Hand him off to the pro to ride and sell. Better luck with the next one!
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I would take a close look at his spine to see if he’s suffering from a vertebrae problem. If he checks out, I agree to sell him. It’s worth a call to the previous owner to see if you can get more history to pass along to the next owner but I wouldn’t bother trying to get your money back from the previous owner - dishonesty is too hard to prove. You’re more likely to get info if your tone is “can you help me understand this horse” rather than “you lied to me”. But do this horse a favour and be honest with prospective buyers so he can land with someone who is prepared to put in the work. You might take a loss on the sale but you will take comfort in the fact that the horse is not going to be passed around until he ends up at a meat lot. I hope your horse life gets fun again - welcome back!
K
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This is the Short Answer.
But if you’re having these problems just 2mos in, why bother to explore further?
If latest vet check doesn’t turn up some glaring physical reason for the behavior, IIWM, I’d sell.
You said there was a lot of interest.
Where are those buyers now?
One of them may still be interested.
No shame in reselling one that does not suit you. It happens.
Don’t expect a profit, or maybe not breaking even, but either beats owning a horse you can’t enjoy.
@Scribbler 
I may have inadvertantly Flagged your original post while meaning to Like it.
I think I backed out, but if not: Sorry 
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Send the horse down the road. Pay the trainer to get him going and advertise as needing an advanced rider. Don’t fall into the trap of trying to “save” this horse and spending wallets full of money only to find out YOU can’t solve his problem. Find a horse that wants to work with you, it makes life so much easier. Good luck.
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Not every human and every horse can make a team together. No fault of either side. Sell this horse (with the help of a professional) and buy yourself something that you can fun with.
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OP, do not let the opinions of others IRT selling a horse after two months deter you… I have had two horses I did not sell soon enough. In both cases, someone convinced me the fault lay with me and my riding, so I was determined to get over it and fix myself.
The first horse bolted with me in a round pen and I wound up with a broken femur and PTSD (20 years ago, undiagnosed, but now I know why I could not stand near a horse without hyperventilating afterwards…). The second one also put me on the ground, and finally scared me enough that I sold him. Many lessons learned there. (and yes, I sent them far away to be sold, but the trainer who sold them for me is a good friend and was very up front with the buyers. )
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I have a horse that is not a good fit for me at where I am in my riding due to age (mine). I had him on the market and a trainer with her client came out to try him and of course asked why I was selling. I told her we’re not a good fit. Well that wasn’t enough for her and she thought I was hiding some flaw or quirk, which I was not. Even though horse performed very well during the trial, they passed and had some snarky remarks as they left alluding to me being a liar. So saying to a prospective buyer that you’re not a good fit is not always a good idea, I started using the analogy of dating. Why stay in a relationship if it’s not the right fit? Same thing.
If all you said was “we’re not a good fit,” I can see why they had some suspicion. The remark requires some additional qualification, otherwise people will fill in the blanks themselves.
“We’re not a good fit” because he bucks you off every time you ride?
“We’re not a good fit” because he spooks at anything that moves on the trail?
“We’re not a good fit” because he’s not sound enough to do what I want?
People always imagine the worst so you need to fill in the blank. There are plenty of ways to explain why “we’re not a good fit” that are both honest and won’t scare most people off.
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What are you feeding him? Have you tried giving him bute, then riding to see if there is a change? Just to see if pain relief med helps ( just to do once to see if there was a change) Does he buck when he is lunged at the canter? Can you get a chiro out and see if they find anything? How is he on a trail ride with company? I would move him along but some changes could get him going better. Staying with a booger too long can really damage your riding and confidence.
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I don’t think it’s crazy to think about selling the horse at this point, but I do wonder one thing:
Is there a reason you HAVE to canter him right now? If he’s got your number and this is a behavioral thing (not pain) why not just work on trotting him for a while until you are no longer scared and/or get to know him better? There are lots of challenging things you can do at a trot to keep your minds occupied.
In the hunter world, I think we get too focused on WTC both directions when riding and that builds anticipation on both the part of the rider (omg, we have to canter now, am i going to get bucked off?) and the horse (yay, we’re going to canter now, can I get her off?)…if you break the cycle, you might find that you make progress on your own worries and also on his behavior.
That said, there is NOTHING WRONG with selling a horse that scares you. If you don’t want to put more time into him, find something that you do want to ride.
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That’s an excellent point. The horse I leased tended to be anxious and could be hard to get back after cantering. I was in a stage of being anxious about cantering, too, as I was coming back from not riding due to Lyme. The trainer kept putting it off until a big chunk at the end of the lesson. One of us (the horse or me) had to calm down first & it obviously wasn’t going to be the horse. For the sake of my nerves I started interspursing short bursts of canter work into our schooling sessions starting as soon as we were warmed up enough. We would have to canter & come back from it numerous times in the course of a dressage test, anyway. So why not practice it that way until it was yawn no biggie.
I also find I’m totally fine cantering & even hand-galloping/galloping when I have something else to do with my brain. Out foxhunting? It’s cool, let’s go. Jump lesson? Also fine once I start pretending I’m Mclain Ward. Dressage? I will happily canter the diagonal lines all day as long as we can practice tempi changes or at least a flying change in there. But “We’re practicing the canter!” a la the lessons of my 1980’s hunter youth? My reaction tends towards “OMG WE’RE GONNA DIE!” I’ve handled some pretty nasty stuff from some pretty rank horses and I’m still not a zombie, so obviously that’s an overreaction. 
Yet it happens every. Single. Time.
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I had a similar experience with a horse I leased right after I started riding again post-broken leg. He belonged to a friend of mine and was sold as a packer, but there were some huge gaps in his training and he was a bear of little brain on top of it…got her number after getting her off a few times at the canter with spooks.
He tried it with me a few times and didn’t manage to get me off, but my leg was weak enough that it rattled me a little. My trainer suggested that we just not canter for a while until we got to know one another better/I got stronger. It worked quite well and we got to the point where we could canter without antics, though I never did feel like I could completely relax on him (see above re: bear of little brain).
He was with me “on trial” as a potential “extra” field hunter for me, but I took a pass because he just wasn’t the right horse for the job I wanted him to do.
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Yeah, there’s no shame in selling (or rather, having the trainer sell) the horse if you’ve become terrified of riding him. Riding is supposed to be mostly fun, not something you dread every time. You may just not quite have the timing or authority yet to correct him the way your trainer does.
Have you ridden any other horses during this time? Lesson horses? Friends trustworthy packers? It might not be a bad idea, you are probably carrying some tension from anticipating the bucking that it would be good to let go of.
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This horse already had a history of bucking before you bought it? It’s not a good fit for you. Cut your losses, sell it and move on to something that makes riding feel safe and fun.
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OP obviously needs to get this horse checked out for pain issues, but I did have a client who got a 15h QH gelding that ended up just being a bad match for her. He was a saint for most of their first year together, then he started pulling little stunts and she didn’t know how to handle it. He wouldn’t turn in 1 direction, so she’d get out of it by turning the other way. Then he’d start giving her a hard time stopping. More passive aggressive stuff, then it started escalating. Since she was unsure what to do or late in her corrections, he was being rewarded. Over the course of 4 years, she came off several times and broke a foot, a wrist, etc. She put the horse in pro training several times and the horse never did anything with them. When she was pregnant a working student and I rode the horse for almost a year. He never did anything. 2 weeks after she came back to riding, he took off on her again. She threw in the towel and finally sold him to a teen who knew the horse - so antics fully disclosed. He’s never done a thing since and the girl is eventing with him. Go figure!
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I appreciate the suggestion. However, he started pulling these misbehaviors at the trot, and occasionally the walk, about two week ago. My attempts to ride him through it seem to escalate his response, and that’s when I started getting truly nervous on him.
The vet is coming out tomorrow, so we’ll see. Again, thanks to everyone for chiming in.
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Fingers crossed for a good outcome!
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You have great advice here.
I would even hesitate to contact the last owner or last trainer because they’ll likely say the horse was great before you purchased him. They’ll never admit they sent a problem horse down the road. Ask me how I know.
There’s nothing wrong with selling a horse that is a bad match for you. #1 is your health and #2 is your happiness. He might be a good match for someone with more time and a larger bag of skills. Life is too short to ride a horse you are afraid of.
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So… it was downplayed to you by whom? Your trainer that sold you the horse from consignment? Or the seller? And “it turns out” that the horse was sent out for training last summer including issues bucking at the canter. How do you know this? Did you already talk to the seller? Or is this something your trainer told you later and your trainer was the one who had the horse in for training?
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Fingers crossed that your vet visit gives you some easily treatable answers.
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