Bucking little mare!

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littleladylou

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Some of you might have followed my buying a new pony thread. I now have my NF mare. I was told that she had a buck in her and became too much for her previous PC home. I have had her back checked and a new saddle but yesterday the bucking began. (I have ridden her for a month with no bucking- she did put her head down lots but keeping her going forward seemed to work) I am wondering if it is a learned behaviour (ie if she bucked the kid got off) or as she did have a previous shoulder injury she mental associates transitions with pain?

So far my tactics are: giving her her head and not hanging on her head, keeping her going forwards and making schooling short and varied followed by a short hack? Any other advice from those more experienced?
 
Can't offer too much advice I'm afraid, but something similar happened to me at a place where I used to ride.

My instructor took on a horse whose owner was too scared to ride as the horse was strong and had a tendency to buck. Instructor thought the horse was nice enough and took her on and from the sounds of it, the horse was a pampered pet that was fed too much and not ridden enough. Since she had been working the horse had been fine (she also got back, tack, etc all checked out). I got on her one lesson and was warming up in the school when her stable mate (who she's really attached to) came in as the owner was using the mounting block to get on and go out for a hack. The minute the other horse left she started to spin and buck as she wanted to go with the other horse! I managed to stay on and after a few mins she calmed down. But she was used to getting her own way by bucking and unfortunately for her I was having none of it! In her case it was learnt behaviour but it depends on what reason your horse used to buck in the previous home.
 
Sometimes horses are just horses and like to buck, it's fun and they are good at it. This doesn't happen often normally its a pain response or a learnt behaviour.

I've found the best thing with a bucker (if it's not pain) is to just ignore it eventually it becomes boring for them and they realise your not coming off it will become less frequent then eventually stop. Unless they are trying to put their head between their knees, in which case you get their head up and kick them on, and then ignore what they're doing.
 
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