After going through this list, you hopefully have identified which kind of buck your horse does and therefore a better idea of how you will deal with it.

When it comes to learn how to ride a buck, the best thing that ever helped me was riding in an Australian stock saddle. If you know your horse is a bucker and not a rearer these are ideal because no matter how long your horse gets its head and how quick it hits the skids into the buck the wings of the stock saddle keep you in. 

Not losing your balance and getting unseated by the buck is the first step.

As soon as your upper body is a little forward or a little out of the seat of the saddle it is very hard to recover from unless your horse decides to stop bucking. Once you have some control over your seat in the buck you have 2 options:

1. One rein sharp tug.

   If your horse can get the weight on the rein you are in a far worse situation for pulling them up, so you want to only use one rein and it has to be a quick on off so the horse can’t get behind that rein either. This is often enough to deal with most kinds of bucks where the horse is carrying on a bit.

2. Ride the horse more forward.

   If you have the space and can ride the horse more forward, the faster they are going the harder it is to buck. Once they stop bucking, allow them to stop as a reward for ceasing the bucks.

When our horses truly lose the plot the bucking becomes thrashing, rearing and falling over. Any of this is a serious sign that you need to figure out what is going on. Is your horse in pain, have they experienced a trauma they haven’t been able to process, is there something medically underlying the bucking. This kind of bucking is not just your horse having a go but they are truly genuinely upset about something and they can’t just be pushed or worked through. It needs to be dealt with by a professional.