I don't know what to do and everyone has a different way of dealing with it!!!

[Marusenka]

My youngster has just started a nice annoying habit when being ridden- legging it sideways across the school instead of turning the way i want to go! His neck is totally bent to the left far far too much in that i could probably hold him by the bit should i so wish but he just shoots off through his shoulder off to the right- he only does this on the left rein (so far) which is bizarre because he is way more unbalanced on the right rein and finds that more difficult!

I think it probably coincides with the fact that i am now asking him to do more work and harder work and use himself a bit more properly than before but he is ready for this maturity wise and i think he is just being a stroppy teenager to be honest!

Just what do i do about it- one person at my yard says don't let him go right no matter what you do even if you have to stop or run into a fence insist that he goes left- we have tried it and well i have the nice fence scrape injuries to prove that one:rolleyes:- i suppose i could just persevere and hope it gets into his mind eventually before i lose a leg in the process:rolleyes:

Other people say well if he wants to go right let him but make him work really hard on quite tight circles so it is way more effort for him than doing what you wanted!

I dom't know what to do- i hold my left rein up with good contact to try to pick his shoulder up and put my right leg on quite hard and tell him quite firmly that no i don't want him going right and then praise him lots when we do go left and slacken off the reins etc. I just am a bit fed up of the battle to be honest- I am not asking him to do complicated things or hard tight circles and doing a big circle to the left is really nothing he can't cope with- he can do it quite fine on the lunge and his balance is really improving!

Any ideas or do i just persevere with what i am doing and hope he figures out my way is easier eventually? Man cobs are stubborn, stroppy creatures sometimes!

[Mehitabel]

what aids are you using to ask him to go left? have you had back and tack checked to make sure that turning left is not painful for him? can he happily bend to the left on the ground?

[Marusenka]

His back and saddle are checked regularly and he can bend left with no problems at all on the ground and on the lunge. His main problem was with a right circle which used to become more of a square because he would just turn on the forehand at the four points of the circle and could not get any bend at all- we have recently been lunging with a pessoa and he has improved greatly at this- he is still not great at bending any way which is why we do huge circles at least covering half the school because i know he does find it difficult.

To turn left from a straight line we have no problems so going across the school or whatever is fine it is just on a circle. As he is young i keep my inside hand raised and out a little towards the centre of the circle and keep my contact on the outside rein and then take my outside leg back a little on the girth to stop his quarters falling out and keep my inside leg there to keep him going forward.

I think he is just testing me out to see what he can get away and whether he can get out of doing it but i'm not sure what else to do get him round the circle!

Oh and we have no problems at all in walk, he does circles and whatever perfectly and comes nice and round and into an outline nicely in walk it is only in trot (we have not done any canter in the school yet because he is too unbalanced and it would just be a disaster!) that we have the problems! I suspect he is finding it a little difficult but that he is also being naughty too and trying to see what he can get away with- he has always tested the boundaries as much as he could and only very recently became good to handle and sensible on the ground!

[Adk_Katie]

Sounds like he is having trouble balancing to the left at speeds faster than a walk with a rider. You need to help him with his balance, not run him into walls or never let him turn right!

Here's what I would do: Don't forget about your outside (right) rein. Think about channeling him through both of your reins. Don't over bend him to the right. This won't help with his balance at all. Start giving him some warning before you gt to the turn then think about keeping even contact with both reins and channeling him around the corner. It really sounds like a balance problem so make extra sure you are in a nice balanced position on him (not leaning forward backward left or right).

[Fanshawe]

Also check your shoulders. It may be that you are putting too much weight in to the left shoulder and that is in turn putting pressure on the left hip etc etc. I discovered this when I rode a riding school horse again after many years of only my girl. He wouldn't turn left but would go right and my genious instructor said to me 'he's trying to tell you that you are dropping your left shoulder'. Sure enough she was right and as soon as I was level he went left! Might help but might just be as you say testing you out!