Dealing with horse bucking behavior can a major pain, literally! When your horse tries to buck you off, it can be an unsettling event, especially if you fall off. The last thing you want is to end up with bruised confidence and a horse who has learned a new bad habit. Below we will discuss what to do in the moment when your horse tries to buck you off.
Horse Bucking Behavior
Pain
Horses will buck under saddle for many different reasons, so it is important to try your best to investigate why this behavior is occurring before you chalk it up to a training issue. So first and foremost, try to rule out and reasons associated with pain or discomfort.
A horse will undoubtedly buck under saddle if he is in pain. Horses can’t talk, so they have no other way to communicate to us that they are hurting. So when they are carrying the rider’s weight, on top of that pain, they obviously want us to get off. So some horses will buck as a way to communicate this.
A horse could be in pain for various reasons. The most common reasons to consider would be saddle fit and a sore back. So FIRST rule out any pain issues before you continue.
Training Issues
Horses will also buck under saddle for various reasons due to training issues, or if they are very green or “fresh.” If you are working with a young horse, this in itself is a dangerous pursuit and you should definitely be working with an experience trainer.
Fresh horses just have an excess of energy that they don’t know how to properly use. Some people will lunge the horse to get rid of this energy. I prefer working on getting the horse’s mind engaged to re-focus that energy on being in the moment with me. Ground work is an excellent tool for engaging the horse’s mind. More on that in future posts.
Sometimes horses just like to be brats! They may try to use bucking as a way to get out of work. And once they get away with it, this may become a hard habit to break. That is why it is very important to be aware of what you are doing as the rider, in the moments of the backing behavior, and directly after the behavior as well.
Physics Of The Buck
The key concept here is this; a horse cannot buck if he’s moving forward with his head up or if his hind legs are disengaged. When a horse decides to buck, he needs to first slow down, drop his head, and plant his shoulders. Then he is in a position to buck. So keeping a horse out of this position can prevent bucking. He also cannot buck when his hind end is disengaged. (when the hind legs are crossing each other)
What To Do When Your Horse Starts Bucking
If it’s a minor offense – just a few hops in the hind end:
Push him forward and out of it. Use you leg to add pressure and keep his head up. Don’t do anything else. By pushing him forward you are getting his feet moving again to prevent him from getting himself into that ‘buck ready’ position. Pushing him forward is also adding pressure in the presence of an unwanted behavior. When he stops bucking, you need to immediately release the pressure by not pushing him with your legs anymore. Then he learns that when he bucks, there is pressure. When he stops, the pressure goes away.
Then you will ride on as if nothing happened. Move on! The incident is probably already out of the horse’s mind, so you should get it out of yours as well. You don’t want the horse to pick up on any insecure feelings you might have. You need to treat the event as if it never happened.
If it’s a major bucking fit:
Here’s where you need to make a few decisions based on your confidence level and riding abilities. First and foremost is the concern for your safety. If at any time you feel you need to jump ship and do an emergency dismount, do what you feel you need to do. But remember, if you get off of your horse because he is bucking, he will learn that bucking is a good thing! If he sees that his bucking gets you off, and him out of work, he will likely try this again in the future.
Next, you can either decide to ride through it or bring the horse to a stop. Riding through it is is going to be the same as the first scenario. You need to keep his feet moving and his head up. This requires pushing him forward with your leg to speed him up. I know it sounds counter-intuitive, but when a horse is truly forward, he cannot buck. Sit BACK, sit deep and keep your heels down. So ride him through it until he settles back into a nice rhythm.
The other option is to try to bring the horse to a stop briefly so you can ‘regroup.’ To do this you need to disengage the hind end. You need to get the back legs to cross, and then he won’t be in a position to buck any longer.
The easiest way to do this would be to make a very sharp turn. If you are riding along the wall, quickly turn him into the wall. This will probably disengage the hind end and make him come to a screeching halt. Remember that it’s very important to keep his head up until the bucking has stopped and his hind end is disengaged. Also keep in mind that his hind legs need to cross in order to be disengaged. A horse can still buck in a tight turn. So you need to push the hind end over. If you are familiar with a turn on the forehand, this is what you need to be thinking. Move the hind end in an arc around the front end.
In the heat of the moment…
Sometimes it’s hard to remember all of this in the heat of the battle. So just try to remember the key concepts. You can either push the horse forward while keeping the head up, or you can make his hind legs cross while keeping the head up.
What To Do AFTER The Bucking
After you get the horse to stop bucking, it is even more important what you do in the moments following the episode. You can’t make a big deal out of this because the horse will pick up on this and realize that he can use this type of behavior to his advantage. You don’t want this to turn into a bad habit, so you need to MOVE ON as if it was no big deal.
Get back to whatever you were doing before the bucking started. If you were trotting, get right back to trotting. If you were cantering, get back to cantering. You need to show the horse that his bucking will not change your plans. He needs to see that his bucking had absolutely no benefit to him, that he got nothing out of it.
It’s probably a good idea to also put his mind to work a little more following a bucking episode. Make him do something that he has to think about. Shoulder-in, leg yield, anything to get his mind re-focused on a new task. Then it will be easier for both of you to move on. It’s very important to not make the situation like excess baggage that you will carry around for the next year. Make it a non-event.
What To Do If You Fall Off Due To Your Horse Bucking
Again, your safety and well being is the most important thing. So please take care of yourself first! But IF you are OK, you need to get back on the horse as soon as possible and return to working the horse. Once a horse dumps a rider, he is very likely to try it again in the future if the situation turned out favorable to him. So if you don’t get back on, and the horse goes back to his comfy stall, he will learn that bucking is something that he can use to get out of work.
So you need to get back on and get right back to work. Go into some even harder work as well. The horse will see that not only did his bucking get him nowhere, it also lead to some harder work!
If you cannot get back on, perhaps there is another person with you who can. If you are too shaken up, have the other person get on and work the horse. And if there is no one else, you could at least put the horse on the lunge line and get him back into work that way. If you go that route, REALLY PUT HIM TO WORK! He will learn that by bucking you off, he had to go on the lunge line instead for some really hard work that he’d rather not have to do again.
Summary
Horse bucking behavior can be complex and difficult. Please seek the help of a qualified trainer if you have bucking issues with your horse. The reasons for bucking are not always very clear. You also don’t want to instill any bad habits in your horse that will make him even more dangerous.
Just remember that when a horse bucks, you need to remain calm yourself. Push him forward with his head up. Or, disengage his hind end. Then return to working as if nothing happened. Teach the horse that bucking will get him nowhere that is beneficial to him. Don’t open the door for him to do it again. The best thing for you to do is to shut this behavior down as soon as possible.
Keep Riding, Keep Refining
The Refined Rider
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