Bucking scored second in replies for my question on your #1 challenge with your horse. So, plop down in a chair and peruse this relatively short read.
I’ve chosen a few out of the many replies people wrote about their horse bucking to start with.
1. While perfect 95% of the time, on any given day my horse will bolt up a narrow switchback trail and I can’t stop him as he has the meanest face, shakes his head and threatens to buck me off. So, it’s Mrs. Toad’s wild ride until we get to the top and he’s perfect again.
2. When I cue for a lope, she crow-hops and gallops off. It’s happened so often I’m afraid of becoming unbalanced. So, now I tense and stop her. I’m having trouble trusting her and relaxing.
3. I had a horse buck me off twice, got knocked out with a concussion and he always bucked when I got on or off. Now, I’m uncomfortable getting on or off my other horses.
4. My dream horse humps his back when I mount and has bucked and then reared. I’m frightened and bale off and then hurt myself.
5. My horse kicks and bucks if I ask him to do anything but walk on the trail.
6. My biggest challenge is getting my horse to canter or gallop without bucking. I’ve had him since he was 10 months old and he’s 16 now.
Getting bucked off or knowing that your horse is planning on bucking you off or anything close are terribly scary situations. If you’ve been reading my blog or newsletter for any length of time, you know I HATE bucking. Mandatory capitol letters. My goal is to do the proper work with the horse so that he never wants to buck me off. But, that’s not where many people are with their horsemanship, so I offer a change of mindset (go to my Success Store tab) to cure this very common, but joy-killing issue.
Now, please be assured that I’m not making fun of any of the people here, but I am going to have fun with my responses. I believe that humor makes learning more fun.
While on very rare occasions a horse may buck with no prior notice, generally speaking the horse has indicated by attitude, ears, eyes, teeth, muscles, position, etc. that he doesn’t like what’s going on, then ups it to “hey, knock that off or else”, then “now, you’ve really pissed me off” and finally “since you’re NOT LISTENING, I’m going to have to get your attention by removing your ass from my back.”
Let’s start with my response to the first response.
I’m going to say right off the bat that the writer’s idea of perfect is seriously flawed. A horse with that type of story already knows that the rider can’t stop him. The absence of bucking, running off, mean face and all that goes with that is not the definition of perfect. By the very act of calling the horse’s other behavior perfect, the rider eliminates the need to fix it. If, also, the person isn’t skilled enough to take effective action before and/or during the problem, there is no way to teach the horse that that behavior isn’t going to cut it because the horse IS getting away with it. This doesn’t make the horse wrong – it makes him right.
In order to remedy this, the rider would need to learn what exercises to do to set the horse and rider up for working thru this type of instance and how to get good enough to implement them under trying times. However, the best learning would be what to do before this happens and how to be aware of when a change needs to be made to avoid this in the first place. And that learning must be in the mind first. As I say a lot and will continue to say: You can’t ask your horse to do something that you never thought of.
2, 5 & 6 are the same story so I will deal with them together.
Now what do you think the actual problem is here? It’s not that the horse can’t canter/lope/gallop without bucking, is it? No. In moments of playfulness at liberty with their buddies, they may buck and kick and play and then off they run without bucking or they stop and stand with a quiet mind as everyone settles and goes on to something else. But, in general, these horses are all very capable of cantering nicely – when they want to or are not terribly affected by their rider.
What many people don’t stop to think about is the very position they take with their bodies and their hands actually causes the very bucking that they don’t want. By their lack of skills and understanding they are stepping on the gas and the brake at the same time. If the horse is kicked to go while the person is holding or snatching the reins because they’re scared there is nowhere else for the energy created to go but UP! Then, to make matters worse the person clinches on with their legs (a go signal) and holds even tighter on the reins (stop!!!) and intensifies and elongates the time frame of, yet again, the very thing they claim to NOT want – bucking. Yet, how is the horse supposed to get anything else out of the signals being inflicted upon him?
Again, there are specific exercises to teach and learn how to eliminate this from your horse experiences.
#3 & 4 are completely covered in my book, Curbside Service. So, I hope any of you dealing with this type of problem will invest the ridiculously cheap $12 and 15 minutes to an hour of your time to fix your problem by zipping over to Amazon and getting your copy. To make it even easier – the link is right there on the book to your right on this page.
Hope is never a good horsemanship strategy. I’ll be sharing the tried and tested strategies I use to get folks just like you un-stuck before the end of January. Then rinse and repeat throughout the year!
*** “I’ve been a member of Lauren’s Essential Keys for Exceptional Horsemanship program for a couple of months now and I’m amazed at how much my horses and I are learning! I have gone from frustration to enjoyment with both of my horses. Not only a I proud of how well-mannered my horses are, I am riding more, in more challenging situations with confidence that I have the tools I need to ride/handle Re and Playboy safely and effectively. Even better, I like my horses a lot more now! Thanks, Lauren!! ***
If you’d like some help solving your horse issues please join me in a revolutionary new approach that is yielding exceptional results no matter where you live. So, click over to my Success Store tab right now and let’s get you un-stuck.
I was her last stop before the Alpo can. This girl is the most dangerous horse I’ve ever been around in my life. What did “they” do to her to make her so dangerous? And by dangerous, I mean: She allowed no one near her. Within range for her was anywhere she could reach or get to. She’d charge you, even lunging over the fence. Just hope you get through it and far enough away to live. She struck, bit and kicked, launched whatever cowboy got on her and then, like a bull, turned and attacked. Broke bones in several trainers bodies before coming to me at the ripe old age of three. The trainers who owned her could not get within thirty feet of a fence without her trying to attack them. They purchased her as a one-year-old at the World sale in OK and when the breeder went into the stall, she sent him flying over the stall wall and broke some parts. The trainer/owner had gotten on her, but she launched him and then like a bull, turned and attacked breaking his collar bone. She had to be removed from the stable where they trained because no one could even clean the stall. They sent her to a trainer whose business card USED to read “Problem horses a specialty.” She launched him and attacked again with the same result. he told them to come get her, she was hopeless. They turned her out in a 100 acre pasture for six months hoping she’d settle down, but the other people who had horses in the pasture couldn’t get their horses because she’d attack them. She was temporarily contained in a round pen of a mutual acquintance while they tried to figure out what to do with her. They had the vet out to draw blood to check for hormone problems. If anyone even placed a hand on her, she’d squeal and kick and squirt pee. While in the stock for the vet to draw the blood, she managed to kick him and break his arm. Blood tests were negative. The mutual acquintance said if they wanted to give her one more shot before they took her to the killers, she needed to go to Lauren’s. (I keep a low profile. They didn’t know me.) They said drug her, throw her in the trailer and get her over there. I was gone to lessons the morning she was to be delivered, so I left instructions to leave her in the round pen. Now I was not given any info on this horse, just that they wanted her to “go long and low at a lope.” I had a message on my cell that said, “Hope your pen is still up when you get home.” Hmmmmm….. I walked out to see the new arrival. As I approached the fence, this beautiful horse ambled toward me and started to put her head forward. I noticed that she had a rear hoof that was completely broken up to the hair line at the quarter line. Lots of fresh blood. Don’t know what happened getting her here. I reached up a hand to pet her face and suddenly, both hind hooves were over the 5 foot rail right at my head. “Oh sweetheart,” I said, “that’s not the way we do things here.” She then pinned her ears and lunged over the rail at me with her teeth and eyes snapping. Yikes! I got my stick and string so I could work with her in the pen and hopefully live. She didn’t have a halter on and I was pretty sure I didn’t want to be close enough to put one on her anyway. I had to do some pretty good swinging to even get in the pen and keep her off me. She didn’t care. I felt bad about the broken hoof, but it was obvious that that would be a long time healing and there wasn’t anything I could do about it. She didn’t seem to care either. High, shut-down pain threshold. I sent her off while she tried to attack and then bolted off squealing and squirting pee about 4-5 feet straight out behind her. I tested several options for her to come in or quiet down, the answer was a resounding “NO”. I was running around with her so I could touch her with the string and also use it when she attacked to start our conversation. Getting her to go away was important as a precursor to her giving to pressure and not killing me. She had no inclination to do so and there were many times that I knew my life was seriously in danger. To make a long story short, two hours later, both of us were covered in sweat and pee. She was changing direction and sometimes coming in half way to me. Then, suddenly she just stopped, turned in to me and walked up to me with her head down at her knees. She stood there heaving and dripping with her tail hangling limp between her legs and pee just started pouring out of her. I petted her forehead and said, “Sweetheart, where in the world did you even have that after two hours of squirting it all over?” Whatever happened to this horse before, she decided that she was going to get the human before the human could get her. I found out later that in addition to the multitud of broken bones she left in her wake, the owner had tied her legs and thrown her and left her laying in the sun under a tarp for several hours. She also had several serious wounds that they had stitched up on her lower legs without the help of a vet. Those scars will remain, the mind scars have mostly healed. I absolutely adore this horse and she’s like a barnacle. Follows me everywhere and always is a huge help teaching other horses how to do tricks and work with sidepassing over barrels or walking in the tire bundle or tarp work. She’s always right there on her own (frequently in the way) to show the newbie how to do it.
She was ten years old and had been kept in a pen for so long her legs hardly held up and sometimes didn’t while she scrambled to bolt away. A jet black Morgan, stunningly beautiful with black eyes, flowing mane and tail and crooked hind legs and strangely shaped hind hooves. Talk about spooky – I ducked between the rails of the pen she was in and she tried to jump out the back side. The guy who ‘trained’ her, well, he thinks standing in a round pen while she frantically runs so out of control that she’s at a 45 degree angle with the footing flinging hither and thither 30 feet out. She was in a total lather and had to be blocked to stop. Her eyes were white with terror. He, meanwhile, stood there in the ‘position’ with his arm cocked leaning on his stick while she lost her mind. Then, he saddled her up and got on and kinda rode her. Meaning he stayed on at a very tense walk and trot with reins only a few inces long and couldn’t get her any where near the rail or canter. A year later, after standing in that same pen the whole time, I brought her home amd turned her out with my herd. BTW she couldn’t be caught. What a lover puss. While she will come, she still has a thought that if you have a rope it may not go well for her. I’ve only been on her a handful of times and that bareback with a halter, but she’s doing very well. Updates as I get around to them.
Would you take that one with you, too?” the owner asked me. I made a face. I was there to see about a throw away (by them) horse for my daughter (Gryffindor is on the cover of my book with her). “No.” I said. “That’s like a large Great Dane. I don’t have any use for a tiny Arab pony.” But, the little bay horse whispered, “I’ll be your best horse ever.” Believe me, I throw that up in her face every once in a while when she gets a hair up her butt and she’s not being my best horse ever. She weighs about 200 pounds more than she did then. And with only about 225 rides in her, she’s a phenomenal horse. She’s perfectly behaved galloping in the mountains bridle-less with just a string around her neck that I don’t have to use. She’s so smooth in her gaits. She jumps like a bird; completely quiet and composed and we’ve started working on piaffe. I can put someone who’s never been on a horse before on her with a halter and take them for a ride in the desert or mountains. She’s also the one I’m on laying backward reading a book and in the un-spooky horse blog post. As to the reading picture, she had never been in the backyard, I had never laid backward on her. She didn’t even have so much as a string around her neck for that photo shoot. Very smart, but that’s an Arab for ya. Tell her what you want and be clear about it and she’ll give it her best try. I’ll keep adding blog posts featuring her and stories of old as we go.
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