What should i do when a horse rears?

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kinderegg400

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May 13, 2008
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i've been lucky when riding, and have never before experienced being on a horse and it rearing. however i am going to start riding a horse at my stables who occasionaly rears when he spooks or gets really excited if he hasn't been ridden for a while.

So basically, i was wondering what is the best thing to do when a horse rears?
Lean forwards/backwards?
shorten reins to get strong mouth contact?
tap him with whip?
ignore his behaviour?
tell him off verbally?
nudge him?
push him on?

any tips?
 
sit forward, no mouth contact(you don;t wanna bring them down on top of u..)
and kick...it hugely depends on the size of rears...are they actual huge vertical rears(if so, i can barely stay onto those...) or little "jumpy" ones??
xx
 
i would try to bend him before it happens to make it impossible.

Otherwise stay relaxed & think of all those show people who rear on purpose! keep your balance, do not pull on mouth.

Good luck. x
 
thankyou kodabear, i suppose i should have thought about the mouth contact one- kinda common sense :p
from what i have seen they are not full blown vertical ones, but they can be fairly big, more than just 'little jumps', i'll just have to hope for the best :S
 
Balance forwards, if you stay where you are or try to pull them back down they'll over balance and land on you (most probably). If they're excited, jumpy little rears I'd push on and try to get some forward motion rather than upwards!

Don't try and whack him with the whip, some people would advocate a sharp smack between the ears with the crop but it'll just make him headshy and is terrible horsemanship imo.
 
I used to know a lot of people who talked about the egg trick.. You carry an egg in your hand and when the horse goes up, smash the egg between it's ears. I think the theory of the impact combined with the sticky mess fooled the horse into thinking it had hit its head.. Never saw anyone who put it into practice.. :rolleyes:

Can you lunge him maybe before getting on, just to take the edge off?
 
Ditto horseygal.

Long term, it's important to find and treat the cause in order to prevent the horse from rearing in the first place. The horse may be in pain from a bad back/poorly fitting tack, may lack respect for the rider, be very excitied, insecure, have too much energy due to a lack of exercise/turnout and/or too much energy in his feed frustrated ... the cause(s) must be treated rather than just the symptoms (the behaviour) for the behaviour to be prevented most effectively, though there is no guarenteed cure for rearing and sometimes all you can do is try to avoid the situations that tend to trigger the reaction.
x
 
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Ditto Puzzles.
If you get 'warning' or he is jogging (excited) ride him sideways or even completely disengage his hindquarters.
 
Ditto the egg trick. I used this on my old horse and it worked with him. It fools them into thinking they have hit their head as they think the dripping egg yolk is blood. Water has the same effect too.
 
thankyou for all of your replies.

im not sure i fancy squishing raw egg all over my hands and come to think of it cleaning it off the horses head afterwards either!;)
 
One of my old horses was a terrible rearer, but he always gave you warning signs, he was an arab so jogged and bunny hopped around most of the time anyway but it felt like he got 'stuck' in upwards rather than forwards so pushing them on helps alot, also when he got serious (and I mean he was a SERIOUS rearer) I would pull his head round one way, this puts them off balance so they can't stay in the rear but doesn't pull them down on top of you.
 
kinderegg400 said:
im not sure i fancy squishing raw egg all over my hands and come to think of it cleaning it off the horses head afterwards either!;)
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You probably wouldn't have the time anyway ... and would have smashed the egg trying to get it out of your pocket :) Oh, and it doesn't work anyway nor does smacking them between the ears with your whip, pouring water over their head or any of the other tricks that people will tell you about when they say "smash an egg over their head, it works every time" ;) If it works 'every time' then it doesn't work :p
 
Best thing would be to give with the reins, lean forward slightly and hold on (either round the neck or to the front of the saddle- least that should not be going anywhere)
I don't agree with using an egg or any other form of punishment- there is usually always a reason for a horse to rear and would be best to find that out whatever the cause is! With a horse that rears a lot for whatever reason they will normally give you warning signs and then you could turn them on a circle as it is very difficult for them to rear then!
 
If I'm on something that I think is going to rear, then I opt for feet out of stirrups and then sit and do nothing as the ones I have ridden would only rear if you gave them a pressure point to react to. No pressure point meant no rearing. After that, I'd get off and not get back on until I'd figured out why they were rearing ;) I value my life too much to get back on without knowing why :D
 
I hada rearer that reared most of the time he liked to do big ones.
he wouldnt give me any warnings he would just go straight up and keeps doin it.

But i used to turn him in tight circles and give him a kick and a growl which worked most of the time
also like everyone else i would say lean forward try to maintain your balance and try to stay confident but what ever you do DONT give up cos he will keep doing it .
also if i was schooling and say i was doin my circles and he reared i would keep doin the circles untill he realised he couldnt get away with it and each time he reared do an extra 2.

but dont panick
and i hope you get it sorted cos ino it can be quite frightening :)

goodluck :)
 
Never had to deal with a rearer myself ~touches wood~ but as someone whose share used to be very headshy, I beg you not to use an egg, a whip, water or anything to reprimand them. The damage you can do is a million times worse than dealing with the odd rear :(

IMO making a horse think it has smashed its head to bits is bl00dy cruel :mad:
 
Why do you need to ride this horse? Are you a trainer or getting paid to ride it? Is it your horse? Personally, I wouldn't get on a horse that's known to rear; it's just too dangerous. I know people do ride rearers, and successfully too, but usually they have a good reason and the skills to deal (and it's *still* dangerous).

Just imho.
 
Doeylicious said:
Never had to deal with a rearer myself ~touches wood~ but as someone whose share used to be very headshy, I beg you not to use an egg, a whip, water or anything to reprimand them. The damage you can do is a million times worse than dealing with the odd rear :(

IMO making a horse think it has smashed its head to bits is bl00dy cruel :mad:
Click to expand...

Can I just point out that I did not advocate the use of an egg!!
 
Doeylicious said:
I beg you not to use an egg, a whip, water or anything to reprimand them. The damage you can do is a million times worse than dealing with the odd rear :(
Click to expand...

That's assuming it doesn't fall back on you;) I wouldn't want half a tonne of animal falling back on me anyway!!

As others have said definitely find out why. Don't be mis guided by others telling you it's purely bad behaviour if you haven't had everything checked yourself.

If you find yourself in that situation, go forward with the horse (hug it's neck if need be). If you get any signs that he's going to rear, push him forward into a tight circle.
 
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