my bucking horse

Question
Hi Rick.  I'm 35 yrs old.  I know some about horses had them off and on when I was growing up.  My mare who is 8 yrs old bucks when u ask her to lope.  I only had her for 3 months.  Sometimes when you ride it out she will quit but sometimes she gets worse.  This mare is actually my sons horse who is 10yrs so we need to fix this problem.  I try to lounge her before we ride, sometimes it helps and sometimes it don't  Right now we just started Parelli level 1 home course.  I have two mares and they are in a dirt pen about 600' I bring them in their stall at feeding time.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer
Bucking is a respect issue, you have to gain more respect on ground by moving her feet.  The more you make her move when you ask the better, walk her in and out of gates, load her in trailer, lounge her, round pen her, back her up, move her and you tell her you are boss, you are higher and she needs to listen to you.  The more you do this the better.  When she bucks, pull on one rein only, never pull on two reins, thats helps them buck, one rein tilts the head and makes it harder to buck.  As soon as she stops bucking, make her back up, make her move forwards, stop her, turn her, let her know you tell her what to do and she has to listen.  If you round pen her or lounge her at a cater with the saddle, she should buck then too, if she does pop and pull the lead rope hard, if you make her fall, good, when you do this Yell Quit.  Use Quit everytime you correct her, so if she does it when you are on her, she will know what quit means.

I make my horse run faster when he bucks, then he does not want to buck, when a horse is running fast he cannot buck buck good.  But, you have stay in saddle.  Go to my web site and see the pictures of the Nightlatch or bucking strap, put one on your saddle, it will help you stay in saddle and will make you drop one rein so it forces you to pull only on one rein,  once the horse knows he gets nothing good from bucking he will quit.

Ground work is the key.  be careful, wear lose fitting boots in case he gets you off.

Rick