I have never hunted, so take this with a bag of salt. I used to event, so XC is the closest I have gotten to hunting. Well, now I ride hunters, but I feel like XC relates a little more to hunting for some odd reason…
So, I am super against the idea of acing a horse to ride. It’s just not safe. Perhaps I am in the minority when I am at a hunter show thinking that a chemically calmed, or even physically exhausted horse, is appropriate. Both I think are dangerous to ride, but changing hunter judging standards is not the issue on this thread, so.
If your horse was bucking, as some do, in response to you adding leg, or asking him to move forward or off it in general, I would agree that getting him to go forward is absolutely imperative. That would be a lazy horse trying to reject your direction and the fastest way to fix it is to teach the horse if they don’t move forward or away from your leg at the moment you ask, or have some objection to it, they will be working much harder. I don’t think that applies to this situation.
When you have an excitable bucker, as many others have mentioned, first is to make sure the horse understands bucking is not an okay thing when under saddle. Doing this can be tricky. Personally, my horse is in the midst of rehabbing, and had decided cantering is hard work, and maybe it would be easier if he swapped leads, or maybe this is all just garbage and he should buck. We initially went with kicking him on, thinking he was getting lazy, whilst verbally giving him a “Nu-ah”. In his defense, he did learn this quite well, as he started bucking, and then bolting. I am pretty sure the first time he did this he was quite proud of himself, as he gave me this, “Look Ma! I did it on my own!” kind of jig once I slowed him down. No matter what, you do not want the ride to end because they stop, you want it to end when they stop, and you are able to carry on.
I don’t think changing to a harsher bit to curb this problem (no pun intended) is the answer. Eventually, you would either have a horse with a harder mouth bucking, or a horse that sucked back, refusing to make rein contact, and potentially trying to go vertical. Changing tack is not the answer to fixing a behavior issue in most cases. A pelham, is also best used to help a horse lower their head, thus not something I would recommend in this situation. Plus the two reins will just give you more to manage. I flat my horse in a normal hunter dee, and jump him in a narrower hunter dee. We used to jump him in a pelham, and use the narrower hunter dee to flat, but as he has gotten fined tuned, we have been able to decrease the need to micromanage where his head is.
If you feel confident enough to have a go at fixing the issue I would start where you feel the most comfortable. Arena? Smaller pasture? Do it on ‘your’ territory, where you are in control of the situation. Make sure you are very comfortable sitting down in a controlled canter. I would start by teaching him a one-rein halt. At a walk, loose contact on one rein, and use the other rein to turn his head to your knee. Once he stops and gives, release the pressure, give him a pat. Try this in both directions, at a walk first. Sometimes they will walk several circles before stopping the first couple tries. Once he understands the concept (if he doesn’t already) try it at a trot, posting, and then sitting trot when you ask so you are off his forehand. A horse sure can move forward and buck, but turning and bucking is something they will be less inclined to do, as they will feel off balance. It is important to focus on just one rein at a time, you will have to put some slack in the other rein to accommodate this. You want him to come to a complete stop, and give a little, and then you can give him a pat. At the canter, you will give your abs a workout perfecting your deep-sitting canter. I emphasize the deep seat, because you want to make sure you aren’t unintentionally putting weight on his forehand. Also, because if he knows that when you sit deep, you might be getting ready to pull him up, chances are he will start paying more attention to you as soon as you sit deep and stretch up. Assuming he hasn’t started displaying this behavior, have a friend ride up, this helps keep you in control, because if you start to feel him get excited, you are more aware of his tells, and if you don’t think you can handle it, you can call it quits before anything happens.
Confidence is always an issue, even for the best of riders. All it takes is one fall, and you second guess what you can do. I commend you for not only taking on a daring sport (my horse would be the one running loose back towards the barn in terror at the sight of a pony and/or a plant) but for recognizing your limitations. There are far too many riders who put themselves (and others) in dangerous positions because they are simply unaware, or don’t care, of the potential consequences. It is always best to play it safe. And, when I was horse shopping for my current horse (16.2 KWPN) I had a friend who rides western now on her 14.3 QH ask me why I would want to fall from something so tall. My reply? Because when he spooks and goes running off, I can feel it starting to happen before he does it. I have fallen off of more ponies and small horses than I care to remember. They are catty little things!
