Jockey Head Butt's Horse

i hear what your saying here, but apparently he is being disciplined by the stwards for extensive whip use down the lane.
this is cruelty and he should be suspended and he will.

[irishtrekker]

Fair enough. I've seen some nasty crop marks on horses whose riders were a little too whip-happy.

[Scurlogue Champ]

The only real issue here is that he got caught on camera....

[Pedigree Ann]

I saw the video and it looked like a glancing blow at best. Ever see a jockey whacking the side of a horse's neck with his open hand after a race? THis blow appears to be in the same impact category. Remember the old joke about the mule, who would do whatever you wanted with the gentlest request, but first you had to hit it over the head with a 2 by 4 to get its attention? Not too far off the mark, sometimes.

I have my own story about 'getting his attention.' I was in a riding class and was getting a lot of resistence to a canter aids from this big old grey hunter-type. With the instructor's permission, I reached back and gave him the hardest whack I could with the crop on his rump. He literally picked up his head - 'Oh, you actually DO want me to canter?' Things went a bit more smoothly thereafter, no need for any other reminders.

[Danzig]

i don't think anyone is suggesting that discipline is unnecessary...but a head butt? seems kind of silly... and then he whips the hell out of the horse down the lane. i think he crossed the line. everyone who has ever ridden knows it's only a matter of time before you get unseated. but i don't think you're supposed to take it personally. i sure didn't when i rode that mare who enjoyed trying to find low hanging limbs!! lol

[Downthestretch55]

Originally Posted by Danzig188

i don't think anyone is suggesting that discipline is unnecessary...but a head butt? seems kind of silly... and then he whips the hell out of the horse down the lane. i think he crossed the line. everyone who has ever ridden knows it's only a matter of time before you get unseated. but i don't think you're supposed to take it personally. i sure didn't when i rode that mare who enjoyed trying to find low hanging limbs!! lol

Looked pretty mild to me. He got off safely and held the reins.
Then, he and the horse came to an "understanding".
Honestly, I've seen much worse.
Just my two pennies worth...
Watch out for tree limbs. The trunks they try to scrape you off on also are a bit dangerous.

[kentuckyrosesinmay]

Originally Posted by Downthestretch55

Looked pretty mild to me. He got off safely and held the reins.
Then, he and the horse came to an "understanding".
Honestly, I've seen much worse.
Just my two pennies worth...
Watch out for tree limbs. The trunks they try to scrape you off on also are a bit dangerous.

I agree with you. I've seen much worse too. People discipline their horses all the time. Sometimes you have to. They are big, strong animals who can hurt themselves and you very easily. The general public doesn't understand this.

I do think the head butt was silly to watch visually, but it was a good way to discipline the horse without actually hitting him with his fist. Most of the time, you have to hit a horse as hard as you can to actually make it sting, and it ends up hurting you more than it hurts the horse. It takes a lot to hurt them. Some horses need more discipline than others, and I see absolutely nothing wrong with the head butt. He hit the horse on one of his most sensitive areas (the muzzle) one time, and the message got through. I'm sure the horse associated his head butt with him bucking the rider off since he was disciplined immediately after he did so.

The problem I have is with the excessive whipping down the lane. If he was excessively whipping the horse, it was completely uncalled for, abuse, and bad training. The horse would not have associated his bucking the rider off with the excessive whipping during a race. If this is the case, then the jockey clearly took his frustrations out on the horse, and, therefore, should be punished.

With that being said, I usually don't discipline my horses by hitting them for bucking unless they are just being flat out mean and hateful. Most of the time, I yell at them a couple of times if they get into a playful mode, and yelling usually does the trick. If they get to jumping around really bad, I will just jump off of them, and then put them on a lunge line until they settle down. This horse was obviously feeling good, and was being playful not mean.

In this particular instance, I probably would have just jumped off of the horse and led him or had someone else come in and lead him. It sounds as if the horse had been acting up in the entire post parade. The horse did seem to quit goofing off after he head butted him though. What I can't believe is that the jockey fell off of him at such a little buck/spook?! I don't even know if you could have called that a buck. I think the jockey actually more of jumped off of him at that point to discipline him.

Danzig was right, you aren't supposed to take what horses do personally. If I took it personally every time one of the young horses at my barn did something, I wouldn't be riding. I would have quit a very, very long time ago. My trainer was holding my young filly this weekend at a horse show. While I was walking behind her switching saddle pads (the saddle pad had been itching her horribly), she kicked at me, and my trainer immediately hit her on the nose to discipline her. She didn't do it again, and was a lot calmer since I switched the saddle pad. We went in and won the next class like nothing had ever happened.