Horse runs off while mounting (www.freewebs.com/horsemanship)

Question
Well I recently bought a six year old gelding from huge ranch in the texas panhandle, and I have only had him about seven months.  I bought him for my brother to ride on the ranch he works for, and in the last couple of months my brother has had trouble getting on him.  The horse jets forward when he puts his leg over the saddle and runs off bucking.  We didn't have this problem when we first bought him, I think my brother has caused him to be scared of him.  Any advice?

Answer
Hi Steve, I think you are right.  Your brother did cause this. Most all horse problems are people problems.  Unfortunately since you are asking for help and not your brother, I don't think this will help the horse.

If the horse is scared of your brother because of heavy hands or strong arm tactics, your brother will have to fix that by back off and gaining the trust back from the horse.

Your brother needs to do some ground work and re-establish his position as leader, without fear, pain and intimidation.  He can do this by being fair to the horse.  Move the horse on the ground, back him and make him calmly yield to his position.  The horse is probably reacting in fear, since he does not know what to expect or is expecting to be ambushed with pain and punishment, so he tries to avoid this by running and bucking.  That is what horses do when they are scared, they run, if something is on their back when scared, they will buck to get rid it, exactly what the horse would do is a lion jumped on his back.

You can't ride or trust a horse that is scared or fearful and only being held back by a painful bit and painful rider.

I have a section on bucking on my web site under the Horsemanship page, if you read this it should shed some more light on this.

It is never the horse's fault.  People cause horses to do what they do.  If it is good, the person caused it, if it is bad, the person caused it.  I can assure you that if you put this horse out in pasture with other horses, he would not run, buck and kick.

Too many people expect the horse to learn our communication way.  The horse is supposed to be the less intelligent animal, so we should be learning his way of communication.  

Hope this helps,

Rick