I fell off my horse!?

Question

I need some advice. I just fell of my horse (30 minutes ago) and have no idea what to do. I was cantering along a path and my horse didnt want to canter on the path. He cantered on the grass instead. I couldn't stop him and he was going to run me into trees (not a fun thing) when i decided to do an emergency dimount. My foot got caught in the stirrup so i was dragged a few feet. Well, I tried to pull him back onto the path, but that didn't work. My horse is so stubborn it is to the point of defiance. My friend and I think that A) he was abused in the past or B) he was not started properly (i.e. crudley). He was so poorly trained he wont even listen to rein commands. I was wondering if I should sell him (he is getting to be too much for me to handle), or take him to a professional trainer.

Please help me!

Answer 1

hope you didnt get to many bruises. okay i had green horse once she was like that but i soon figured most of it was my fault are you western if you are maybe you were to much focusing on holding onto the horn than pulling back on the reigns  and saying WHOA.Next try only walking and troting him saying whoa  working on youre balance and try doing without holding on to the horn this will help him learn to stop better also you can lean back when saying whoa also ground work is very good for teaching voice commands(lounging) well i had to stick to my horse and she made me a better rider and now shes the best horse to ride so i say stick to him you never know in a couple of years you might be glad you did! well hope i helped you also he dont sound like he was abused just seems like he needs more time in the saddle i have broke many horses and when they are abused they usually are very spooky and jumpy

Answer 2

Ouch! I'm glad to see that your alright! My advise, is to take him to a professional trainer, to help you help him know what to do / how to behave. This will not only help your issues with him, but also make you a better, stronger rider for it - so if sometime down the road you get another horse like this - you'll know what to do with him/her. Good luck! :)

Answer 3

ohh wow. are you alright now? i dont personally think he was abused, cause the horses i work with who are abused are literally afraid when you put the saddle near them or raise your hand or anything, its quite sad. he might have been badly trained, but that can be changed.

if you love him, then i suggest get a professional trainer. but if he was just a new horse and you dont want him, sell him to a trainer that you know who can fix him so he's not a rejected horse.

Answer 4

next time make sure your feet are all the way out!

Answer 5

don't sell him, he really didn't even do anything wrong as far as i can tell. don't send him to a trainer, because then YOU learn nothing about how to control and work with him better, leading back to the bad habits. get a trainer that can work with both of you. was the path hurting his feet? were you giving him mixed cues? did he deliberately try to knock you off? sometimes horses don't realize that when they go under trees you don't. were you pulling on his mouth, which caused him pain making him want to knock you off? does he need to be worked with more instead of leisurely trail rides? does he need to go back to the basics? does he just need a stronger bit? stronger or more experienced rider?

Answer 6

the grass is easier on the horses to canter on

this is normal for horses

and maybe he needs his feet or legs checked by a vet?

and maybe you too nervous about the trees you didn't cue him properly to stop?

make sure you did everything right FIRST before thinking OH my horse is BAD i have to get a different one

and of course a horse you cannot control is not good at all

it probably had to do with poor training and NOT abuse if he was abused he would be overly sensitive to EVERYTHING and he seems like he's not sensitive or responsive to any of your cues

now maybe try some more ground work with him and don't ever trail with a horse that doesn't have a good "WHOA" or stop try being firmer with him and it's never a bad thing to go back to the basics.nothing to be ashamed about...

if you really want to work this out with him you can! you can fix it or a trainer can.. go back to the beggining with simple rein and cues for stopping a turning until he does each turn and stop 100% repetition is key! if you don't want to put up with it and you want a perfect horse then sell and get a new one

also if you don't ride often don't just expect to be able to hop on and have a perfect ride!  iknow one lady that only rides once a month maybe more and her horses were SOOO SO well trained when first purchased .... now they nip when you tack them up, they fight when you try to bridle

and they don't stand still when you mount and she keeps complaning to me how someone sold her such BAD horses lol when really it was HER fault

okay just make sure your fault free then maybe just maybe try blaming the horse

Answer 7

id sell him if i were you, get rid of the problem completely.

it sounds harsh but he sounds dangerous and you cant do with a dangerous horse so yeh, i would sell him.

Answer 8

I would would get a professional trainer that would work with both you and your horse. You're his owner, and you need to know how to handle him.

The path may simply have been too hard and was causing him pain, so try cantering him on a softer surface. But seeing as i don't know your horse, it is difficult to provide a truly helpful answer. Does he ignore you when you are riding in an arena, or just on the trails? Is he stubborn when you are on the ground as well as in the saddle? When was the last time his teeth were floated? If there is a problem with his teeth, the bit may have been rubbing on sensitive areas, and constant pulling on the reins could have aggravated him. This doesn't sound like it was the case, but hey, you never know.

It could be that when you could not get him back on the path, your cues started to get sloppy, especially when you began to really worry about the trees. He therefore did what he wanted to do because he had no idea what YOU wanted to do. But i wasn't there, so thats just a guess.

Like I already said, a trainer is the best way to go. Good luck.

Answer 9

How long has you been riding?

You should also ride with a friend on trails especially not alone.

Trying taking some lessons with him

you need to connect with you horse more than anything

and create a bond. Also you need more leg to keep him on the right path.

It'll take time and patience but it works.

Answer 10

Don't give up on the horse as your next horse could very well have issues needing a skilled trainer to correct as well. Find a skilled trainer. I'm sure that you will be happy with the end result and find that the investment was well worth it.

Skillful training is what makes a horse a pleasure to ride and there is no problem which can't be solved with a little patience and determination.

Answer 11

if u know the horse is not trained why ride it duh! its common cense!!!! please dont get on a horse if its poorly trained . if you do not know how to train go to a library and get some books about training or if you dont have time take it to a trainer or sell it!>!!....

     :) kayla

Answer 12

Awww - I know how that feels!  Hope you feel better.

I would agree with both your ideas about why he does what he does.

You have to decide for yourself what the best thing to do with him is, but the bottom line is that any horse, no matter how well trained, needs to be ridden by someone that knows how to fix horses in order to avoid making mistakes that will allow them to "break" in the first place and avoid such costly and painful mistakes as you've just experienced.

Your horse was focused more on keeping off the path than where he was going.  I doubt he intended to bump you off with a tree.

You must begin to understand why horses do the things they do - horses aren't just plain stubborn.  They really aren't stubborn at all - we just do not understand how to communicate with them.  Your horse perhaps didn't want to travel on the path because it either hurts his feet for some reason or he thinks it's going to hurt his feet from past experience.  Rather than to force him to walk on the path, you should have tried to understand why he didn't want to in the first place.  I would have worked with him to step onto the path at the walk and "listen" for "feelings" carefully that would have told me if his feet were ouchy walking on the path - that would be your answer then.

Before engaging in the trot or faster, we MUST be absolutely sure was can control our horse in it's environment.  If you couldn't get his feet on the path at the walk or trot, you shouldn't have allowed the canter or gallop while trying to make him mind.

I have to say, you said you were knocked off and drug a little ways - did the horse stop when you fell or did you only drag a little ways because your foot came out of the stirrup while the horse galloped away from you?  This answer means a lot because if the horse attempted to stop going when you fell off, it proves he's not a maniac - he WANTS to be part of your herd and understands that you needed him to stop - he's save-able.  If he took off running gleefully, consider selling him to a more experienced rider.

I would suggest to you that it may happen again with another horse if you don't take care of it now and learn from it.  If you and this horse get along well otherwise, I would suggest enrolling in a learning program, training sessions or instructions from someone who teaches natural horsemanship methods.  These methods' base are in our understanding our horses' thought patterns - how they perceive what we do when we interact with them.  The method teach us to "speak horse" which is usually a non-verbal language.  When we can do this well, we don't have problems like you just encountered.

You can get this learning from books - there's TONS of them out there by Chris Cox or Pat Parelli or Ray Hunt or Buck Brannaman - there's DVDs by these people and shows on RFD TV by them that teach these principles in small doses.

Although it's nice to get on and go galloping gleefully down the trail - I think it's quite an accomplishment for any person to put the time and the money (which can be a couple hundred to thousands of dollars) into going back to square one with the horse and beginning all over again.  It might be even a year or two before you're back out on the trail, but by the time you are, you and your horse will be completely different, much more dependable creatures.

If you can get lessons personally from someone like this - do it, there's nothing like this learning directly from a pro to your horse with you - each horse is an individual - each person is an individual, together each horse/human pair is unique.  A trainer could take your horse and train it to be better than it is, but if you don't know all you can about proper interaction, the fixes only last so long until your habits start tearing down what the trainer fixed.

I know this from experience - from over 40 years of having horses.  If you think "my horse is my mirror" and use that thought to reflect the shortcomings between you and your horse back to yourself, you'll learn things about yourself that you didn't know.  Correcting these make you a better person and a superb horseman/woman.  

Us humans are naturally quite impatient - that's my biggest problem, I expect too much too soon - I've had to learn to accept small improvements and look at them as big successes to learn the patience needed to work with horses well.  If you allow the horse to teach you, he'll teach you a lot of patience.....

Good luck!

Answer 13

i dont think you should get rid of a horse because of a problem too big. because no problems too big really if you think about it. if you sell your horse you are just going to get him sold on and on and on and eventually he might get too much and have him distroyed. i would get a professional and sort your horse out so to say at least youve tried and if it works which a lot of cases do then you can say i made him this way. a nice perfectly carm, happy and safe horse

good luck

p.s.. you must love this horse as much to at least give him a chance with a professional.

have fun

Answer 14

This depends on how emotionally attached you are to him. If you love him and want to try to work through his issues then take him to a good trainer. he is not a dangerous horse, jsut a stubbonr one who needs some reatraining it sounds like. His issues can be solved but like any retraining it will take time, money, and patience, but it can also bring you closer together and give you a common goal to strive for. if you truly do not want him make sure you sell him to a good home with someone who is willing to work with him and who is advanced and experienced in their riding and trainning skills to handle him

Answer 15

well the first thing to do is re-assess what happened and how it could have been prevented and then break down each "step" per say and ask why he did that(which you are in a way doing here) there could be an underlying cause such as pain in some way so call the vet for a complete check up...also i suspect poor training, part of having a horse is to RIDE him...if he is focusing on you and the ques you are giving him then he shouldnt spook or anything...you need to keep him in a frame and get his steps active(active does not mean speed)work on tose things which are more challenging then they sound..my horse,when i bought her was very spooky and "stubborn" and would not listen to my aids...when i just focused on getting her round and in a frame and listening to my legs and keeping her steps active and her balanced on my outside rein she stopped spooking and everything...these are the basics of good riding so having these in place will keep your horse focusing on you and listening to you and not taking advantage of you....but be warned the LAST thing you EVER want to do is put any kind of harsh bit in his mouth or the like...causing a horse pain makes them act up or be stubborn...