Wow, I guess I never thought of teaching a horse to stop. In my experience you just get the ones that automatically will without even thinking, you get the ones that carry on without a care, and you get the ones that completely freak out. I think alot of it depends on how the fall happens, where, and why. There's not really a way to plan for the unexpected.
Never, never do it! If you fall, hold the rein and horse freaks out next you'll have is horse actually stepping or striking at you, which may lead to really bad injuries. I had it happen with me once and I've seen it happening with other people. Just let it go - most horses will stop especially if you ride with someone and other horse stops.
In my experience, it's best that your horse very solidly knows the verbal command for "whoa". Whether lunging or free penning, when you say "WHOA", he should slide to an immediate halt.
After that, it's pretty easy! You just practice riding forward, and then at a walk, sliding off him (often easiest bareback), and firmly saying WHOA. If he continues forward, use your reins from the ground to make him halt and stand.
Most horses have a natural inclination to want to stop when you are unbalanced or falling. Unfortunately, many of us only happen to be unbalanced or falling when our horses are acting badly, and in my experience, teaching them to stop when you fall off goes out the window when they're delibrately bucking you off :lol:
I've had it save my life though, getting hung up in my tack and having my horse listen to me repeating whoa from a dangling stirrup.
I agree. Some horses will, some horses won't. You'll be at a show, and the horses that will won't. I have two horses that will move a few strides away and then stop, just to be out of my way. I also had a horse that would hightail it. Depends on the horse i guess.
This is a really interesting topic. My horse Berdi stops immediately when I fall off and stares at me like really concerned like, "What happened?" She is so sweet! But I've fallen off others who will simply gallop away, reins trailing behind them and you have to chase after them to catch them up again!
My two boys do that too, so I have no idea how to teach it. Hoover will actually grab and pull at my shirt if I don't get up quickly to see if I'm okay.
hmmm...I didn't train my horse to stop, she just bucked me off and then stopped and looked at me. Given, I still had the reins in my hand but I fell off a horse with my foot caught in my stirrups and he dragged me a few feet before I got my sences back and got my foot outta the stirrup.
maybe just pretending to fall off and getting them to sto when you do, this might just get it in their head that when your off, they stop.
Ive only fallen off once on my new horse, but it was after she threw a few bucks... As soon as i hit the ground my first thought was "grab the reins!!!' haha i rolled over as fast as i could to grab them or try to if she was galloping away... and i rolled right into her nose in my face, haha she looked at me like: you idiot! get up! what are you doing down there dummie!!
haha i think it depends on the horse.
I've come off my horse 2 times. One time we were galloping and he stopped dead in his tracks when I came off. The second time he was just standing there, something scared him and caught me off guard. He spun around, dumped me and galloped 2 miles home. I find it ironic that time he was hauling *** he stopped, and the time he was standing still he ended up hauling ***. I guess it depends on the circumstances going on during the unexpected dismount.
Unless you're in an area, such as near a busy road, where you absolutely need to hold on to save your horse, I also let go of the reins. You can't fall safely and roll if you're trying to hang on. I did it once and the horse still tried to take off and yanked my shoulder half off my body. It still hurts from time to time. I wish I had let go.
I have two horses with polar opposite personalities...
With Romeo if I come off...and i rarely do...he will stop and look at me or if he goes to walk I say Whoa and he will stop then Stand and he will stand and wait for me...stand is his ground tie command.
Bause on the other hand...she will run like hell...gets me off then stops for about two second to think 'Ugh oh...I shook them off...Im in trouble...I should run...' (i did not fill her head with this...she is either 'off' or she got in trouble in the past...Idk which...) It doesnt help all i do is trail ride...in the pasture or in an arena I would let go of my rein and just go catch her but if im on the trails you bet ill hang onto that rein...If I let go I would never get her back. She would run even if every other horse in a five mile distance froze in place much less the ones im riding with.
I agree that it is not smart to hold on to a rein when you come off...but in some circumstances you just have to hang on and hope for the best...
As for how I would go about training one...teach whoa teach to ground tie with a verbal command like stand...that way the horse will stop and then the horse will stay put without you constantly repeating whoa.
But as said before...you cant teach every horse to stop...also i like rio's statement...7 ft long western split reins...that way even if your horse gets loose they cant hook a leg through their reins (ive had this happen it was bad) and if your lucky they will step on them and stop themselves (ive had this happen too)
I too hold on to my rein if it is long enough. I think all my reins are now and it was partly for this reason that I got rid of all my short reins. If I'm 10 miles from home, I don't want to walk home if my horse decides to leave without me.
I have been trying to train my horses to stop when I lose my balance. I haven't been diligent enough about it, but my method is to slide sideways, forwards or backwards and at the same time say Whoa and pull on the reins. Cause if I'm falling, I'm pullilng too!
I would think this would be easier to teach with split reins. Unlike english reins that stay on the horse's neck no matter where you are, I would think if the horse knows how to ground tie, having a split rein touch the ground would say "stop" to the horse.
When you fall off your horse, it's a good idea not to punish them. Riders at my barn wonder why their horse takes off everytime they take a fall. The time for punishing is when you are on your horse, but by the time you end up on the ground, your horse probably doesn't know what they did wrong. Beating your horse everytime you fall is a good way to teach your horse to dump you and run, if I was the horse that's what I would do :wink:
And yes, it does depend a lot on the horse, too. I seem to have gotten lucky with my boy, and then again I don't beat him when I fall
Has anyone heard of an imergancy dismount? it is great for this. It's fairly simple to teach your horse. Like MacabreMikolaj said, start bareback. Ask your horse to walk then you lean out over their shoulder, when you are unbalanced ask for the whoa. If they stop praise them. If they don't, swing yourself off landing by their shoulder facing them and stop them with your reins. It is easiest if you have split reins. Keep doing this until they stop when you lean out over their shoulder. When they do stop move to the trot and repeat the process until they stop at the trot. I wouldn't suggest trying it at a canter as you may get hurt if you land wrong.
Work on coming off and seeing if they stop when you unbalance yourself.
You know, I have heard many things about voice commands and I have been working with horses for a long time. But most of the time i have always heard about voice commands. Now my recent mentor that I am training under says that he does not use voice commands for the reason of someone from the sidelines can yell something like "WHOA" or "YA" or something of that nature and the horse will respond to what the outsiders are saying instead of paying attention to you (the rider). He believes in more of the weight and the way that your body is positioned. But I do see the point about what if you fall off and are hanging by the tack; their is no way to position your body weight in the saddle to make him stop. Basically all you have left is to pray that he stops or use your voice, or if by chance you still have the reins in your hand, you can try pulling and see what happens. But a voice command does seem a bit more promising. plus if you are on the ground and your horse is running off I don't think that your weight is going to be doing anything then so again there is praying or using a voice command. Plus to get across the argument about your horse listening to what outsiders are saying, I do believe that you can train your horse to only respond to the rider or at least your own voice cause horses do have great hearing and they can tell where a noise is coming from. So voice commands do have their place.
The times I fall off anymore are when the horse is blowing a cork and no amount of whoa is going to stop it. I don't want the horse to stay anywhere around me until it calms down. Sometimes I get up just in time to see the horse going over the hill and sometimes they turn right around and come back. Last fall I had a horse buck me off at a roping and I tried to keep hold of the rein. To make a long story short I dislocated a finger and went to the hospital and eventually had $5000 worth of surgery on it to reattach the tendon. My view may change later but for now I think I would rather walk home than risk getting stepped on or hurt again and I don't fall off often enough to make it an important part of my training.
I think the key word, Val, is English vs Western reins. Split reins make it possible to hold on to your horse but buckled reins are too short and could be dangerous. I do my best to hold on to my split reins when I come off. In the same token, my horses are taught to ground tie so that may be an advantage.
Oh, yes, I agree. I used split reins when I started my horses western. But since I switched to english riding, english reins come as a part of the deal. And I keep forgetting about split reins and the advantages they give. :wink:
Sorry if I didn't clarify... I ride with long split western reins. I doubt I would try or even be able to hold onto the shorter english one piece rein.
The start of this comes from a very clear understanding of the mounting and dismounting process. What that means is you don't move when I get on and you don't move when I get off. This must be clear on both ends. Once you have that in place you can begin to get off at the walk . The other piece is to not use the mouth to stop . Just hold on to some mane and neck for balance . When your foot start come out of the right stirrup the horse should begin to stop. When that works get off. Please don't try this until the horse is clear about the mounting and dismounting part. Then practice at a walk and work your way up to a trot. Just stop riding forward and get off. This will not work on a bucking horse ,they are too scared and excited at that point . Like Kevin pointed out you really don't want that around you. This is a foundation exercise that is worked in steps. When this is built in you will be able to get off ,or fall off ,and the horse will stop.
That makes good sense Little T, but we also need to consider what made us come off to begin with. If your horse bucked from fear or became spooked for some reason, then his instinct to flee may overcome his training. The training has to be extremely strong. It is going to take a lot of work to be sure that he isn't going to leave you on the ground.
I'm nursing a couple of fractured ribs from one of my horses that spooked for some reason while we were on the trail in the woods across from my farm. I still don't know what happened, it was so fast but he stood there shaking from whatever he saw, still, he waited for me 10' away. I had to remount and ride home (it took 4 or 5 attempts to remount and he stood there even through the fear). That was all from training and confidence in me as his leader.
A short note on the english vs western reins....Im sorta picky on my reins and as a trail rider it doesnt matter if they are split or not...one of my horses has split reins one doesnt because I like the feel of both sets, its just I like those individual reins on those particular horses.
I will try my hardest to hold onto my split reins...I am not loosing my horses...in the same sense Ill try hard to hold onto the non-split ones too...but only if I manage to come off on my feet and Ive done this twice now and its the only two times ive come off with non-split reins.
Having english style reins gives you a mind set: I best not come off this horse...and if I do I best land on my feet...
I think the mind set of landing on your feet can actually cause you to land on your feet...possibly a subconsious thing?
Interesting thread, lots of interesting viewpoints.
In re: whether or not to hold onto the reins:
When I rode racehorses, the standing policy was that if you fell off, you bought the barn a sixpack, and if you feel off AND let go off the reins, you bought the barn a case.
The reason for this is that the loose horse endangers all of the other horses and riders on the track, and that if it was in your power to do so, you held on, out of concern for the safety of the other riders.
However, I did buy a couple of cases of beer in my day, and a few six packs.
In non race horse situations, whether or not I held on to the reins depends on the force and mechanics of the fall, where I'm located and what danger the loose horse will be in (next to a road? - hang on!), whether or not the horse is dragging me and how far I'll have to walk home if the horse takes off.
When I rode racehorses, the standing policy was that if you fell off, you bought the barn a sixpack, and if you feel off AND let go off the reins, you bought the barn a case.
"How to teach your horse to stop if he feels you falling off! (And teach him to stay put and NOT run off!)"
this is part of a description on a training DVD from Diana Quintana at www.SuperStarsOf HorseTraining.com
I was always curious to see what she had to say but I don't really feel like spending any more money to buy the DVD after sending my horse to the trainers for a few months!
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