From: Bobbie
Dear Jessica,
I have been engrossed in reading your pages for a while now but can't seem to find the answer to my problem. I hope you can help me.
I have a lovely 12 year old called Kaptein, most of the time he is well behaved, but occasionally he will take myself, or one of the more experienced riders, he doesn't care who, and he will run, and run...and run.
No amount of turning him in a circle, pulling back or trying to stop him will make any difference. he seems to run until he wants to, only then will he stop. The more you try to stop him the more he fights for mastery and continues to run.
I am pregnant at the moment and have had to stop riding him because of this unpredictability, PLEASE HELP.
Bobbie
Hi Bobbie! This is not a question I can answer for you; I can make a few suggestions, but you're going to need some hands-on help from local experts who can look at the actual horse and watch it being tacked up and ridden.
While you're pregnant and not riding anyway, why not have this horse thoroughly checked out by a good veterinarian? If there's a tooth problem or a saddle-fit problem that could be causing the horse enough pain to make him take off running, now would be an excellent time to find out. If there's something else wrong that a veterinarian can detect, again, now is an excellent time to find out.
If no one can find a specific cause, but the behaviour keeps happening and there is no consistency or pattern you can detect (same rider? same saddle?
same venue? same length of ride? etc.), then you may want to ask your vet to refer the horse to a veterinary hospital for more tests.
There have been cases of horses with brain tumours that caused them to "just start running" for no apparent reason, and to keep running until they hit something, so even if no one can pinpoint a specific cause, there may still be a cause. This isn't an annoying habit, it's a dangerous problem, so by all means stay off the horse until you know what's causing it. If it's a tack or training or riding problem, it's probably a problem that can be solved. If it's a medical problem, that's another story. Don't take chances with yourself -- or with the baby.
Good luck!
Jessica
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