change of attitude

Question
My 16-year-old son does not have a lot of experience riding, but he decided to take on the task of breaking a 3-year-old filly here on the farm. He has gone very slowly, building his confidence and hers. He has taken her from being very pushy-she would definitely invade your space-to gentle, mannerly, sweet, and responsive. He can now ride her and has recently got her to trot. Shortly after that accomplishment she has started to cow-kick his foot in the stirrup when he asks her to go and even bucked a little. She didn't do that before. We are not sure how to deal with this behavior. It seems like she is contemplating bucking him off he pushes her too hard. We would like to deal with this behavior properly. Do you have any suggestions?

Answer
Hi Sherrie

Thank you for the question and I will try my best to help.

Firstly congratulations to your son, on having the patience to teach this little one slowly and quietly, it makes so much difference to their attitudes towards us and towards working in a partnership with us.  Sounds like your son has  done things just how I would  do them!

Now about the cow kicking, I doubt if she is going to buck him off, if she really wanted to do that then she would have done long before now.

First  thing please check her sides, it might be that something is annoying her,  a piece of tack not fitting properly  or a small cut or scratch on her side that she is unhappy about, might not be  but a check all the same.

If she continues to do this  then I would suggest to him that he stops, then lets her stand for a few seconds then ask again, and repeat and repeat until she gets the message that she will have  to do as asked eventually, don't get off and don't give in to her, obviously don't do this for hours on end, just as long as the lesson lasts.  Always finish on a positive note, when she goes ahead into trot then give her lots of praise, tell  her what  a clever little girl she is, its not the words as such as the tone of voice used that  makes the difference to her.  

One slight concern  you don't say how old she is now, I know you said she was 3 when  he started  breaking her which is acceptable, I always start my babies off about the 2-3 year old mark, but never ride them until they are at least 4 years old, as their bodies haven't quite matured enough to bear our weight until then, it could be that she is still a tad young to be ridden and she is letting you know its something she isn't happy with...............of course if she is older then please ignore the last bit!

Hope this  solves the problem with her  but if this persists please get  back to me and we can try something else.