Let's recap shall we?
Pony decided to give a little hop and rider falls off. While holding the reins, rider is handed a crop or whip, and proceeds to smack the pony a few times until she loses control and pony runs off. Now you have a loose pony.
Yeah, great horsemanship there.
Discipline is absolutely necessary. I've ridden many sour little ponies who have learned that little cowhop/buck trick to unseat people. And I absolutely punished them for it, (once health concerns were ruled out.)
We'll use my previous pony, Jetta, for an example. Ain't she cute?Jetta came to me with a lot of bad habits, including refusing to move forward, bucking, and even rearing. Once we ruled out health concerns, we went to learning how to behave ourselves under saddle.
And yeah, it included a crop or a stick. The moment she acted up, she got a verbal reprimand and a stick across the butt until she changed her mind.
Jetta came out the other side of that as one of the best ponies I've ever ridden. Bomb proof (except for scary tractors) and brave. I could do anything with her and ride anywhere. She's now an elderly woman's beloved pet and gives pony rides to her grandkids.
Discipline has to be administered immediately and properly to be effective. If I had fallen off of Jetta, yanked on her reins, and then beat her with a stick, what would that accomplish? NOTHING. It would have possibly created a far worse problem.
Losing your temper has no place in the animal world. Or in any world, quite honestly. If you can't solve a problem on your own, with a good seat, quiet hands, and a well timed and precise correction, you don't need to be working on that problem. Find someone who can, before you ruin a good horse.
The only thing she is causing is a traumatized horse. She should really be looking into getting vets and dentist in there to look at the horse! I would first start with the horse's mouth. If it's not a dental issue then have a vet come out an check the horse over for pinched nerves and soundness issues. If the horse checks out fine then change the tack out, I've had many horses act up when using a bit they don't like. Also in the video she's taking from the horse and not giving back, The horse does what she tells it to and not giving her head back as a reward, she needs to let up on the reins. If fixing all these issues and the horse still acts up she needs to find a new way to let the horse know she's the boss an the horse isn't going to get away with throwing people off. When I get bucked off (If not injured) I will lunge the horse in both directions and make the horse back up repeatedly and turn my back on the horse an walk away, 9 times out of 10 the horse fallows me. It's called Natural Horsemanship which this girl obviously doesn't know and should really look into it. I have taken problem and dangerous horses and turned them around into a totally different horse without ever having conflict with them. There's absolutely no reason to have to hit a horse. just my opinion!
ReplyDeleteYou make really good points Hurley - thank you for sharing them!
ReplyDeleteI was also amazed by the fact the the little hop-buck the pony made unseated the rider. Unless she was falling off "on purpose" so she could smack the pony, I think she needs to work on her own horsemanship more a little in that respect.
ReplyDelete(Quite beyond the issue of how she reacted when she came off.)
Robin
Amen Sista!! Beating a horse from the ground for a riding issue doesn't make any sense. If you know he has a bucking issue, sit back so you can ride it out and have a whip in your hand so you can correct him if you need to.
ReplyDeleteAgreed! It wasn't even much of a buck, and off she came. Time to work on your seat, instead of beating your pony, I think.
ReplyDelete