Wild hack

[Lucinda]

I borrowed my sister's horse last week and he rodeoed with me on the common! It was really scary and I only just managed to stay on!!! My horse bucks occasionally, but I know her inside out and all her little quirks. It's quite different when it's someone else's horse. Anyone else have a horse that bucks? What do you do about it?

[HollyGee]

I have been rodeoed and it's not nice I have to say. Also I used to ride a horse who got super-hyper if anyone went in front and would try to get his head by putting in a really sly, MASSIVE buck. Scary!
Whenever I can feel the horse 'hunch' his back and start to put his head down, I keep my legs firmly wrapped around him, my reins short and my hands up and together and keep pushing the horse forward - almost riding through the buck before it happens.

[Kaliska]

Sounds terrifying to me! I'm very lucky that my horse doesn't buck, only bunny hops, but my suggestion would be to push the horse on and keep his head up as much as you can!

[magranus]

I recommend with a horse that bucks out hacking that you take him/her for lots of long hacks with other well behaved horses and after a while there won't be a problem. Horses usually buck out hacking from excitement and past experience has shown me that by repetition, the excitement soon wears off.

[Harriet]

Was he trying to get you off, or just excited? If excited, yes, lots more hacking with calm horses, keep his head up, ride him forward and perhaps growl a bit to let him know it's not on. Trying to get you off - get him checked out by your vet/saddler, it could be a back or other physical problem. If it's neither of these and he still persists – don't ride him, I'd say!

[Lucinda]

I do think it was excitement, rather than him deliberately trying to get me off. I think I will leave the plenty of hacking thing to my sister because I'm a bit nervous about hacking him out now and I know he will sense that.

[greyhorse]

Not being a rodeo queen, I try and avoid the buck. I do my best to keep them going forward and stand up in my stirrups so you don't get rocketed over their ears. Buck Number 1 isn't usually the problem for me, it's Buck Number 2 and 3 that are the clinchers.

[Beanie93]

I never had a problem with bucking with my old pony, but he did bolt a lot, so i tried to avoid hacking on the roads as it was more dangerous. He was better behaved in company but the only problem then was his need to always be at the front! Although I really loved him, I eventually had to send him back to his owner (I had him on loan) as he was becoming more and more dangerous! Luckily the mare i have at the moment is as good as gold out hacking, despite her being only a four year old!

[James]

I find lungeing in a big open field before a hack usually stops buckers. They can get it all out of their system (and make sure they do) without hurting anyone then you can have a nice hack. Poor you, it's not fun. My boy throws in the odd unexpected one, but because I hack him a lot and do a lot of fast work, he is used to it. The more they do, the better they get. Try lungeing for a bit, then you should find after a while he stops.

[ChristineJ94]

A pony that I know bucks quite a lot and I was told if you keep his head up then he will be less likely to buck as horses need to lower their heads in order to buck.

hope this helps