How can I stop my cheeky 6yr old cob from bucking as often?

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I’ve been training up this 5/6/7yr old cob called Murphy for a riding school. It’s been about 5 months now and things have just been going up and down, when I was first given him he would barely do four strides of canter but now after lots of fitness he is a lot more forward. Over the last week he’s bucked a lot when I ask for canter. I thought it was because he didn’t like the whip on him so tried without the whip but he still bucked (not as much) but was exceedingly lazy. I had always used a long whip on him even if it was just for psychological purposes, now I’ve had enough of his behaviour as he’s soon going to play a big part in the riding school and can’t keep bucking kids off. Any help would be really appreciated, thanks x
 

be positive

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What is he like cantering out hacking? many cobs find schoolwork hard and bucking can be an evasion although after 5 months of schooling I would expect him to be further on, I am assuming as a trainer you have done the normal checks, back, saddle, he may well have changed shape over the past few months and teeth, so my advice would be to hack if he is not doing so, get him jumping or at least doing polework and see if riding more forward with less emphasis on the actual canter/ schooling makes any difference, if a couple of weeks with a change of work doesn't help I would be getting a vet involved.
 
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What is he like cantering out hacking? many cobs find schoolwork hard and bucking can be an evasion although after 5 months of schooling I would expect him to be further on, I am assuming as a trainer you have done the normal checks, back, saddle, he may well have changed shape over the past few months and teeth, so my advice would be to hack if he is not doing so, get him jumping or at least doing polework and see if riding more forward with less emphasis on the actual canter/ schooling makes any difference, if a couple of weeks with a change of work doesn't help I would be getting a vet involved.
Thankyou, I’ll definitely try that :)
 

holeymoley

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Depends where you've been asking for canter. If he's been cantering outwith the school before now then he's likely to be unbalanced and bucking to 'put himself right', however if he's been in the school for the last 5 months and only just started then he's either telling you something's a bit sore or he's just being plain cheeky, especially if he's discovered he can get away with it.
 

sbloom

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Bucking into canter is common if the saddle is sitting up on the shoulder and/or tipping back, worth checking. The front edge tree point pocket should sit with a 3 finger gap behind the back of the shoulder blade, much further back than most think, and the saddle must be in balance, not always easy to tell for non-saddle fitters.
 

Goldenstar

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I could not agree with the above more .
Saddles can be causeing what seems to be no problem in walk and trot but cause mayhem in canter , he may be changing shape as he’s worked more and that may be effecting the saddle so get it checked .
Many things cause bucking from appalling disasters with the hocks the back etc etc so a talk to a vet and a check from a ACPAT physio would be a good investment .
If the horse is just being cheeky I would canter as much as possible out of the school .
I would canter off the horses back and I would train the horse on the lunge to canter from the voice, what ever I was doing I would experiment with different .
I would also try another school in case it’s the surface he’s struggling with I have seen that before .
 
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I could not agree with the above more .
Saddles can be causeing what seems to be no problem in walk and trot but cause mayhem in canter , he may be changing shape as he’s worked more and that may be effecting the saddle so get it checked .
Many things cause bucking from appalling disasters with the hocks the back etc etc so a talk to a vet and a check from a ACPAT physio would be a good investment .
If the horse is just being cheeky I would canter as much as possible out of the school .
I would canter off the horses back and I would train the horse on the lunge to canter from the voice, what ever I was doing I would experiment with different .
I would also try another school in case it’s the surface he’s struggling with I have seen that before .
thank you! After reading these he’s having a new saddle fit ASAP
 
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