Question:
E has a bad habit. She likes to pop up or rears. It seems to come and go. and just when we think its gone, it reappears. There doesn’t seem to be a certain trigger in the saddle. She did it with J on her last Feb (scary flag [obstacle] ) and,it hasn’t happen in saddle again, until last week. So 9 months no issues under saddle.
Last week he asked her to go down the road, didn’t push her, just kicked and said walk on, but she popped and reared. Really don’t know why. He rode her another half hr on the road and trail . She was perfect. When he really pushes her in the ring or trail it doesn’t happen.
Her preferred preference with rearing is on the ground. It is her go to move, when she doesn’t like something or seem scared. She has performed for the vet,the dentist,& in hand, with scary objects or when reprimanded for nibbling the boy or his clothes(smack to nose is the reprimand).
She also excels at rearing in the field when playing. It her signature move. She looks like a circus pony. It appears to be something she has gotten away with in the past. or maybe taught.
Answer:
Hmmmmmmm. Well — if you can set her up to ‘start’ to rear then you can correct it and put her response (keeping feet on ground and relaxing) on CT … in other words, when her feet come back down and hit the ground then you can CT her feet on the ground. When working with horses we should tend to think of teaching what we WANT and rewarding that rather than punishing what we don’t want (doesn’t work as you’ve noticed! *grin*) On the other hand, one can put the rear to cue but that can be kinda ‘iffy’ with a young boy who might get the idea that his horse’s rearing is really *cool* and look how ‘big’ he is for being able to stay on a rearing horse! A more mature person would handle it in a much more appropriate (and safe) manner. *GRIN*
Sounds like it *is* a habitual but, keep in mind that horses go “UP” when there’s nowhere else to go. So IF your son can feel what happens just moments before the rear then yes, Hind End Disengagement (marking and rewarding the correct response) will help. But also being VERY sure that if she starts to say “NO” that instead of trying to deal with a ‘stuck thought’ that he gets her feet moving to ‘unstick’ the rearing thought and rewarding her moving her feet, too. Make sense?
But also think on this a bit — one cannot make a horse STOP doing what he/she wants to do. Punishment doesn’t STOP the horse except through FEAR … (avoidance behavior) and then one has a whole other issue to deal with … mistrust. And the whole concept behind teaching horses (naturally) is to establish a mutual TRUST. Every time one ‘punishes’ a horse one destroys the trust that has been developed. And over time — when the trust is always built and then destroyed, what happens? The horse then will ‘comply’ with requests/cues but instead of doing so in partnership does so out of avoidance/fear of retributions. So instead of thinking how to make her stop, think “How can we set things up so she doesn’t want to rear?”
Or, think this way —
How can we set things up so she doesn’t want to rear but, INSTEAD, wants to be with us and be a fully engaged partner?
