Asking for more help

[vixen]

Hello again;

I now have a new question regarding Kalinka, my TB mare. She's about 6, pretty green and unfit.

When popping her into a trot, I find it to be very unbalanced... she has difficulty maintaining an even cadence. Her initial trot pace is wonderful, but when she becomes unbalanced (at turns and corners) her answer is to speed up the trot and rush the curve. To make it more interesting, she'll sometimes get worried about something scary in the arena and then her trot is very choppy, short and up-and-down.

Right now, I'm not exactly sure what the answer is, so I've been trotting down the long sides of the arena, making her keep an even pace, and doing a downward transition to walk at the corner and around the short ends..... I have a feeling this isn't the right answer..... please help! Is the answer lots of big circles?

[FreedomStar]

I'd try the circles right before the corner, but I'm not sure how much it will help. Try putting down trot poles, so that she has to slow her pace and pick her way over the poles.

[Mehitabel]

a good rhythm will come in time. it's normal for babies to have trouble with it.
do you know how to control the speed and rhythm with your legs and seat by rising slower or faster? horses, especially babies, like rhythm and will come back to whatever rhythm you set with your body. to help, you could also try saying one-two or something, or even have a metronome ticking on the corner of the school. try slowing the trot down a bit before the corners, and saying steady or whatever your calming down word is. she'll find it hard to do a slow trot to start with, so don't worry if she drops back to walk the first few times. plenty of lungeing will help (eventually) as well.