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The Fresh Horse can throw in a buck because it’s happy & full of energy & is basically just feeling good or it might buck because it’s devious and is testing you out to see what it can get away with.
The sore horse will buck to tell you there is something wrong & then it’s your job to get to the bottom of the issue so the situation doesn’t escalate. There are many reasons why the horse might be sore – bad saddle fit, sore back, ulcers to name a few. Even an unbalanced rider can cause the horse discomfort & to consequently buck.
A sore horse that has learned it can get away with bucking may continue to buck after the problem is resolved because it doesn’t realise the problem has now disappeared or because the bucking has escalated from being pain related to being behavioural.
Behavioural Bucking can be behavioural because the horse has learned that when it bucks it gets its own way and so the behaviour has then escalated.
Lack of balance / straightness The unbalanced horse can throw in a buck / kick-up or kick out going into canter because they struggle to organise the strike-off leg and will either try to strike off on both hind legs at once or will strike off on the incorrect hind leg & then kick up to fix the canter lead. This is not actually bucking but some riders misinterpret it as bucking.
Lunging is about developing communication with your horse which then carries through into your under saddle work & handling on the ground including floating. So if your lunging is done by chasing the horse around the arena and flapping your whip at it then you need to watch this video!
Developing communication with your horse can be done through consistent voice aids & correct body language. Body language can be as subtle as a turn of your shoulders more towards the hindquarters or the head, looking down or opening the inside rein (hand that is attached to the lunge line is the inside rein in this scenario).
Be aware of what you are doing with your feet. Are you walking all over the arena or are you stepping in a consistent small circle or pivoting on one foot so the circles stays even rather than the horse bulging out close to the gate and getting strong then falling in on the side opposite the gate and slowing down & trying to stop. Do you step back away from the horse when it falls in on the circle or put your whip in front of you, point it at the shoulder and ask it to move away from you on the circle? Incorporating the Kula Lunge into your lunge training helps get the horse working in a round, connected engaged balanced frame.
When teaching your horse to lunge I work on the "start as you mean to go on" genre which means immediately introducing voice commands even though the horse won't understand them to begin with.
To get the horse moving forward I back up the voice commands with the whip & to slow the horse down decrease the size of the circle until it responds to the command. For upward transitions use an upward lilt to your voice ie. terrrrroooooottttttt and for downward transitions use a downward lilt to your voice ie. waaaaalllllllkkkkkk & use only 1 to two words for each command.
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