Help.... Hav

[Pibstar]

I am getting fustrated at the moment and I really need some words of encouragement.... Mollie's owner is away so she is all mine!! "great" i hear you say, well this riding every day is knackering!!! I really want to start jumping more so need to work on my basics. Once I am in the arena a set of events seem to be happening. First five minutes she is a bit lazy but give her some encouragement and push her on and for the following twenty mintues she is fine, trotting at a nice pace and not rushing. Turning courners and keeping on the track. After this first 20-25 mins she starts to pull her head down and hold it down, pulling me out of my saddle...... i try giving her more rein or slack so she has nothing to pull against. I try shortening my reins and hold my hands higer or lower, I try half halting - nothing seems to stop it. She had her teeth checked a month ago and her saddle 5/6 weeks ago. She has only been doing this for a matter of days.......... what can i do stop it????

It is causing the rest of my schooling to be pure frustration as when I do get her to listen to the aids and get an even trot going and then ask for canter she doesnt keep it going for long and cuts courners. which is something that we have struggled with about four months ago but was greatly improving on. So as soon as she is not listening the rest of schooling goes to pot!!! HELP.... I really wanted these two weeks to enjoy out time together not get fed up and fustrated:o

PLEASE HELP!!!

[Pibstar]

title should say: HELP.... having issues

its still early for me..............

[kirstinbell]

Hi - I'm no expert but it sounds like the horse is possible on the forehand and is asking you to carry her head and probably really leaning on your leg.

I ride a horse that does something similar - she has a really long neck and she pulls it out and down which causes me to tip forward. My instructor always tells me to bring my hands back almost to my tummy but keeping them low in order to set the boundaries and ask her to work within a contact. She then tells me to support this by encouraging her to really engage her hind legs - therefore I'm always using a little bit of leg then asking her to shorten and soften with my hand.

She also has a habit of falling in so I always keep a good contact on my outside rein push her over with my inside rein and put my weight every so slighly to the outside to encourage her to bend but not to fall to the inside.

Don't know if this is right or not but it seems to work on this horse.

Hope it helps!!

[Sammii]

I'm not very knowledgeable with stuff like this, but is it possible that she's trying to get out of schooling and is getting a bit fed up of it? Could you hack her out, or add variety like lunging or long-reining etc. And then see if she improves :)

[NicP]

My boy Cody does this too and as suggested by Kirstenbell, my RI tells me to push him on to engage his back end rather than lean on me - it isn't easy but it does work.

The fact that he does it after a while suggests to me he is getting tired or bored - Cody isn't very well schooled at all and isn't used to engaging his rear end and after about 30 mins he does tire! I am sure it will improve in time and I try and keep my schooling sessions to about 30 mins and end on a good note rather than keep going till we both get fed up.

I would also agree that varying what you do with him rather then schooling every day would keep his interest.

Hope this helps.

[Pibstar]

Thank you Kirstenbell, Sammii and Nicp.

Varying school work: I have turned into a happy hacker and this is me trying to get back into schooling. Her owner doesnt do anything but dressage so I try and hack her out as much as possible which has greatly improved our hacking (no spooking anymore) but not helped my school work. To bring more variety and for her to do something she loves (jumping - again owner doesnt jump) I am trying to improve my basics........... lose lose situation really.............

Nicp: yes, this is something I try and do, go in with a focus and achieve it but dont push until we both get upset:D I am only able to get 40 mins out of her any way:rolleyes:

Hands: Kirstenbell "My instructor always tells me to bring my hands back almost to my tummy but keeping them low in order to set the boundaries" thanks i will try this.:)

pushing on: I am having to push her on all the time so I am stuck as to how i can engage her hind legs, i know and can feel when she does - HELP - how do you push on a lazy cob??????????????:confused::confused::confused:

Falling in:Kirstenbell: "She also has a habit of falling in so I always keep a good contact on my outside rein push her over with my inside rein and put my weight every so slighly to the outside to encourage her to bend but not to fall to the inside." - please explain more!!!:D how do you push her over with your inside rein.....

any other day tomorrow - maybe i should stick to hacking:D:o

[KateWooten]

No, kep at it ...but vary your schooling MUCH, MUCH more. Buy yourself '101 schooling exercises and mull over it of an evening to give you some ideas for the next day. Change it up for her much more than you are doing (just a hunch) For example,..... how many walk-trot transitions can you get down the long side ? How many down the short side ? I can get about ten on the long side. How about walk-canter ? That's a great one for engaging your brain and feeling where the horse's feet are. What patterns are you riding ? I love patterns - where you stick with it for ten minutes or so, if it's a nice complex bendy one, getting more and more prerfect each time.

I don't know- you might be doing all this already :o ... what sort of things are you doing in these schooling sessions ? Just round and round the outside, or in circles, unless you're completely focussed and know exactly what you're aiming at, can be counter-productive. How's her lateral work ? can you move her butt over at a halt ? How about shoulders ? How about moving all of her sideways ? Use it all as a very focussed 'lesson' so that she understands that she is required to figure out what you're asking ... and each time she does, she gets rewarded. Never be trotting around hoping things will get better.

btw at the start, when she's doing well... what is her reward ? How does she know that was the right answer ?

oh, and just a note about timing - when Rosie and Joe (who are both five year olds) are schooling hard for their dressage lady, including the warm-up and the work they do a total of 20 minutes at a session - and that's optimum for them to make good progress, stay enthusiastic, develop the right muscles etc. I think Molly's trying to tell you something here.

[Pibstar]

KW, WELL THAT TOLD ME!!!! When learning to ride you are taught to ride round and round in circles............. maybe a 10 metre then a 20 meter but circles all the same........... your right, keep it short sharp and sweet.... i'll read up a few of my books. I do some of things you have suggested but not enough.... mainly because she has been so lazy most of my schooling has concentrated on keeping her going so pushing her on, I dont think i have changed my teaching/learning to develope with her....... light bulb moment!!!:D:D:D

8:00 AM - mission 20 minutes in school then a hack.

[Whinneyha]

Hiya

I have had similar issues with Bracken and my RI got me to use the jump poles as trot poles a)set around a a 20m circle, use the different colurs on the poles to get Molly doing spirals (good for working off your leg)Do this on both reins.
b) set poles lengthways down the long side close to the track at F and M, further into the middle at B, so it creates a shallow loop.(ooh hope they are the right letters, am hopeless with remembering school markers:eek::o)
As KW has already said 101 schooling exercises book OR I have "Schooling with Ground Poles" by Claire Lilley which has a chapter on jumping schooling, and uses jump poles.

Make your sessions as varied as you can....and yes I have also done the 20 mins schooling followed by a nice chill out/strech your legs hack!

Good luck;)

[Pibstar]

Whinneyha - glad I am not the only one. I will give the poles a try next time I hire one of the larger arenas along the lane as my small yard doesnt have poles to use :rolleyes:

I gave my 20 min of schooling a go this morning and really varied it as much as possible, she seemed to be enjoying it.......... until i tried a little canter towards the end, then the head pulling came into full fling:mad::o:o. Took her back to trot and didnt try canter again just wanted to get her listening, once i did I finished there and went for a 10 min walk down the lane and a 20 min trot in the woods. I enjoyed mixing things up a bit more, still have a long way to go.................:p