Two and a half year old filly...Rearing! Kicking? Can I ride her yet?

Hey everyone!
I just bought a filly, she'll be three in July. I need to get a picture of her on here! She is adorable - black AQHA with two little socks in the back and a big star. I call her Nicky. Nicky is very different then any other horse I have ever had, or even dealt with, really. For one, she is very young and not saddle broke. For two, she is like.. ubber calm and seems quite innocent. Nicky is bred to be a pleasure horse, and I have been training/riding a very energetic, bred to work and run gaming/drill horse! I like the horses that like to go, that enjoy and see a point in being exercised. My old mare thought that work was fun, but Nicky would rather stand and look pretty all day or walk very slow. I understand that she doesn't want to work very hard - I have accepted that she wont be like my old mare, and I am kind of excited to try reining with her, but the last couple of days, her true colors have started to shine through!!

I have a few questions... So, first, she is about 14.2 hands at the withers but is still a few inches higher in the back. She is growing, for sure, but I wanted some opinions on when I should start riding her? I have jumped on her and walked her around for five minutes and she did fine, she has been saddles and on trails and knows the basics but I don't want to hurt her. She seems like she is growing slowly, but I did ask someone and they said that although she will even out a little, she will never be completely evened out. Sad! But who knows! Do you think riding her very lightly before she is three would be a big issue?

Secondly, when I am lunging Nicky, and I ask her to canter on the left lead, she sometimes will just kick out .. but towards me. It is not just a buck, I feel disrespect. It happens the same way every time, when I ask her to canter, and being that she is lazy and would prefer not to, she thinks its okay to kick out at me! I don't let her get away with it, I have been stopping her and making her back up with a loud firm voice and then asking her again and again until she doesnt kick. Is that what I should be doing?

Thirdly.. and MOST importantly, Nicky reared up and FLIPPED OVER last night!! When I ask her to back up or pivot or get into her face or something, basically back to her laziness, she has just barely hopped up maybe two inches before and but never reared up completely. Then all of the sudden last night, I can't even remember exactly what happened, but there was NO reason for her to rear up or even be scared, or else I would have remembered the situation better, but she reared ALL the way up, and fell straight on her back. It was the weirdest thing ever! You know when horses rear up, they usually like swing their legs around and atleast try to keep there balance? Nope, not her, it looked like someone just lifted her up and pushed her over. No resisting, no attempt to stay up or come back on all fours, she just flipped right over. I was like in shock. And sooo angry. I tried not to take it out on her, but I did react fast. After she got up, I made her run, run run on the lunge line, switch directions and the back back back up. She got the idea that it was a bad thing, for sure.

I got home and I was just thinking that she must have some guts!!! She looks and acts to innocent and then will just flip out randomly. I remember a lady was training a horse like that, it was like she had two personalities. It is very scary. I need to figure out how to make her know it is NOT okay because when I start riding her, I don't want her to randomly do that again. Please help me!!


Brittany and Nicky.

I would lether just bea horse for a couple more months, put her with othe rhorses, I had to do that with mine and I started working again with her when she came back from just being a horse. At 2 there brains can't hold alot of stuff, I would do 10 minutes of ground work and then spend 15/30 minutes grooming her and put her back out. I would do this every other day and somtimes just lether out in the arena to play and I would join up with her. Tak ethings really slow and lether be a young horse. That's the best I did with my mare and she is doing so great now, almost 4 years old and seeking to learn, can handle 30 minute work outs under saddle and I just don't puch her at all, unless its somthing I feel we can work through and end on a good positve note. Good luck!

We got my horse when he was 5 and he had never been professionally trained. So we sent him off to boot camp for a month to get trained! When he came back he was a brand new horse! I had to lunge him before riding so he knew who was boss. So maybe sending Nicky to get trained for a month would do some good to her!

As for riding under 3, ehh. It might be okay as long as you only ride for 10-15 minute sessions and you lunge her before and end on a good note.

To deal with her laziness and not doing what you ask. Get a long whip, don't swing it at her. When your lunging her, keep the whip near her hindquarters, so when you ask her to canter and she refuses, whip it in the air so she knows to run.

Hope it helped?

XD

Just forgot to add, my horse is TB, bred for racing and she was also dead calm and seemed like nothing would phase her till I got her into a place she loved and so I know extly where you are comming from. Again good luck!

You need to get a trainer. You might not think your horse had a reason to rear and flip over but she sure didn't do it for fun. You don't seem to have the experience to do this on your own. If you want to do reining with her then you would need a trainer anyway so get one to start her for you. She is not RANDOMLY doing it. There is a very good reason that she's doing it. A symptom of your inexperience is that you are missing what is causing it. She is rearing because her emotions are running away with her. She needs to be taught that she can move her feet. Don't get angry with an untrained horse acting like an untrained horse.

I agree, when I got Klassy she had been ina stall for 8 months barly handled and thot she was likea lap dog ad wuld walk all over you. Now you couldnt get mad cause she hadnt been taught any different and just got away with it. While at pasture Klassy and I had some lessons with someone who taught me some ways to work with asking for more space and respect, we did this once a week for about 6 weeks. I didnt know how to start my own horse but have been riding all my life, this was new to me so I wanted to know how to work with her. Now I can use bodey laungue to ask her to move any part of her bodey away from me at liberty and itsa great feeling to trust her.

This. For a horse to rear and flip, there must have been some stimulus for her to react that way.
Personally, I don't like to start a horse till they're 3, and then it's light work for 6 months, then I like to chuck them out till they're 4. This is my preference, others might tell you differently.
I would strongly suggest working with a trainer. This doesn't mean that you have to send the horse away for training, but rather find a trainer that will work with you both, so you both learn.

Thanks guys!

I really want to get defensive about you saying that I am inexperienced. I understand that I may not be the smartest MOST experienced person but I have delt with a lot of problem horses and I do understand horse language. I know that she is not doing it randomly. Excuse my poor choice of words. She is a shy horse, and easily feared. I may be over cueing her, or under cueing her when she tries to test me. I have been reading about reasons why horses rear. Everything I read was common sense - I had already thought about it, and heard it before. I don't want to be defensive, because getting a trainer would probably be helpful but I think that you don't really know me and you should not jump to conclusions. I am guessing, after research and talking to a few different people at my barn, and then reflecting on her behavior, that she is probably testing me, and is probably not respecting me. She does not have complete faith and trust in me. I just bought her two weeks ago, and although she has come along with in trusting me, there are only starting out. She may be rearing as a reflex to feeling boxed in. I know that she is not rearing becuase she is in pain and she is not rearing to intentionally hurting me. I honestly feel that because she is rearing, or acting out in other ways such as kicking out, that we need to gain that trust.

I was asking someone about rearing and was to prevent it. - she told me that although rearing is a bad thing and dangerous, sometimes once horses go over, they wont try it again because now they know it hurts. Any comments?

I bought a saddle for her and I am going to start doing more ground work with more tack and then start doing more ground driving, but if I do start riding, it will be short sessions. I don't want to hurt her now or have long term affects - number one priority!

So how long have you been riding and how many horses have you started?

Well, I wouldnt compare Nicky to an untrained horse, or a lap dog. The previous owner has done a ton of ground work on her. She actually knows a LOT for her age. She is a pretty smart girl, and from day one when I came to visit her for the first time, the lady told me that she tests you and will fight you until she learns to respect you and know whos boss. She is not untrained. She knows better then this. She knows what I want, and I do have experience working with trainers on ground work. My old gelding was the most disrespectful thing in the world, and a trainer at my barn showed me how to gain that respect. That is different then a young filly, but I wont give her that much slack. I have been working her every day lunging for short sessions and has never been like that. I am pretty sure that it was me being to pushy or she might have gotten fed up - she is young, her attention span isnt the longest and her patience isnt too great either.