropriately is essentially descibing your horse as seriously dangerous - which is probably not something you want to be doing. If someone offered me the ride on a horse, but with the information that it had been known to bolt, I wouldn't ride it. If I believed that the word 'bolt' meant tanking off, then I would ride it - and if it REALLY did bolt, and I suffered the consequences.... I think I would have appreciated the true definition a little more...

 

[Kc..]

Less often, bolting is a deliberate disobedience by a horse.

So in my head, however different to yours it may be. The word bolting means a horse galloping off with it's rider when not asked to. The word can also be used to describe a horse that may 'bolt his food down'. So if my horse is trotting through a field breaks into a gallop and won't stop unless i turn circles getting smaller and smaller that isn't running away that is bolting. Now whether you want to call it that or not i'm going to

 

[Wally]

You see Rachelevent, you too is a crusty old 'un, who likes to know where you stand. I to wouldn't ride a horse who was known to bolt, (not anymore) tanking off, yes, because that's just rude, and they are thinkng as they do it, if they are thinking you can communicate.

 

[Wally]

IME if you can steer in circles, you are not bolting, any form of communication is lost in a true bolt.

 

[Jojo_82]

You see Rachelevent, you too is a crusty old 'un, who likes to know where you stand.

Have you met her Wally?? She's shockingly old n crusty! Now Rachel, please tell me i didn't use the phrase "bolt" inncorrectly at any stage of your visits... maybe it has been erased from my memory due to a severe pummelling to the back of the head! Lol!

I have to say though, i put myself in the "crusty old 'un" category too as i don't think i would get on a horse i was told bolted. I have been bolted with on a number of occasions (flat out, absolutely no reponse from the horse, along the sea wall... the only thing that stopped him was a 10foot mesh wire fence... or i think we'd still be going now! ), I like to have a degree of communication (preferably 100%) between me and the nag i'm riding, there is nothing worse than feeling like you're sitting ontop of a jet plane totally helpless and out of control trying desperately to find a "happy place" to escape to, when really you are at the mercy of the 1/2 tonne beast beneath you!!

 

[Bex7]

If she's anything like me, she'll get annoyed at phrases like "cob x". I was brought up to believe that a cob was a type - so you could happily have a TB x, or an ID x, because those are specific breeds, but when you're talking about a type, the horse either is or it isn't. So a horse could be a TB x and ALSO a cob, but it's inappropriate to describe it as a cob x TB. It could, of course, be a cob that was a cross between a TB and something else, but I'd EITHER describe it as a TB x (if I was talking about breed), OR as a cob. I wouldn't run the two together because, for me, they have different uses, and cob is not a breed - I'd probably say something like "he's a cobby TB x".

Maybe it's just me .... I am very willing to be corrected!

That is exactly how I see it too. I have a cob...he is a shire x appy. The type is cob and the breeding is seperate. Just like a hunter or hack is a type.

I thought it was just me that this bothered...glad to see I am not alone

 

[Kc..]

IME if you can steer in circles, you are not bolting, any form of communication is lost in a true bolt.

In your opinion.

 

[Wally]

Nope - In My Experience, not my Opinion!

 

[Kc..]

I've been brought up with the word bolting being used how i've said. You've obviously had it differently, that's my point. Some words mean different things to different people...