# Standing on a horses back....why?



## toosexy4myspotz (Oct 7, 2007)

WhaT is the deal with people standing on horses backs all the time?! I noticed people doing it the other day at a camp ground. People selling horses do it all the time around here. It annoys me. That doesn't tell me anything about a horse. I can stand on my apps back, whoopy! Now, go try to tie him, or ride him in an arena, it ain't going to happen. So what does it tell you?


----------



## bubba13 (Jan 6, 2007)

It's another gimmick. Now, if you can ride the horse standing--and some people can--I'm suitably impressed.


----------



## EthanQ (Sep 5, 2011)

ive always used it as a trust excercise


----------



## BaileyJo (Aug 23, 2011)

The only thing I am ever reminded of when people talk about this is when I watched Craig Cameron during an exhibition on horse training and at the end he tried to stand on a completely green and "untrustable" horse. He had only been riding the horse for about 20 minutes. He fell flat on his face, hard as a rock. I thought - not so smart.


----------



## toosexy4myspotz (Oct 7, 2007)

The reason I don't agree with is because poco will let me stand on his however, he will throw you straight over his head the first time you do something don't like. He loves jumping but the jumps can't be in an arena they have to be out in the opening. All he does in an arena is buck, buck, buck. Heh, not trust worthy to me. All you got to do to tick him off is bounce in the saddle at a trot or those your balance and he will put you in the dirt. Gotta love him though!


----------



## Jumpehunter (Jul 29, 2011)

I would do this (i don't due to riding instructor not allowing me) because one i think it would be kinda cool. so if you don't think standing on a horse isn't cool whatever i do. also a trust thing i want to feel confident on my horse. And when people stand on their horse when selling it it tells a lot. I ride some horses where they would throw me off and trample me if i stood on them and others would fall asleep while I'm doing it. It shows me that they are more tolerable and easy going (majority of the time) and that the rider trusts them for some reason if they are willing to do that so yea it gives the horse extra bonus points. especially because I shop for horses for a lesson barn that also offers special needs therapy we need calm tolerant horses and when you are able to stand on them it shows a little of the horses character


----------



## bubba13 (Jan 6, 2007)

It's something that horse traders teach. They'll get a horse to where you can stand on its back and pop a bullwhip off it, which impresses novices in the auction ring. Take that horse out and try to ride it, though, and it'll flat buck you off in a heartbeat.


----------



## Piper182 (Jun 18, 2009)

I have to respond to TooSexy for this. Your horse seems to trust you fine. But from what you said in the post, he is trying to teach you lessons when he dumps you. He's not trying to hurt you, only trying to help. Have you thought about thanking him. it sounds silly, but ive found it works...


----------



## whitetrashwarmblood (Aug 24, 2008)

I see it all the time at auctions, but what really ****es me off is when someone holds on to the horse's tail while someone else rides the horse around. 

I also hate when I see guys stand up on the saddle, and then spread their legs and fall right back down. Or when they ground tie the horse in the middle of the auction ring, climb up the side of the pen, and jump on to the horse from there.


----------



## flytobecat (Mar 28, 2010)

I've always wondered the same thing. Standing on a horse really doesn't prove anything & in no way reflects the horses training.


----------



## toosexy4myspotz (Oct 7, 2007)

Piper182 said:


> I have to respond to TooSexy for this. Your horse seems to trust you fine. But from what you said in the post, he is trying to teach you lessons when he dumps you. He's not trying to hurt you, only trying to help. Have you thought about thanking him. it sounds silly, but ive found it works...


This is very correct!!! I am the only person who rides him. When something is wrong or not the most comfortable way to do something he bucks. And I'm talking full out bronco bucking don't stop till your in the dirt. However, he will come stand beside you (even out on trails) after he throws you. He lowers head, you grab his bridle and he picks you up. I was trying to teach myself to rock with his canter so I took my feet out of the stirrups, he came to a dead halt. He will not even walk with your feet out ofnthe stirrups. Bareback, oh he's a charm! You start loosing your balance and he stops. He don't keep cantering or trotting. I call him a blessing in disguise. He will teach you right and wrongs. He has his quirks, issues but I have learned how to deal with them. He is by no means a horse I could ever sell. I do want to try him English and work him on jumps because I can no longer take him out trail riding. He still needs a job. On the ground he is perfect gentleman, except you cannot tie him. He is a dream to lunge. He works only off voice commands. He is a gentle giant. I actually had a bad accident on him a few months ago and had to put him back on stall rest. This is the fourth time in two years he has been on stall rest. So, I am resorting back to just riding around the property and doing small jumps or barrels with him. He used to be the best trail horse around but he has genetics working against him big time.


----------



## Piper182 (Jun 18, 2009)

toosexy4myspotz said:


> This is very correct!!! I am the only person who rides him. When something is wrong or not the most comfortable way to do something he bucks. And I'm talking full out bronco bucking don't stop till your in the dirt. However, he will come stand beside you (even out on trails) after he throws you. He lowers head, you grab his bridle and he picks you up. I was trying to teach myself to rock with his canter so I took my feet out of the stirrups, he came to a dead halt. He will not even walk with your feet out ofnthe stirrups. Bareback, oh he's a charm! You start loosing your balance and he stops. He don't keep cantering or trotting. I call him a blessing in disguise. He will teach you right and wrongs. He has his quirks, issues but I have learned how to deal with them. He is by no means a horse I could ever sell. I do want to try him English and work him on jumps because I can no longer take him out trail riding. He still needs a job. On the ground he is perfect gentleman, except you cannot tie him. He is a dream to lunge. He works only off voice commands. He is a gentle giant. I actually had a bad accident on him a few months ago and had to put him back on stall rest. This is the fourth time in two years he has been on stall rest. So, I am resorting back to just riding around the property and doing small jumps or barrels with him. He used to be the best trail horse around but he has genetics working against him big time.


how do you mean he had accidents? What is he doing to get hurt? Also, why can't he be tied? Does he freak on one tie or two? Sometimes the confinement of two ties makes a horse nervous, but if you tie him to a wall in his stall and allow him to find his boundaries (slip knots for humans of course) can help teach him to tie without having him hurt himself or break him of his "spirit" so to speak. 

When I train I want horses to learn themselves, not me teach. I only help understand.


----------



## toosexy4myspotz (Oct 7, 2007)

This is long and hard to explain but I will try my best. The last accident we went out trail riding. Down a normal trail, meanwhile ( he absolutely loves to jump) so he is jumping every single log even if it is only a foot high. We went around the lake and were coming home and we had to cut threw the woods and it's a pretty steep incline. My hubby went first but all of a sudden poco stops. I asked him to walk on thinking he was just being stubborn, which is typical for him, as soon as I asked him forward he went and then he just started backing quickly. I egged him forward, he went then came to an abrupt stop backed like he just ran into fire, I jumped off, knowing the consequences to his behavoir and being on the side of mountain, he backed over a five or six hundred pound boulder. And what do you know, the boulder came loose, it slammed into his front legs, he got them out, then his back legs, he got them out. He walked up to me and stood beside me and I checked him out. Not major just small cuts and scraps. Come to realize he went to step over a small tree and couldn't get his foot over it the tree just lifted up with it. So therefore i think he felt stuck. But when he feels trapped he flips out. I have been through six trainers and fifteen local horseman on this problem. Same issue with tying. He freaks out. I'm not just talking about pulling back. Whatever he is tyed to, he will get loose. You can tie him in a stall horse trailer fine. You can cross tie him or single tie him and slip knots don't work with him. He put way too much pressure to pull it undone. I have seen him flip over backwards several times. I have seen him jump over hitching posts, he has pulled numberous fence posts and hitching posts out of the ground. He has pulled bars out of trailer, I have seen him injure both himself and people that have tried to work with him. Everybody you will ever talk to that has worked with him will tell you you will not walk away from him without injuries. When he freaks out all you can do it back off. If you try to help him you are going to end up seriously injured. I have managed to work my way around these issues for years. I have had him for eight years and will never let him go. He has a lot of skeletons in his closet and was severly injured multiple times before I bought him. He is 92% foundation bred. He has awesome bloodlines on his dams side, she was a ah. However, on his sired side is all screwed up. His sire, three half brothers, and two half sister were euthanized before they were fourteen years old because they were down right dangerous, as I was told. I has seen the video tapes of his sire. His sire was owned by a good friend. His sire was at a young age even temperament, well natured, etc. But over the years he started getting more and more aggressive, and would freak out over everything, they got to where you couldn't even walk out in the pasture with him without him charging. One of his half brothers was euthenized last year. He was a beauty. But every time you got close to him he tried his best to bite, kick, srtike, anything. It's sad. Especially knowing my beloved pal has such screwed up breeding.


----------



## toosexy4myspotz (Oct 7, 2007)

I know my spoiling him probably doesn't help any but I would give the world to him on a silver platter if I could. I have a six month old baby now. I haven't been riding him much because I don't want to get hurt. However we are buying our fist house and there is plenty of room to set up some jumps. Now, I just got to learn how to keep my butt in an English saddle cause I have never even sat in one


----------



## ligoleth (Sep 9, 2011)

Spoiling a horse is never the answer to anything. 

Never. 

If he doesn't like tying, then don't tie him. Just train him to stand still and comfortably while tacking up, if you truly think it a big issue. And if you need someone to hold him, then by golly, get someoen to hold him. 

The reason why those horses got so 'dangerous' was because those people never knew the signs, and never thought twice about correcting them, or even training it out of them. 

Horses are never bad animals. They may have bad tendencies, but they only become bad if the owner previously had treated them as such. Now, if the sire had such bad temperament, why did they bother breeding him in the first place? There is more to a horse than simply good looks and ability to do things.


----------



## Lauren Woodard (Jul 7, 2010)

Standing on a horse is just like any other skill or trust issue. It doesn't mean it covers the complete horse. There are a lot of people who can walk around on their horse and can't canter. So, it's good if your horse will stand completely still and it does take some courage to get up there. Then, continue on learning, playing, working and do all the other things you want to with your horse.


----------



## toosexy4myspotz (Oct 7, 2007)

Deschutes said:


> Spoiling a horse is never the answer to anything.
> 
> Never.
> 
> ...



I have had him for eight years. I'm used the tieing thing and don't really care. I can take him out into a field drop his lead, say stand, go back into the house and make me sandwich, come back out and he will still be standing there. He is taught very well. He knows a lot he just has certain circumstances under which he completely freaks out.


----------



## Saddlebag (Jan 17, 2011)

By a horse allowing someone to stand on his back it proves only that the horse may not have a problem with something that high up moving.


----------



## pintophile (May 18, 2011)

Because it impresses people. Because people think that by standing on a horse, that somehow equates the horse as being super quiet and well broke.

These are my two horses. And I can tell you, the one that I am standing on is certainly not the most super quiet or well broke. She just knows how to stand still. 

To be honest, it's more skill on the part of the person. Takes balance!


----------



## ridergirl23 (Sep 17, 2009)

I'm learning to stand on my horse while she canters, standing on her back while she was standing was never very exciting... I've seen people do it on horses that were barely trained, especially with a saddle on. while she's cantering..... thats a different story, I've had some falls where i got a good mouthful of arena dirt, lol.


----------



## pintophile (May 18, 2011)

ridergirl23 said:


> I'm learning to stand on my horse while she canters, standing on her back while she was standing was never very exciting... I've seen people do it on horses that were barely trained, especially with a saddle on. while she's cantering..... thats a different story, I've had some falls where i got a good mouthful of arena dirt, lol.


Now THIS is pretty cool. 

Any pictures? Video? I'd love to see it.


----------



## ridergirl23 (Sep 17, 2009)

pintophile said:


> Now THIS is pretty cool.
> 
> Any pictures? Video? I'd love to see it.


i will try to get some pics and a video! I need to practice a bit more though, rena likes to stop when i stand up, or speed up, so one she learns just to stay the same, and i can stand for more then half a circle i'll get a video! hahaha :lol:


----------



## kayleeloveslaneandlana (Apr 10, 2011)

I don't stand on my horses back because I think it's cool or anything I just do it because it's fun! , plus I love doing anything that involves playing with Relan. That's just me. If I fall off then that's my problem I wouldn't really care. 

I would love to see that video of you trying to canter on a horses back!! That's so cool


----------



## EthanQ (Sep 5, 2011)

i too agree that it's a horse trader scheme but i use it when i have full trust in my horse, and i also am teaching myself to roman ride ;D


----------



## ridergirl23 (Sep 17, 2009)

EthanQ said:


> i too agree that it's a horse trader scheme but i use it when i have full trust in my horse, and i also am teaching myself to roman ride ;D


roman riding... now THATS what I've always wanted to do! sadly i only have one horse, lol. but one day i want to learn that!!!


----------



## Reiterin (Mar 28, 2010)

I value my life too much. I wouldn't ever trust a horse to do it. and all I do is cringe when I see other people do it.


----------



## ridergirl23 (Sep 17, 2009)

^ I should probably be a little more nervous... but today i tried standing again, i stood there for a few seconds, lost my balance and hit the dirt and rolled as rena cantered around. hahaha i was getting changed to get into bed tonight and about half the arena dirt fell out of my pants.


----------



## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

Ok now post pictures of the horse standing your back, that would impress me more:lol:


----------



## SorrelHorse (Apr 9, 2009)

Its a gimmick for traders.

I do it because I get bored, and being a teenager I like to do stupid things. I would love to think of it as a desensitization excersize, which to a certain extent it is, but there are better things I could be doing. Ignore my grammar, another stupid teenage thing. Also a sleep deprivation thing


----------

