Another post about Brig

Well, I actually had a pretty good ride on Brig today! He was very calm when I arrived at the barn so I was optimistic that he would also be calm under saddle. He was really good for the first 3/4 of the ride. No major spooks and no bolting or bucking at all. Then I changed directions again to finish off on the left side. I had a few things that I wanted to work on and one was to canter in that direction. Well Brig seemed to figure that we should canter right away since we had just cantered in the other direction. I just kept asking him to stay in trot and to relax as we worked on other movements. I was just turning him up the center line to do a leg yield when he suddenly took off bucking. I couldn't stop him or really do anything other than keep trying to pull his head up and to stay on. There were a couple moments when I was pretty sure that I was coming off within the next couple bucks if he didn't stop but for some reason he must have toned down the bucking for a couple strides or something because I was able to get my balance a bit again as he continued. Finally he stopped. My heart was sure pounding. I don't know what to do when he stops. Do I get after him? Once he's stopped he's not doing anything really wrong anymore so would it be effective to do anything? Maybe it depends on the circumstance. Today I didn't feel like it was going to do any good. I gave him a couple kicks and then just asked him to walk and then halt again. I needed time to think about my next move. I knew that he was just being goofy and wasn't scared or in pain so how would I continue my ride without repeating what just happened? I decided to just ask him to canter and then at least I wouldn't be fighting him as much. Well, today the canter aid seemed to translate from me to Brig as 'put your head down and try to start bucking'. So we went back to the walk and worked on get control of the shoulders again and getting him to lift them up instead of dropping his whole front end into the ground so that he could buck. Eventually I got a decent canter and he was calm and well behaved. What a relief! I sure hope that he starts to calm down a bit soon.
Well, Brig managed to rip his bucket with the warrenty off the wall. It is not completely broken yet and I think that if I get some larger screws I can put it back up. Hopefully it will last a while longer and then I can use the warrenty to get a new one. Otherwise he has not been destructive this week. Yay! I should reapply the cayenne to his blanket again soon though or I may not be so lucky next week.