Crow Hopper's Big Guide to Buck Stopping: Put an End to Your Horse's Bucking Fits (Horse Training How-To)
From the Introduction of "Crow Hopper's Big Guide to Buck Stopping"Right now, you get knee-jerk reactions and it doesn't take much of a catalyst to cause an explosion.  You nag the horse to slow down repeatedly, another horse lopes past--and suddenly you got a rodeo.  Your every request is met with "no" out of pure, nonsensical habit.  You say "down," he says "up."  You say "walk" he says "not gonna budge."  There's no thought involved; it's just practiced behavior in the case of a horse that's used to having its way, or inherent behavior in the case of a youngster or a spooked horse.  "Yes?"  "No!"  "What are we arguing about?"  "I don't know!"If horses more often than not buck for one of two reasons, fear or defiance (or its close cousin, "frustration"), then discerning which will help us choose our training path.  The contrarian described in the preceding paragraph needs to practice agreeing you, (whether that means walking forward when asked, or standing still or dropping his head or whatever) while the horse that bucks out of fear, needs to learn to deal with his spookiness, changing his first thought from "RUN!" to something akin to "stay put."  Most buckers are a combo platter of both types and you'll likely want to practice a wide variety of exercises.