Cantering and Bucking Woes

4H, Thanks so much for all of your thoughts!! (She had a well-thought out comment t the previous post)

To explain about Miss Dee, she's in her 70's and she is Texas ranch bred. She's done it all including TB racing (she's tiny). I know the best riders aren't necessarily the best teachers. I know nothing about formal western riding and Miss Dee is the only game in town (except Russ Mixon - evil yelling man), so I started my daughter going to Miss Dee. Previously, my daughter has only had hunt seat lessons her whole riding life. My daughter got interested in speed classes and then so did I since it is way more relaxed and fun than the rail classes at our local club show.

However, on the way home from Miss Dee's on Wednesday, my daughter and I decided we're going to buy our own poles and barrels since we're really just paying Miss Dee the money to use her arena and equipment for an hour.

Miss Dee wasn't telling me to make him canter, I took that upon myself. I just wanted to try to make Dude canter because I wanted to "get back in the saddle" after Saturday's highjinnx at the show.

Miss Dee saw his head tossing (She said to bump him in the mouth when he shakes his head) and bucking (She said "You're just going to have to get after him").

What do I do to prevent/stop the bucking?

Okay, here's the scenario: Sometimes he takes off just fine, no buck, no problem and behaves fine, especially on his left lead canter. Sometimes on the right lead canter, throws his head down and shakes it and bucks a couple of times and then goes fine. Sometimes he gives one or two bucks and then he's fine. Sometimes he departs fine and canters a good ways, acting like all is well and then does the quick cut to the left. Sometimes, after he bucks a couple of times he starts running really fast and scares me. When I pull him in he stops completely. When we were practicing, he quit the bucking after he did one or two in each direction and proceeded to evade the bit (hackamore) and sometimes refuse to steer. He can canter indefinitely with his nose on my boot although it slows him down, some.


At the show he just kept on bucking and not just for a couple of strides. If I pull his head up hard, he just stops and there's no forward momentum at all OR like the other night, he begins to buck harder while moving out or moving sideways.

The only time I had trouble staying on was in the warmup - and then I started holding the horn (which gives me only 1 hand to control with = problem).

What could a good rider do that I can't do? A good rider would have enough coordination and skill to keep him moving forward while making him slow down. A good rider would let him run fast for awhile and not be afraid. A good rider would be ready and be able to prevent the bucking and the quick cut to the side. I felt like Charlie Brown when Lucy pulls the ball away -- I took it personally when he did the quick cut on me at the show. He hadn't done it in practice. I guess I could practice cantering on Matty, regulating speed at the canter.


As to the speed work, believe me, I'm not entering it to try to go fast. Its a very laid back local show. I'd be happy with a well-behaved pattern maintaining a canter. I was getting that about 50% of the time practicing alone, so I thought I'd go down there and give it a try at the actual show since they have poles and barrels and other people to hang out with. They do have exhibition rounds which I guess I should have entered, but I kind of wanted to put the pressure on myself to make him canter to see what he would do. I was feeling much braver before the show than I am now. I'm also going to call the University Vet School and see if they know of any Horse Chiropractors to get Dude checked because he really behaves so well at the walk and the trot. I never have any real trouble steering him or regulating speed at walk and trot. So maybe the canter is causing him pain. Its worth checking on.