im not sure this is the place to ask this but ...

My students parents brought her a pony. The person who sold it to them was a scammer and took advantage of them because they knew nothing about horses. Any way. The people lied about the horses age and said it was bomb proof. Now if you know horses you know that there is no such thing as a bomb proof horse anyway. We soon came to realise that not only was the horse disobedient but she reared. Now that was about a year ago. She has now built a trust with all family members on the ground but as soon as you are on her back. You might not come back. Now everyone knows that rearing is extremely dangerous and everyone has told them to rid their hands of it, but to who? My friends will not put her down and because of our food predicament she is causing hell!(i live in Victoria, Australia and we are stage 5 drought)I have done all I can (training etc) but the owners are trying one more thing. They are going to get a professional to come dawn and asses the horse to see if there is anything worth doing. She is a gorjuz horse but we don't know what to do. I know theres no real question here but...

Is it possible that she is untrained or unbroken?

Shes 15!

Hey personally I wouldn't take age as a given that horse is broken in or trained....unfortunately or even fortunately depending on which side of the fence you are looking from, many horses are treated as petting zoo's and are not used to being ridden resulting in panic man when they are...on a lighter side, use this professional that the owners have coming to help make a mediocre horse into a grest horse! And read anything you can by a wonderful lady called Kelly Marks and don't just read...practice it too! Horses are way more forgiving than people would have you believe!

I agree with tumai. Just because she is 15 doesn't mean that she is broke which is really unfortunate.

Yer I just asked the original owners(who actually lied about her age) if she was broken and they said she was and my friend who were leasing her before the young one got her always used to ride her so im very puzzled! :?

Before you go raving about how the previous owner was a 'scammer' and a 'liar', you should probably consider the idea that they might not have known the horses actual age to begin with, ie, that the person they purchased the horse from gave THEM an an incorrect age and they've not known any better other than to assume they wre right.

Secondly, I agree with the other people who have said a horses age has nothing to do with wether or not they are broken/saddled/rideable or even handled! There are numberous farms out here that have completely unhandled 8 years olds, never mind rideable!

If your horse is sound at ground level, but spooks or 'misbehaves' when ridden, you should consider your technique. Do you just dive in there and climb on, or have you tried just leaning over their back and being lead around so that they get ued to the weight on their back? There are numerous 'methods', both tried and tested and completely insane sounding. Regardless, the key is confidence; if you're nervous, you're going to upset the horse.

If the horses is a 'rearer' and 'disobediant' only under saddle, I suggest calling out the vet or an equine chiropractioner to check him/her back for problems, such as a misaligned vertabrae or even just muscle knots, especially if she has been previously ridden without problems. Ensure that the saddle fits properly, and that the rider isn't too heavy (no assumptions here! Just suggestions!) Aside from physical problems or ill fiting tack, there is the possibliity of some psychological trauma that was caused whilst being ridden.

There is no need to put a horse down just because it's 'naughty' under saddle. There's always the chance that the rider and horse are simply not a 'working' partnership, and considering the fact she was apparently 'rideable and has been ridden in the past', and all other options above have been exhausted, this may simply be the case.

Fist. I know the people who sold them the horse personally and not the nicest people.

My tenique is not lets get on and go. Before I even attemped to get on her trust was built and weight was leveled.

I want the owners to get her cheacked over by a vet but they wont :roll: They don't understand the importance of a horses health(something about wasiting money

I defeintly do not want to put her down and neither do they but because of our food(no rain) prediciment in Victoria its getting expensive.but a rearing horse is extreamly dangerous I lost my god father to a rearing horse. He had ridden horses all his life. One horse reared he hit his head and no more godfather.Now you can see why im worried.

And finally.I have been around horses all my life and are an experienced rider. I have also asked around TEN people who are older that me been around horses and are the best horse people you can get and they said to wipe the owners hands of the horse. I just don't another episode of my godfather.