Whether you have a young horse that has never been saddled or you have a horse that has not been saddled in a long while - you're most likely going to experience issues when you saddle your horse.

The technique for both situations is the same. First let your horse investigate the saddle. Remember, horses are psychologically wired to be prey animals and they panic when they don't "know" something. Let your horse get to know the saddle by sniffing and even tasting it. Once he loses interest in it, then you can move on to the next step.

Take the saddle and place it on your horse's back without cinching it. Just let him feel the weight of it and all the while, pet and praise him. Do this every day until he seems bored with it. Then, cinch up the saddle. If your horse will allow the saddle on his body without bucking, attempt to lead him around while wearing the saddle. Again, repeat this exercise until he follows the lead while wearing a saddle without hesitation.

Then you are ready to ride. If you're horse has been a riding horse before, your horse will probably fall right back in the groove. If you have a young horse that has never had a rider, you may experience some bucking or other nervous behavior. If you have never been on a horse that may buck, it's worth letting a professional horse trainer break your horse into being a saddle rider.

If you have added a horse to your family and he is showing that he has a bucking problem, how you handle it will turn the problem into a long term battle of wills or make it a minor hurdle to cover in your training.

Horse will primarily buck for only a few reasons:
(1) He is frightened of you or doesn't trust you yet.
(2) He is associating something with pain, such as a saddle or a bit.
(3) He is asserting his dominance to be "top horse" over you.

First of all, rule out anything is hurting him. He may have teeth that need to be floated or an ill fitting bit. Saddles that are not fitted properly can also rub and cause your horse pain. Make sure anything you use on your horse is absolutely comfortable or he will begin bucking immediately when he sees an object he associates with something that has caused him pain in the past.

This takes us to a lack of trust or actually being frightened of you. If you have a horse that has been in an abusive situation; you will have to earn his trust and it will take a little time but you'll see progress with every training session. The more you train with him, the faster he will learn you mean him no harm and he can trust you to always treat him with kindness.

If your horse is playing the "I want to be leader of this herd" with you; you need to simply call him down and then start from the ground up on his training to show you are indeed the top horse in that herd. This will include walking on a lead, saddling and riding training again if necessary.

Never yell, scream or hit your horse - all of these training and retraining methods will show results when the horse is trained with kindness and respect.