When an horse bucks

[Mels]

During my 4th lesson my horse bucked (just once). I've noticed that some of them kick out with one leg under their belly (because of the flies I presume). She only bucked once and I remember thinking hmmm.. that felt like she kicked both legs out I was not sure until my friend told me she saw her do it. I assume that if she was cranky and if she really wanted me off her back she could have easily thrown me off. What I am wondering is why she bucked ? No one can read a horse's mind but I was wondering if it was my nervousness/bad mood/the tack or if they don't always mean anything by it.Can anyone elaborate on this subject? What can you do if they start to do that in earnest? Hang on ? I got a bit of a fright but the horse was fine for the rest of the lesson.

 

[joy_6]

There are alot of reasons why a horse might buck including all the ones you mentioned. unless the horse has done it since then, I would assume it was something that affected him at the time. Unless you can think of anything specific that happened differently then usual, there is really no way of knowing exactly what set him of.

As for hanging on, I think it is much easier to hang on to a bucking horse than a rearing horse. If you ride western, grab the saddle horn. If you ride english, it's a little harder because there is much lless to hang on to, but try grabbing mane- that always helps. Also, try to urge the horse forward rather than pull on the reins. Don't kick- just squeeze with your legs. Other tan that, hang on. And alot of horses don't ususally buck really hard.

 

[fran]

Hi Mels - was there anything in particular you'd just asked the horse to do when she bucked? The horse I'm riding at the moment really hates any pressure just behind the girth, and bucks if you ask for canter in the usual way, or if my aids get confusing (which is a very good lesson for me). Maybe something like this was happening with her? It sounds like she's not normally the bucking type, so maybe something specific was bugging her.

 

[Jess]

Can't help with why in your case, but how to stay on is easy. I would first like to say that I have a 5 year old OTTB stallion and he just got out of his 'canter=bucking' phase. To stay on (first of all, you normally want to ride them through to buck and get back down to a canter, DON'T stop!) you want to try and pick their head up and slow down the front end. When he slows down, squeeze him on to continue cantering. You need to ride through to a canter, otherwise, he'll do it everytime you cue that way.

 

[Dot]

I also would disengage the back end of the horse, meaning, if you can, when the horse begins to buck, turn the head to one side to disengage the hindquarters of the horse (move the back feet). They can't buck when disengaged. But you need to do something, so that the horse does not keep the mindset to buck and get away with it, or it will do it again at another time.