Ok, so I just wanted to get some opinions. Starting next week my new project at the ranch is a 7 y/o Andalusian X Quarter Horse mare who bolts at the canter. She goes in a D-Ring snaffle, which has solved her previous problems of head tossing (this was in a full cheek). She has apparently been worse this year than she was last. Yesterday my friend took her out behind a group of about 5 horses, and at the first few short canters she tried to bolt basically straight away. She's fine at the trot, and the best quick solution we came up with was to let her trot ahead of the group and have the group canter up to her, which she was fine with. We only did this because otherwise all the canters for that ride would have been ruined.

She's much better in the ring, so tomorrow my friend (another wrangler - very good rider) and I are going to school her in the arena to remind her she hopefully does know how to stop. In fact, I think if she doesn't work out in the next month or so she will be sold as a pack horse, but they don't want to sell her because she's our best pack horse. Unfortunately we don't run enough pack trips to make it worth keeping a horse just as a pack horse.

So far apart from ring work our ideas have been to canter her up hills until she gets tired, then when she wants to stop make her keep going. Obviously this would not be done on guest rides. We're also going to do long trot rides with lots of stopping and starting to reinforce the breaks.

Any ideas/opinions would be welcome.

Mugwump (the mugwump chronicles blog) has done a couple blogs on bolting. Might want to check them out for ideas.

Personally, I hate bolters and would stay away from a bolter.

My eight year old use to bolt. There was no single thing that cured it and I had to attack the problem from several directions.

First, I did a lot more work in the arena. I got him to the point that he stopped quickly and completely just by my seat alone - no rein pressure. It took a lot of trot - whoa and canter - whoa transitions. Also a lot of cantering in the arena. Canter until the horse relaxes into the gait and then you can stop them. The first couple times can take a while before they finally relax.

Do you have any large open fields that you can run the horse out in? Let the horse canter and canter in a field - keep them going until they are absolutely tired and are begging to stop, then whoa them and reward with a rest.

Also learn the pulley rein. It can be HARSH, but it is a lifesaver if a horse is bolting out of control. I haven't had a problem with bolting since doing the things above, but I do like to keep the pulley rein method in my bag of tricks for that "just in case" moment.

Tough situation because I don't know if a (previous) bolter is ever going to be 100% "safe" with a rookie rider. (I am assuming she is going to be used as a guest horse, as well as pack?? Or is she just for the trail guides and wranglers?)

Anyway, is this an actual "bolt" or does she get freaked and want to catch up with everybody else? The one thing I found to do with a previous taker-offer is to ALWAYS keep the horse between my hand and my leg. (I guess I kind of want to also say "on the bit" but the expression has become annoying and misused.) To take off to the point where a rider loses control, a horse needs to do one of two things: Chuck his head up in the air (which is what I find happens most times) and dig in behind and GO or (much less frequently in my limited experience) bear down on the reins, kind of pulling you out of the tack if he can, and running amok, all unbalanced and on the fore. A soft horse who is working where s/he is supposed to be can't usually get to the point where s/he can easily do these things. (But, of course, these are horses, so there are always the exceptions.)

I just did an assload of lateral work and transitions when I rode a horse who liked to run amok- but really work on PROPER transitions, particularly using your weight, seat, lower body, legs, shoulders, and what not rather than using your hands to influence the horse into her downward transition. If she gets sassy and tries to throw her head up or gets overly stiff, resistant and/or nonsensical, BEND THE SHIT OUT OF HER in both directions.

I was drunk last night when I wrote the above, so please do not take it as a logical or preferred method. Thanks be to you.

However you hit upon (whether accidently or not) the basis of control and suppling, obedience training at the same time.

My motto is....a straight line is your horse's friend and bends/turns are your friend when riding (either for control or for simply making the horse better overall).

I don't allow my horses to have friends.

I allowed my horse to have friends once. He invited them over and they refused to leave. I wound up feeding 4 Percherons, an ancient QH and a couple of snotty ponies until I finally told him they had to go. And he gave me attitude for months after that. If the big freeloader had a job and paid for it all himself I might not have cared but I refused to cover for his broke-azz buddies.

Hey guys! Thank you all so much for the ideas/help, they are all greatly appreciated (though unfortunately a bit late...). I actually used a lot of the same techniques you guys have described in the past month. Unfortunately we can't really spend much time in the arena, but I was able to take the mare on a lot of training rides with another horse who had similar issues. We mainly worked on walk/trot transitions in open fields and did canter work going up hills. The first few rides we started lots of walk/trot transitions & half halt work, then would blast them up this huge hill we have, and when they tired make them keep going. I think she actually enjoyed that though! It was also good because sometimes the horse ahead of me would canter and I would make her trot/halt/walk behind him going up the hill. She actually listened really well, and I think that exercise helped her realise it's not the end of the world having a horse cantering ahead of her.

She went on a pack trip 2 weeks ago, so has had some time off since. I started up riding her at the beginning of this week, and she has been doing SO WELL. We led a few beginner walk/trot rides, and she was awesome. She seemed to have actually remembered everything! Today was the big test because I cantered her behind our most advanced ride. She was fantastic!! I did lots of half halts at the beginning of the canters and tried really hard to stay relaxed. Even going behind the slowest Arab pony on the ride she did really well.

Alexa, to your question of whether or not she'll ever be a guest horse, I don't know. If she is, she certainly will not be ridden by a beginner and most likely even an intermediate. She'll probably go on advanced rides if at all and be towards the front (she is most difficult at the very back). She's not spooky at all, and actually has really nice gaits. Now her canter is a lot more balanced it's actually fun. So we'll see...

Some horses should have the sign "Does not play well with others." nailed on their stall.

My mare needs that *grumbles* She is...difficult, to say in the least.