By the way, I think I share the frustrations of others about the misinformation associated with the bucking strap (you still see web sites claiming how cruel it is, for example). It’s a cue to buck, see goodhors’ description. Feel free to try this at home: put a bucking strap ‘tightly’ on any horse and step back. The horse won’t move. It has to be loose enough to do its job without the possibility of a hangup, not unlike the rear cinch on a saddle.
[QUOTE=Calvincrowe;7777455]
Well, they buck because of the bucking strap, not because they have a rider on their back. So, I would think that yes, they’d be able to be trained to be ridden. I doubt many are actually broke to ride at all.[/QUOTE]
They do NOT buck because of the bucking strap (flank strap). Some keep bucking after the rider is off, others keep bucking. What the flank strap DOES do is affect the STYLE of their bucking - the annoyance (not pain) of it encourages the big kick out. Without the flank strap, most would still buck, but not as strongly. As for “converting” buckers, I have heard of it happening. But usually it’s the other way around: A previously amenable saddle horse converts to a bucker!
[QUOTE=goodhors;7777886]
Actually, No. Bucking horses DO NOT buck because of the strap. Strap helps horse buck straighter. Release of strap tells horse “work time” is now over. But the strap DOES NOTHING to MAKE a horse buck.
Many of the (correct name) Flank Straps are fleece lined, no objects to poke or prod horses into bucking. Rodeo horses that buck are closely scrutinized by outside authorities all the time and none of the equipment used “makes” them buck.[/QUOTE]
Rodeos have bee accused of abusing horses for literally decades. These days, they get a good bit of scrutiny, especially with regard to gear.
I can remember a WH article from back in the mid 1960’s that talked about someone who was breeding bucking stock. So the bucking bloodlines of these guys may go back at least that far.
True. They started breeding the stock for those reason but more also. Many of the “bad” horses from the general population were bad for physical, undiagnosed reasons that the contractor didn’t want to have to mess with.
I know someone who bought a horse out of a bucking string and made a hunter out of him. It can be done, but I’d think not as likely with the horses who are truly bred to buck. A lot of the “lesser quality bucking stock” are regular saddle horses that went bad for whatever reason, and some of them get tired of bucking and go back to being nice saddle horses.
I have to admit that when I see rodeo events on TV or rarely in person, I almost always see a horse on the bucking string that I really, really like!
For the price I would give these horses the benefit of the doubt. That’s if I lived close by. It wouldn’t pay to have one trucked to PA, though it would be an interesting experiment. Many a horse has been done a disservice due to the way they have been handled in the past.
You can’t scare me–I’ve owned a Thoroughbred! 
:lol:
Flame suit on…
Most of the practice bucking stock at school were the kids ranch horses on the weekend. The kids would buck them out, then pull off the tack and ride them back to the trailers or stalls bareback in a halter. One of my bosses also had a former bucking stock horse that his family used to pony draft mules to pack hunters around the mountains because he was so unflappable. If it were me, I’d at least go look at them as restart projects, but I do think you have to look at them as unstarted horses.
Unfortunately it’s purely an academic question for me-- I can’t take in any of these ponies. I’ve got 4 in my field, including a hackney pony that seriously needs more work than I’m currently giving her, so I’m not in a position to take on any training projects.
Hope some rodeo contractor sees the ad before the kill buyer does, and has a job for them.
[QUOTE=Donkaloosa;7777963]
I know someone who bought a horse out of a bucking string and made a hunter out of him. It can be done, but I’d think not as likely with the horses who are truly bred to buck. A lot of the “lesser quality bucking stock” are regular saddle horses that went bad for whatever reason, and some of them get tired of bucking and go back to being nice saddle horses.
I have to admit that when I see rodeo events on TV or rarely in person, I almost always see a horse on the bucking string that I really, really like![/QUOTE]
Every horse comes with a story, not all quite as told.
I have heard those stories about “he was a bucking string horse” told on horses I knew where they came from and no, it was not a rodeo string.
While some horses may have been former rodeo rough stock, some of those stories are just not as some believe.
There are some horses that the pickup men do ride when they quit bucking right or enough, but those are the rare horse and true stories.
The rest, maybe not.
The flank strap is used to even the bucking in the horse and to even the bucking across horses.
The contractor’s help knows how tight it needs to go on each individual horse, some looser, some more tight.
The idea is to give all rodeo cowboys trying to score on those horses as close to the same go, so it is as fair as it can be made.
That the horses in one rodeo are evenly matched is part of it and there is where the flank strap comes in.
Just because of their history, does not mean they will be easy, or reliable or even for non-experienced people to bring on – certainly not me – but to answer the question – it depends.
If you are interested in the breeding of rough stock, here is a little reading material:
http://www.harryvoldrodeo.com/painted-valley.html
These folks do reference successful ‘saddle horses gone sour’ as broncs:
This is the outfit my mare came from:
http://www.powderriverrodeo.com/stock.html
I was able to track back her ranch brand and her number brand and they were able to tell me her pedigree and early history. Interesting to see that they’re doing embryo transfer and cloning.
Good rough stock is EXPENSIVE. Horses that buck well don’t sell for $200/head. I don’t know what the story is on the herd for sale but they’re not professional bucking horses at that price. Could be washed out practice horses, I suppose. Or just slightly broncy ranch horses. Or a guy who picked up a “bucking horse” stallion at auction and a bunch of no name mares in a bid to make it rich breeding. Who knows?
[QUOTE=Simkie;7778169]
This is the outfit my mare came from:
http://www.powderriverrodeo.com/stock.html
I was able to track back her ranch brand and her number brand and they were able to tell me her pedigree and early history. Interesting to see that they’re doing embryo transfer and cloning.
Good rough stock is EXPENSIVE. Horses that buck well don’t sell for $200/head. I don’t know what the story is on the herd for sale but they’re not professional bucking horses at that price. Could be washed out practice horses, I suppose. Or just slightly broncy ranch horses. Or a guy who picked up a “bucking horse” stallion at auction and a bunch of no name mares in a bid to make it rich breeding. Who knows?[/QUOTE]
Right and some may just make nice riding horses, who knows.
The odds are against it, but if someone wants to try to train/retrain some, it is their time, energy and money.
I found this horse’s story interesting (on the link Simkie provided):
Frontier was unique that he bucked with bell boots on his front feet. Early in his career (1991), Frontier acted like he wanted to quit bucking and, in observing this, Franzen realized he was over-reaching when he bucked and was injuring his front leg. From then on, Frontier wore overreach boots every time he bucked. Before every performance, Franzen would walk up to the kind bucking horse with no halter and place the bell boots on him. After he bucked, Frontier would let Franzen walk up again and remove the protective boots.
Frontier was still at the top of his game when he was retired at 21 years old. He had been marked
1 Like
Isn’t that funny, Beverly? A bareback horse in bell boots?
I love this picture of Khadafy Skoal, too:
http://www.powderriverrodeo.com/images/KhadafySkoalHallofFameInduction.jpg
Crazy bucking horse
[QUOTE=Simkie;7778234]
I love this picture of Khadafy Skoal, too:
http://www.powderriverrodeo.com/images/KhadafySkoalHallofFameInduction.jpg
Crazy bucking horse ;)[/QUOTE]
Man, look at the wonderful bone on that guy!
No kidding, right? Powder River has some lovely horses. Here’s my mare:
Right about 16 hands and 1400 lbs across the scale at the livestock auction when I bought her.
I usually see some draft in the roughstock when I watch them at rodeos. That’s why I’m surprised the horses in the CL ad look so light in build…
Simkie and Belmont are dead on.
I know there was one contractor for sure that had a dual purpose pickup/bucker. If he ran short of bucking horses, he had a pickup horse that could fill in and show his rider a good time. Harry Vold?
I had one saddle horse that wound up in the Christiansen Brothers bucking string. I used him in 4-H, and when I went to college, my dad had a cowboy put some polish on him in preparation for sale. He took to bucking and wouldn’t stop.
Those $200 horses might be, as someone suggested, used up practice stock, or low-end horses, “dinks.” I worked this last summer with a cowboy who had rodeo’d all his life and was still active on the senior pro circuit until just a few years ago (we’re both in our late 50’s). He said a contractor we both know had been short of entries in the senior saddle broncs and promised “if you’ll enter, we’ll put you on a dink and you’ll be fine.” Probably the whole string was dinks! Unfortunately my friend realized at the first jump out of the chute that he was now too old for this and was surely gonna’ die.
He did survive, and after that, stuck to wild horse racing. I told him that one of the horses out on the Indian reservation had really taken my eye, and if I’d had a place to put him (and a case of insanity), I would have taken him home. I was literally offered a trailer full of horses if I wanted them. Later that year I saw Youtube video of that distinctive Appy - in the wild horse race at a major rodeo. Obviously he would have been too much horse for me, though my friend said the Indians would send the same string out all season long to the wild horse races, and by late summer, they were getting pretty gentle. By his standards, anyway.
I see from all these stories that there are some refugees from the bucking strings that go straight, but my favorite is Frontier and his bell boots. That’s a contractor who knows his stock.
[QUOTE=kelo;7778251]
Man, look at the wonderful bone on that guy![/QUOTE]
Well yeah! A horse doing the work of a bucking horse, needs to be solid boned to endure the stress and last like those animals do over the years. Lots of stories about OLD bucking horses who are retired sound, just old. Travel also takes a lot out of them, covering thousands of miles to get to rodeos.
Those breeding bucking stock are not interested in “pretty” looking animals. They use and breed the animals that are successful buckers in removing the cowboys in competitions. So you see a LOT of “common heads, old-fashioned” heads with the convex noses. With “pretty” you also usually find a lack of bone, or less bone than what these bucking horses wear.
Riding horse breeders are producing what their markets want, and that refining is making for less sound, less long-lasting horses with diminished bone dimensions. The methods of raising these fancy horses with full supplements, small pastures or paddock keeping, also makes them “lesser” in body building to take stress with their early growth, but limited running spaces.
The folks raising the bucking horses keep them in HUGE spaces, outside 99% of the time, in herds that are fed hay, not grain diets. The mature horses may get grained some, but they work for a living. So the youngstock comes along slowly in growth, playing hard builds strong bones, and they are not pushed to be “usable” with lunging stresses, riding too much and too early in their young lives. They still get tall and BIG with that time, genetics will do as programmed! Just not hugely tall as yearlings or 2yr olds. BIG and STOUT at 6-7 yrs though, with another 12-15yrs ahead working in the rodeo. They sure don’t get used up with performing only a few hours total, in a year!!
[QUOTE=Pat9;7778342]
Those $200 horses might be, as someone suggested, used up practice stock, or low-end horses, “dinks.” [/QUOTE]
Just based on the photos, I’d bet these are not the high dollar bred-to-buck horses some in this thread are referring to, but the “dinks”. I know a number of the local stock contractors around here that supply to the smaller rodeos - county fairs and the ‘local’ circuit stuff. One in particular works with a KB, mostly buying the cheap stock that is run through loose at auction, puts them through the chute with a rider once at practice and if they don’t buck fairly well, back to the meat truck they go. I actually bought a mare off him once, they knew she was a well-broke saddle horse and weren’t even going to try her out, so it was either I took her or she went on the truck (she turned out to be a nice horse, papered and all). They don’t breed them, they just buy 'em cheap and run 'em til they quit.
I know of a few horses (mostly pickup horses, not surprisingly) that are former buckers. Good horses when they learn the difference.
