Leaning on one side

[tillsmum]

Last night was ridiculus??? so i think its time to deal with it.

Brief history - She is a coloured cob 6yrs old who is nervous and slightly head shy (I've dealt with worse). When being ridden she leans on your left hand. This only usually happens in trot but last night while cantering in the field she was awful trying to bugger off through the right rien and when we were trotting on the road my arm actually went dead she was leaning so bad. She also drifts off to the right while trotting unless you give lots of right leg and virtually drop the right rien. This only happens if she is on her own or in front though although definatly reduced if other horses about.

Bad point - She is on loan from a riding school. I have had her since September and she only goes back when its busy and I am still her main rider. Over easter she only got ridden by someone else twice when i wasn't there. Everyone noticed a remarkable difference in her and how much moer chilled she is with me riding her. I have got someone else from the stables riding her now but it she is a female (marge has a thing about men) and a light handed rider. I felt it would be good for her to get used to other people again and keep her fitness up as I have 2 small kids so riding time can be limited.

Sorry its long but any suggestions would be gratefully recieved.

Thanks Kelly

[helenc]

Horses can only lean if we have a constant hold on the reins. Try half halting when she starts to lean & then release the rein but without losing contact & use more leg on the same side that she's leaning.

This should sit her back on her hocks more & bring her off the forehand. Do this every time she starts to lean, do not get yourself in a pulling battle as you will not win, all that will happen is she will set her neck against you :)

[alwaysfallingof]

Sounds very like what my boy used to be like. Falling in on one rein is very common, and the worst thing you can do is try and drag them out with your outside rein, because then you lose the inside shoulder and they won't learn to come off your inside leg.

Using your right leg like you have been doing is good, but if she doesn't move away from it use a stick behind your heel to try and get her to step sideways. You need to really support her with your right rein as well, keeping a constant contact so that she stays in right bend - as soon as you drop your right rein you allow outside flexion and allow her to fall in. Sitting in slight right bend (right hip back, left leg slightly behind the girth, right shoulder back) is vital too, and make sure you praise her as soon as she steps away from your inside leg.
Make sure that you're sitting straight with equal weight in both heels and seatbones so that you know that it's not you making her crooked or overcompensating for her not moving over by leaning your weight.

Ditto helenc about the leaning. (However, in general I tend to use my leg on the opposite side to the rein they're leaning on - for example, when my boy hangs on the right rein, he is actually throwing himself left, and so I will use my left leg to encourage his left hind leg to come through more and straighten him out. Leaning tends to only be the symptom of something going wrong elsewhere - either a contact problem, a lack of flexion in the neck (related to previous point), or if they are not tracking up as well with one of their hind legs). )

Sorry for the essay, hope that helps.

[tillsmum]

Thanks guys. All that is pretty much what i'm doing. I generally have very little contact at all because she shakes her head.
I is hard to sort things out when I have no school and haven't had lessons for about 10 yrs so you forget everything. I might see if I can take her back to the stables for a week and do some school work with her maybe that will help. Like teaching her to bend. lol