help please

first some back story.

those who have followed this story from its beginnings in 20six will have some idea of the issues i've had with Molly and the length of time it's taken to get where we were on the 29th June, when I fell off.

the bit of back story that is relevant (and that I know) is as follows:

Molly is the daughter of my mare Queen of Timber (by Golden Lahab, which makes her a Blushing Groom grandaughter). She was bred by a friend, who owned Queenie at the time. I bought Queenie when Molly's year younger brother was weaned.

Friend moved to lincolnshire with both horses, then next i heard Molly was up in Allendale with a mutual friend who used to run a riding school. Molly had originally been going to be backed by my trainer, but had an accident in the wagon when parked in teh yard waiting to be offloaded, so that didnt' happen. breeder backed her herself.

then in September 2005 I went to where the mutual friend worked (I didn't know she worked there till I walked in teh door ...she hadn't used to) and asked after Molly.

The story was that breeder had given Molly to her brother (the breeder's brother) who had put his child up (I forget how old the bairn was at the time, young teens I think); Molly had, apparently, reared (having been set off on a ten mile ride....). He was ready to shoot her, but instead passed her on to friend in allendale, who bred a nice foal.

Also, there had always been issues with the bit & bitting. Apparently, there had been a great deal of difficulty in getting her to accept a bit, several million jointed ones having been tried (exaggeration, but you get the idea).

by this time she'd had a couple or so years out of work, and was the mother of a then rising 2 filly. She needed to be moved on, and the friend who had her didn't know what to do - sell her where she wasn't known, which went against the grain a bit, or, to be blunt, have her shot, which would have been a bit of a waste...

I thought about it, having always liked molly who had been through a lot by way of injury (as well as the wagon accident, she'd got herself staked when she was 6 months old). The friend who had her had loads of experience with horses (used to run the riding school up there, knows her stuff) and thought she could be turned round. I took the opportunity, knowing molly was a project.

As you all know, we had done quite well. sorted out the bitting issues by way of 6 months bitless, hacking out in company, starting to hack out alone, getting to grip with gates, took the lead on hacks in fact, she likes her head in front even in walk (made a change from her mother, who was always dropped out the back!). She does "block" at things, but was getting a lot better about that as well.

In all this time she hadn't shown any sign of rearing with me or anyone else. She'd have an odd spin, and she did do the odd minor buck that didn't mean anything (raise the back end more than full on buck)

She is now.

She did last saturday when I ended up dumped in the car park (or at least tried, was prevented by Gaynor as she was on the lead rope at the time) and certainly did today. Mind we agreed later that we should have taken her to the arena before Gaynor got on (hindsight is a wonderful thing, god wot)

Partly, if this is the first time anyone has fallen off, it'll be loss of confidence. certainly that'll have been it last week, combined with being a bit hyper and me being stupid enought to think about getting back on without doing some lunging

but partly - and this is probably the bigger part - its realisation that she can get the rider off, especially after succeeding in doing so last saturday, even if she didn't intend to at the time, she did in fact manage it.

so i've talked about it with gaynor, and talked about it with the person who gave her to me (whose judgement I trust).

I'm going to do lots more lunging. I'll check her over for invisible injuries (back, bruising down the sides, whatever, she is being bullied in the field). I'm going to get my teacher out now (I was going to wait until my foot was fully better ....) and see if she can/thinks it worth reschool & if there is anyone who can ride her through it, and my goodness i've seen her sit to some interesting stuff, then we'll go for that route.

otherwise, the conclusion is probably that if she can't be made a safe ride again fairly rapidly, then put in her in foal and keep the foal.

There is no point in keeping trying with a horse that is dangerous.

Anyone got any advice? thoughts? methods of preventing rearing?

I could spend a fortune on Richard Maxwell or someone of that ilk, but wouldn't want to if I was going to be no farther forward.

The thing is, we rather think it might be something in her head. (her mind, rather than a tumour or whatever)