Once a bucker always a bucker?

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Mrs G

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Can I teach my horse not to buck, or at least not to do mammoth bucks while Im sat on top? Hes an 8yr old TB I've had him 4 yrs and he's always been a bucker; his small to medium ones I can usually sit to however he is seemingly wise to this and now has (twice in two weeks) got me off in one fell swoop with one almighty horsey handstand. He's doing it out of excitement (in both cases cantering horses got a bit too close in the arena) but its an overreaction that is proving to be painful!
 
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Rule out any pain - obviously!

If he is still doing after owning him 4 years then probably not - however you can sometimes stop them if you catch it quick enough. What is your reaction time like and can you feel when he is about to buck?

What happens if you use your voice as well as sending him on at the same time?
 
I've not met a single horse who won't do the occasional buck under certain circumstances!! :p

I guess you just need to figure out why he's doing it (rule out pain first) and it sounds like you know it was other horses getting too close, so I would work on that. If he's standing still or walking can he cope with other horses cantering in the arena? How is his general schooling? It's harder for them to do anything stupid if you have them between leg and hand!
 
His normal sized bucks that I can sit to, I do use my voice to growl at him and/or give him a tap with my crop so he knows it's not on, which often gets another buck (!) but then he will go forwards and it's done with. But these big bucks- I'm on the floor before I know what's happened! Literally no warning; he was going nicely, not tense, no jig jogging, squealing or bouncing as a precursor, just wham! It's not like he's not used to being in the arena with other horses, we've done loads of shared/group lessons, but he's never been good cantering behind other horses, which we weren't meant to be doing on either of the recent occasions - the other horses were on a slightly inner track, (just not inner enough!)but going in the same direction, so I suppose it felt to him like he was following them.
 
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Get a "Western style" trainer to put a really good one rein stop on him. This allows you to shut down the buck as soon as you feel one building up (disengaging the hindquarters makes bucking pretty hard). Use it to shut down the "normal sized" bucks as well. If he NEVER gets away with it eventually he will stop.
 
As everyone has been saying, make sure he isn't in any pain before treating it as behavioural. So check his teeth, back, bridle, saddle, and hooves; if they all come up in the clear then I would personally suggest you start with some groundwork, (it's less painful for you!) and you might be able to see things you could miss when up in the saddle. If, as you said, you suspect its to do with other horses causing excitement, then I have a similar problem with my horse, and you could try my technique. Whenever I rode him in the arena with another horse, if we rode too far away from them he would buck, spin around and bolt towards them, which was quite scary for both riders! My trainer told me to focus on keeping him listening to me, doing lots of transitions, circles, etc whenever I felt he was about to tank off. Definitely worked better than swearing at him!
Good luck :)
 
It depends on why the horse bucks .
If it's pain obviously you have to deal with it .
Horses who buck with youthful exuberance will often stop as they grow up .
Some horses never buck J does not , he rears and does half pass at speed that's his means of expressing exuberance .
If it's not pain and just exuberance you can often stop it with firm correction applied consistently .
Some horses buck from fear of the rider these are very difficult our youngest ID did he knew to buck the rider off if afraid nearly two year on he's happy and confident and does not buck but the a nasty rider would I am sure bring it back.
 
Provided he's not in any pain, I'd suggest trying to work our a way to be more secure when he bucks - some lessons could be useful (it's surprising how much a proper defensive lower leg position helps), or those RS-tor gadgets can be useful if you have no warning, because you can keep hold of them all the time, rather than having to grab them in an emergency.

My personal solution to seriously-bucking horses is to get on them aside because there's no way I'm coming off like that, which leaves me free to put my leg on and ride through it, but I do appreciate that side-saddles are expensive and can be difficult to get hold of (besides which, not everyone finds them as comfy as I do).
 
I know exactly where you are with this. My TB is the same. Little bucks are ok, but the ricochet ones, I've got no chance. Would love to be able to give you the solution but I haven't found one yet. I had him when he was 5, he's now 10 and he bucks less than he used to, so suppose thats something but if he throws in a big one, then like you, i'm off before I know whats happened.
 
Mrs G said:
Can I teach my horse not to buck, or at least not to do mammoth bucks while Im sat on top? Hes an 8yr old TB I've had him 4 yrs and he's always been a bucker; his small to medium ones I can usually sit to however he is seemingly wise to this and now has (twice in two weeks) got me off in one fell swoop with one almighty horsey handstand. He's doing it out of excitement (in both cases cantering horses got a bit too close in the arena) but its an overreaction that is proving to be painful!
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Once pain and such eliminated

I have a stop buck and it really did work, from a company called stop that horse but they are no longer in business but don't know why it really worked. I did find this though http://www.wikihow.com/Stop-a-Horse-from-Bucking. Also try one of these it was recommend to me http://nsbits.com/product/waterford-jumper/. It is designed for jumping etc but also to get the horse back on his hocks, and because it is an elevator it gets the horses head up when her tries to lower it and buck. My boy is a bronc - er I mean rodeo type and this really helped him I used it with roundings.
 
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as long as no pain......yes.

My KWPN can bronc like a rodeo horse, the guy that backed him was a super western trainer and even he said they were massive bucks!

he used body ropes(round his girth, round his barrel and round his flank) to teach him that broncing doesnt release the pressure and the only way to stop it is to slow down and move on quietly and then the rope pressure goes away.

he will still buck if fresh or spooked but about 5% of what he used to do, but i have to be careful to ALWAYS ride him forward and straight out of the buck and keep him working, the day he thinks its a good work evasion he will back to the twisting and leaping.

very talented horse no doubt, so well worth the outside box training :)
 
OwnedbyJoe said:
Get a "Western style" trainer to put a really good one rein stop on him. This allows you to shut down the buck as soon as you feel one building up (disengaging the hindquarters makes bucking pretty hard). Use it to shut down the "normal sized" bucks as well. If he NEVER gets away with it eventually he will stop.
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This 100%. Getting them stepping over behind and bending through the neck makes it pretty difficult to buck, rear, bolt. A good horsemanship trainer will use it as a handbrake and install it into the training into any horse from step one.
 
Right then, we have a western group that hire our arena I will ask them about the one rein stop and try to use it with the bucks I can sit to in the hope we don't get to the 'big bucks' that have happened before I know it - any kind of correction is a bit difficult when I'm lying on the floor! Thanks for the advice everyone.
 
To a degree yes. Once pain is ruled out, try and stay sat up in the saddle and keep your hands a fraction higher than normal to keep your horse's head up. I have managed to prevent my cheeky Appy from bucking most of the time by doing this, although he does occasionally catch me out. I find he tries to do it less frequently since I started doing this as he got out of the habit of doing it so much but will still try when he is feeling particularly excited!
 
Mine did this (and still does through excitement now and then) while learning canter, she is a big lady and couldn't quite work out what all her legs were doing! Mostly small, little flicks, almost like a leg change behind, sometimes medium ones, but as she is a big bird they feel bigger, she has grown up a bit now but my instructor told me if a situation arises where she 'may' throw a buck in, keep my hands up and push her on, because if she is using her legs to go forwards, she can't kick them up and if she can't put her head down, she will find it harder to buck. It seems to work for us! There were times when I could tell she wanted to buck but couldn't co just gave up trying
 
Whilst the above advice will work for most bucks, the variety that have you in orbit before you know it has bucked need another angle. I would suggest you try an R Stor and ride with it nearly engaged, I had one on a horse that could whip off the track at 45 degrees in walk and jump seven foot straight up, no I am not exaggerating! A friend gave me one having seen me lunging him and it worked. He bucked me so high I was standing with my feet adjacent to the stirrup bars, the elastic in the R Stor engaged and pulled me straight back into the saddle, Sir looked back at me as if to say "how did she stay there" and never bucked again. Once you feel confidemt then introduce the other horses and be one step ahead of him.
 
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