grazing reins to stop bucking ???

[sarah s]

Help needed before I do myself some damage .
Walter bucks when excited it started as little ones but now they are bigger and bigger. He threw me twice out cubbin on Saturday I'm still very sore.
His teeth, tack-saddle are fine and his back he see's a McTimmony regularly. Its just pure excitment he was unfit and out of condition when I had him he is now nice and fit and in regular work but as soon as I ask for canter his head goes stright down I have no chance of stopping him and the bucking starts. Sometimes he will just give a couple but other times it can be 6-7 in a row.
Would grazing reins help or something like that just as a tempory re-trainning mesure.
My instructor has ridden him and he was just the same with her.

[Teej]

I've not heard of grazing reins, are they similar to side reins or daisy reins?

We have the same thing with Baby. She is much better now even without the use of 'gadgets' but if other horses are being silly, she usually joins in and bucks !:rolleyes: . What I do in that situation is hold her reins very high above her neck with my arms extended so that they almost go above my shoulder level. What this does is stops her head going down but does not restrain her from going forward. If they can't get their heads down, they can't buck! That always works for us as we usually anticipate her bucking as she goes into canter. Once she is steady then the hands and arms can come back down to the right position. Not easy if you're caught off guard though but you could still try the hands in the air to keep the head up without pulling him up.

Its not a position to be 'maintained' as it doesn't look very 'classical' but it does the trick as a temporary measure :D

[Ali27]

Rhia likes to buck when she gets excited and I just lean back and keep her head up! I find her bucks and leaps fairly easy to sit to unless I'm following someone over a jump and then I really have to take a defensive leaning back position!

[torgrosset]

Grass reins would help as they'd stop him putting his head down in order to buck. However they might not stop him completely. Just be careful with them though as they can pull out your D rings on your saddle.

ETA - you can buy these loops that hook onto your stirrup bar and have a metal ring so you can attach the grass reins to that. I've not seen any in ages, but will have a look out. I've been looking for some for Bertie's saddle as he wear grass reins, but I clip his onto his handle as he wears a cub style saddle.

[sarah s]

Have tried the 'lifting the arms' thing but he's so quick and strong in the head/neck there in no chance of stopping his head from going down. But thanks for that advise, I dont like gadgets as a rule but I think I may have to this time.

[Bay Chaos]

I had a lot of issues with bridie bucking when she used to get ridden. I had a daisy rein and it did work! She'd try and she'd get stopped for long enough to have to think about what she was doing which gave me the time to push her on and hollar at her!!!!!