Bucking. Pain or naughty?

Slave2Magic

Slave2Magic

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I am finally getting somewhere with my mare. She is starting to relax into a contact in walk and trot. Canter is a funny one though. When I ask for canter she twists and bucks but settles eventually. I have been doing loads of trot-canter transitions. Sometimes she bucks and sometimes not. Saddle and back are fine. She has the muscle development to cope so I am guessing it's a form of napping? I always ride her through it and she canters happily then. It's the same when schooling or out hacking. Any thoughts please?
 
It's not napping, it is fairly normal for a young and unbalanced horse. It's often the ones who will have a beautiful canter when they are strong enough who do it. They place their hind foot so far forward under their body in the strike off that they unbalance themselves and do not have the strength to bring their body forward over their leg. So they buck or kick out, like this:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KeV0KmaUS...pshot_dvd_04.40_%5B2011.04.16_12.55.41%5D.jpg


She will improve as you do more of it.
 
cptrayes said:
It's not napping, it is fairly normal for a young and unbalanced horse. It's often the ones who will have a beautiful canter when they are strong enough who do it. They place their hind foot so far forward under their body in the strike off that they unbalance themselves and do not have the strength to bring their body forward over their leg. So they buck or kick out, like this:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KeV0KmaUS...pshot_dvd_04.40_%5B2011.04.16_12.55.41%5D.jpg


She will improve as you do more of it.
Click to expand...

Ditto this.
Bucking (if everything else physically is fine) is generally just a lack of balance. Perhaps stop the ridden canter for now and go back to lunging so she can find her own balance. Do that for a few weeks and see how she is when you get back on?
D:D
 
Thanks. That's exactly what she does! Clobbered the arena wall several times. She isn't young though and should have grown out of it by now. I guess it's a case of persevere.
 
Walk to canter often helps a lot. She may not be young, but as you have had some schooling issues with her she is probably still at a "young" stage with her canter transition. She'll improve, and when she does you will get a stunning sat down canter with a huge understep, probably :)!
 
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