Horse Problem - Horse Bucks at the Canter

But ...before I go into that..first... make sure that you're not dealing with back pain there! If a horse's back is in pain, he can lose it at the trot or in the canter just like that. Take your finger and press firmly, and run it down his back first on one side of his spine, then the other, all the way down. Notice his reactions and see if there's a place where he lurches/jerks/reacts. If he consistently does so in a particular spot, there's a good chance he's in pain there. This such pain can be caused by poor saddle fit or some kind of past injury. If it's an injury, you might want to call in a good equine chiropractor and maybe even an equine acupuncture/acupressure specialist. I used to be a bit skeptical about such practitioners (my own ignorance there), not thinking they could be of much help, until I saw firsthand proof otherwise! They can sometimes isolate what's going on pain-wise better than we can and then treat it to make the horse more comfortable. Has made a believer out of me!

Also, check to make sure his saddle fits well and that he has a very good, strongly supportive pad there. Here is a link on my site that teaches more about how to assess saddle fit:

http://www.naturalhorsetraining.com/TrainingTips40.html

Generally, if a horse has back pain, he will resist being ridden (or resist higher gaits) no matter what you do, so make sure your saddle fits well.

If all the above checks out okay, then you've got strictly a behavior problem (and even if that above flushes out pain, I still say you have a behavior problem, but it's important to eradicate pain first, then tackle the behavior problem, how we prefer to do it in that order. No one can concentrate or perform well if in pain, even horses.). But also, aside from that, actually, I can quite clearly see with my "professional eye" that your horse still has holes in his training foundation. I see them very clearly. And I've got some ideas that you can even do yourself and get the quiet, cooperative horse I know you want there. Bear with me here, this is going to run long, but you need a step-by-step approach to fix this once & for all.

And here's where I would suggest applying horse whispering/natural horsemanship training techniques in a very clear step by step program, which you can learn more about in my DVD set, the Whispering Way 12-Step Total Training System, and you can order that here: CLICK HERE

After watching the videos, and after learning and applying the methods, you, as the horse's primary teacher will have taught the horse:

• How to be bonded to you more deeply so that he trusts you to the max and he will be far more willing to do whatever you ask, even when he is in doubt;
• That you both have a "bonding place" (a "safety zone") to come back to always, from then on, if he's ever upset or afraid, on the ground (or later, in the saddle); we plant a one-rein stop in the foundation of every horse, on the ground first, so that in the saddle, it is automatic. This keeps you safer and the horse more rational, and feeling supported, bonded, connected more deeply emotionally to you.
• How to relax him when he is tense about something before he is called upon to react negatively.
• How to have him yield easily, in any direction when asked -- he'll learn how to yield properly to pressure to receive the release of pressure. All horses learn from the release of pressure what it is you want, not from the pressure itself;
• How to progress bonding to even deeper levels to the point of downright intimacy; makes a horse feel like he never had it so good being with his owner!
• How to move him from the rear, and him learning to do that rationally, which is so important to teach a horse to do before you ever ride them, and which you'll be using for a lot of other things like trailer loading, going in and out of a gate, into a stall, and so many other places/situations; this also teaches a horse that you are in charge of their feet.
• How to address effectively any fears (and his reactions to them) that you flush out in his behavior at any given time; my program focuses greatly on finding the fears before they find you and fixing them -- safely on the ground first! Even lay folks can do this. It's all about: safety. This then builds a far more rational, confident, happy horse, because, in essence, you have effectively raised his "fear/anxiety bar." And you will have taught him simultaneously in the process, how to turn to you for nurturance support when/if he is ever afraid or upset.
• How to do all this first on the ground, then later in the saddle, in that order.
• How to keep you safe and the horse safe at all times, throughout all of this --- always my biggest training focus.

This video set will help you to lay down an even stronger, more solid and trusting foundation under your horse there that will then serve you well, tremendously, actually, when you do step up into the saddle. By the time you complete the steps, you will have a transformed horse. The final steps are in the saddle and those exercises will more deeply plant into your horse's foundation the one-rein stop/the "safety zone," and more, that will turn him into a far, far more rational, trusting, happier -- and safer -- horse in saddle as well.

And you can do this yourself if you just back up and learn a few things yourself there. This video set will get you there the fastest with your horse, which is why I'm recommending this route. It's designed for anyone on any level, horse or human, to get professional trainer-like results.

And incidentally...my Whispering Way Complete Training Package contains all my videos and training tools that you need to train or retrain your horse yourself the natural horsemanship Whispering Way. You can check out/order the Whispering Way Complete Training Package on my web site here: CLICK HERE

I'm a very strong believer that every horse owner is their horse's primary teacher/trainer whether they realize it or not. Every time you are with your horse, he is learning something. You just want to make sure he's learning what you want him to learn, not what you don't want him to learn! Natural horsemanship training techniques are gentle, effective, and powerful. Works with every horse every time!

But it's real important to back up and break down all teaching steps in a way that you are releasing baby-gives, allowing the horse to feel the release for the right answers incrementally, so that they learn that's really what you want.

This route will absolutely get your horse past all of those issues, and more, I assure you.

After reintroducing the saddle before you mount to complete the training steps, I would spend extra time doing more extensive saddle desensitizing with your particular horse, safely on the ground. Here's what I would do there myself desensitizing-wise, to flush out the bucking behavior on the ground first and help the horse get past it once and for all.

Send him around the round pen at liberty with saddle on (after checking fit carefully, of course) at all gaits. See if you flush out a buck there; generally a buck will come (if it is going to come) right at the gait-upward transition. If you do flush out bucking at the gait transition, he's probably either 1) still very green or 2) has not been properly desensitized to the feel of the saddle yet.

A good further saddle desensitizing route, especially helpful with horses like you've got there: take a long rope (about 25 feet) or lariat and hook it onto the saddle horn (use a western saddle for this exercise) and then send the horse around the round pen again at liberty. Pull the rope and it simulates the girth shift the horse will feel with the human on his back. If he bucks there, you've flushed out another hole regarding the girth shifting, which occurs when we ride them at higher gaits. Stick with it until he gets past that, doing this on both sides as you ask the horse to turn there (might even be in more than one lesson, follow the horse's learning digestion lead there).

After he can handle that, keep the rope or lariat looped over the saddle horn, but this time, run the other end of the rope through one stirrup & draw out all the slack. Send the horse around the round pen at liberty again. Pick up the rope and this will cause the stirrups to lift up and down. Flush out if this bothers the horse or not. Let the stirrups bump the side, which you'll create by pulling on the rope & then quickly letting slack out, alternatingly. Also swing the rope like you would if you were playing jump rope there. If the horse bucks at any time there in this exercise, you've indeed flushed out/isolated another issue or foundation hole. Trust me, a horse with no saddle/stirrups-bumping/flying-around issues has no reaction to any of this whatsoever. Whereas a horse who hasn't had that issue fixed can react big time to that, but nice and safely on the ground is the best route to go to fix that, desensitizing the horse more deeply to those things.

So, keep at it until he's past that on that one side, then do the same on the other side with the other stirrup. This will raise the desensitizing bar as it regards the saddle/stirrups there. And again, this might (or might not) be over more than one session depending on the degree of problem you flush out there. But work until it's no big deal to the horse.

One more thing you can do while the rope or lariat is still hooked onto the horn, and through the stirrups after all that, is: let go of your end of the rope! (Have another 12' rope handy to pick up for yourself to use to keep the horse off of you and for making turns, if needed, spinning that rope as needed). The horse will now be dragging the long rope or lariat behind him and this will flush out if the horse has issues with things dragging or ropes touching his legs, especially his back legs. As you ask the horse to make an outside turn there in the round pen, the rope that is following him will suddenly cross over his back legs as he navigates that turn, and if he kicks out there at the feel of them there, then indeed that's another hole in his foundation that you are flushing out, but safely at liberty on the ground (a good distance from you). Keep turning the horse there in the round pen, and he'll quickly get over thinking the rope touching his back legs is any big deal at all, and he'll settle down nicely, but he will have gotten his legs better desensitized there as well.

With that particular horse you've got there, this type of problem, I would want to have all the above no big deal at all to him before I'd ever think about riding him again. Goes a long way to keep you the safest you can be on his back!

The other thing I would probably want to do with a horse who has a bucking problem like this is to spend a lot of time ponying him (in full tack) off of another very obedient horse. This affords me the opportunity to do a lot more saddle desensitizing, but from up high now, without too much risk to myself. I can even work him up to cantering next to me as he's ponied off my other horse. You have to have a well-trained horse to ride to pony another horse from, though, and it's real important to remember safety rules about ponying, like:

• Keep the ponied horse's head parallel (next to) your leg, not lagging behind your riding horse so he doesn't get kicked or doesn't accidentally cross over to your other side dangerously wrapping the line around your body;
• Never wrap the ponied horse's lead rope around your arm, hand or saddle horn either. Just hold it loosely in your hand. You want to be able to drop the line quickly in an emergency. So, best to start your ponying lessons in a 60-foot round pen or fenced riding arena.
• After the horse learns to pony well at all gaits within a penned area, I would then think about venturing out onto a trail or open pasture environment, doing the same thing (when I felt the horse was ready). Ponying goes a long way with horses who need more saddle desensitizing, while keeping us safest!

Here's a link on my web site (with pictures) that goes into more detail on how to pony a horse and the training benefits: http://www.naturalhorsetraining.com/TrainingTips168.html

I know one natural horsemanship trainer friend of mine, Bob Claymier, out of Hume, Virginia, has another really creative saddle desensitizing lesson he does with real chronic buckers that he passed to me and you might consider going this route as well if needed. (This technique goes back to Bob's father and grandfather who ran a huge family ranch in Oregon, where Bob grew up). Pretty cool tool to pull out when needed! With serious problem buckers, Bob ties salt blocks to the saddle to simulate the weight of the human. Here's how Bob does it & these are Bob's words:

Actually about anything of similar weight will do and you'd like to have somewhere around about a 100 lbs or so total - much more than that and it becomes hard for you to get it on and off safely, etc. I use hay nets like the kind you put in trailers if they are strong enough and the netting is small enough so that the block doesn't slip through. We used to use the old style gunny sack back on the ranch when I was a kid, and the kind that is hard to get anymore - you could get one of those and fill it with sand etc. I'd want the weight equal so you'd have to use a scale to weigh it, and while sand conforms a bit easier, the whole logistics becomes a pain - hence the 50-lb salt blocks. I then use a western saddle with a strong horn and tie them relatively high so they are not banging against the lower part of the horse. The weight of the blocks keeps them rather stable but for added stability, I take some hay twine and tie the stirrups together underneath the horse and then use some twine again and tie the sacks to the stirrup leather. When its all done, well secured, the blocks are pretty stable should the horse go nuts and buck, but does replicate the weight of a light person yet has the effect on the horse of making them have to get coordinated to gait shifts, etc., such as might happen with a real person riding. I really haven't had to use anything like this in a long time as we know, a newly trained horse generally "invites" us to ride at some point after applying the earlier natural horsemanship training techniques, and I have a whole laundry list of steps I use before ever getting on - like crouching down on a step up block and then gradually standing up so as to be higher than normal (usually freaks out a young horse the first time its done as you've all of a sudden grown ten feet tall in his eyes and its no wonder they might start to buck or run off, so I really try to make the first exposure a real gentle one), then putting weight in the stirrup (perhaps even from the ground) etc, etc so don't have to go to this salt block routine that often unless trying to undo a real "problem child."  Since I've seen how hard some problem horses buck - and I mean REAL hard - I have no interest in me or anyone else getting on that until I'm real convinced that he has gotten over this issue - again the reason for the weight first and he'll wear it like he wears the saddle all day.

Bob teaches he would then put the horse through all his gaits at liberty in the round pen to work on the bucking problem. Another great Bob tip:

I would probably also eventually load the round pen with the "kitchen sink" (safe stuff). I've got poles, tarps, buckets, cones, barrels, uprights from jumps, etc. and I would pile them in the round pen to help the horse focus on his feet more, where they should be, and this keeps a horse from thinking about bucking. I find I have to re-arrange them at times as some horses figure out the pattern quickly and how to avoid some of them (which is somewhat alright as it still makes them think), but I want the horse having to adjust his stride, step on things, jump over things etc. so that there is no set routine that he gets into and his mind is kept working. A horse can only think about one thing at a time. If he's thinking about his feet and where to put them/not put them, he's not thinking about bucking! And this helps them to lose the bucking pattern, as well.
 

These are great "tools" from very gifted natural horsemanship trainer Bob Claymier's direction that I just wanted to share with you. We all can learn from each other. And natural horsemanship is a very creative field with never-ending learning.

And most importantly: You also want to teach the horse the one-rein stop (safely on the ground first!), which I go over in greater detail here on this link: http://www.naturalhorsetraining.com/TrainingTips94.html

Also...I wanted to mention, before mounting, once all the above has been accomplished, and you feel the horse is potentially safely "there," still do some more saddle desensitizing, standing next to the horse: contain the horse's head with the lead rope, rubbing the neck with that same one hand as well, and with the other hand, take the end of the lead rope and slap the saddle with it. If the horse spooks out of that, you've indeed flushed out fear there. Fix that before mounting, accustoming the horse to that rope-slapping-saddle, both sides, and if you do flush out fear issues there, back up, slow down and start again softly, mounting upward, but stop often if/when needed to bond/reassure the horse. Never mount a horse who can't rationally tolerate the lead slapping the saddle!

That's one of the biggest safety tips I could ever pass along in that category. And check/rub underneath the tail, as well. Never mount a horse whose tail is clamped down tightly! Good chance that clamped-tail horse will buck!! Get the horse relaxed and raising the tail before mounting by stroking the soft area right underneath the base of the tail where the tail connects to their rump.

Repeat doing all your groundwork steps on the ground with horse in saddle-gear that I teach in my program. (That's a given)

And what's really interesting about retraining a horse such as yours the natural horsemanship way, I find, is it changes the inside of the horse, because it works out his issues first safely on the ground, and this always seems to translate outward into his relationships with other horses he is kept with as well. Because, what gets fixed there is from the inside to the outward. I've watched time and again this occur, it's amazing. It's therapy really, if you can think of it that way. And that therapy "takes" and changes his attitude toward the world in general, including his horse relationships. So, my guess is, planting all this well into his foundation will translate outward to his behavior toward other horses there. He'll be easier to get along with in general. I've seen that happen so many times, it's quite amazing.

If you still feel you have problems with him being more aggressive towards others than he should be, after all the above has been accomplished and after you have taught him all I've directed you about here, read this problem solution:

How to stop one horse from being aggressive toward another:

One last link on my site that I think might help you there -- to learn a little more about natural horsemanship in general and prey animal psychology -- my "What is Natural Horsemanship" link here:

http://www.naturalhorsetraining.com/WhatIsNH.html

I hope this helps, and let me know if I can be of any further help to you there. Good luck to ya! Stay safe! And thanks for writing.

Further Help for Horses That Buck Stop Bucking Downloadable E-Book Course Written by John Lyons Certified Trainer Keith Hosman Five-day E-book course teaches you how to make your horse quit bucking Is this you? "I love my horse and I don't want to sell it but... it's trying to kill me." • He explodes with no warning! • I can't put anybody else on the horse • He won't canter - he just bucks • My horse is a lawn ornament • I can't ride with my friends • Will I break something today? • One more time and he's going to the auction! There is a way to truly break a horse from the dangerous habit of bucking. If you've you got the time and patience, the "Stop Bucking" online study course, written by John Lyons Certified Trainer Keith Hosman, will guide you through the process of transforming your horse into a calm partner. Not just a series of exercises, the course first arms you with the theories behind the material, enabling you to "think out of the box," to tailor your plan to your particular horse and situation. You will not fix your horse in five days. That's not the promise. The promise is that you will find the tools and understanding you need to begin the hard work of "retraining" your horse in this study course. Each chapter gives you a plan, a goal, some theory and homework. It may take you a week - and it might take you months to go through this material. Regardless, when you arrive at the other side, you will have made significant progress in your horse's training. Here's a rundown of the five segments: • Day 1: "Don't Even Think of Getting On Until..." • Day 2: "What Do I Do If My Horse Does Buck?" • Day 3: "One Inch At A Time" and "The Calm Down Cue" • Day 4: "The Crash Taught Me This" (Don't Make This Mistake) • Day 5: "Demon Slaying" with Speed Control The document is 23 pages long and comes in a format that every computer can read and print out called "pdf." For more information, and to order Keith Hosman's Stop Bucking E-Book, CLICK HERE

 

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