Why does my horse buck? Well, it could be a behavioral or physiological response. There are a number of reasons as to why your horse may be bucking. Let's explore a few of the more common reasons as to why this may be occurring and if this was an ongoing or sudden issue.
Behavioral Responses
Lets face it horses are like toddlers, 1200 lb toddlers to be exact and just like them they can and will throw a tantrum. In a behavioral aspect, this can be a ingrained response because some horses unfortunately are just dirty like that.
Sometimes it is a learned/taught behavior. In a training scenario, you are frustrated and losing your patience because your horse is not picking up what you are asking of them as quickly as you expect. In turn your horse's lack of understanding is making them frustrated, so their response (one of many) is to stick their nose to the ground and let their hind end fly, taking you for a wild ride. If they managed to unseat you, they've won and now every time you ask for this particular movement you in turn have taught them to associate this behavior with bucking and that they can get out of it by dumping you, thus a learned behavior. So now they become evasive and resistant to what you are asking of them. If there are inconsistencies in your riding or if the horse is being trained by a few different riders, this could be a result of that as well. Too many hands in the pot asking for the same outcome but in different ways can confuse and frustrate a horse.
At this point depending on the experience level of the rider - they are either going to give up as they are frustrated and move onto another task or are now fearful and put the horse away. This is absolutely the worst thing you can do as you've now solidified the behavior and you will have to back track to fix it. You want to keep after them and keep on whatever you are asking of them until you have a break through, but you also don't want to run them into the ground and associate negativity with it either. So do it in stages - start with 10 minutes, then 15, then 30 or try a different method. If this is something you can do from the ground and you are experienced in long lining or can have someone assist you try it that way.
I say this to everyone - it doesn't matter if you are a "professional" seek out the help of another equine professional - they may know something you don't. Continuing to learn new methods or techniques will make you that much better of a horseman/horsewoman.
Sometimes, their shenanigans are simply because they are excited and just need to get out the shits and giggles. Had they stalled due to injury or inclement weather and are used to being out a percentage of the day or 24/7 and just have the zoomies because they have all that pent up energy and are just excited to be outside.
Fear is another behavioral response. They are bucking because they are fearful of something, whether it is you, your tack, something in the arena or trail, a previous traumatic event. The reactive side of a horses brain will suddenly engage from the trigger and bam they buck. This is a blanket statement that includes pain but we will discuss that in part 2 about physiological responses.
Let's not confuse a buck and a crow-hop though... Two different things and a crow hop is to show lack of respect. Oddly enough, we see this with the lazy pasture puffs, who are normally fat and don't want to go forward and when you ask them to move along from a stop to a walk or walk to other gait, they crow hop and are trying to tell you to bug off. Your not going to see this with the nervous type, the hot ones that are tap dancing because they want to move forward.
Once a horse has dumped their rider lets say 4-5 times, they've now gotten used to bucking and its now a habit. If it was due to something other than pain as an underlying issue its not now, its now lack of respect.
I will use my own horse Harry as an example. I acquired him when he was 9 and he rode great for awhile and then bam started bucking. I had a full PPE done when I got him and he was clean, sans some mild arthritis in his left pastern which is typical for a TB that raced. After he was done racing he was plopped in a field with his dam and half sister for 3 years so he became accustomed to the fat pasture puff life. He had a huge buddy sourness issue and I attributed his bucking to that to get out of work. I worked with him extensively to no avail, I finally decided to reach out to another local trainer and sent him off for 30 days. I visited a lot to watch the trainer and he was doing great. Brought him home on day 30 and literally the very next day I got on and was doing some light trot work in our small fenced field and bam he went off like a smoking gun and bronc'd, I'm pretty sure this horse could have been a top NFR bucking horse they way he let loose. I had it for a while til he dropped his right shoulder and I became unseated and ultimately was thrown resulting in a concussion (yes I was wearing a helmet) and an injury to my right hip. I reached back out to the trainer and was like WTF. I posted on Facebook about it and someone mentioned to check for kissing spine. But we will talk about that in part 2.