Non-exsistant inside bend

[Gothika]

Welll..Lacey is able to bend to the inside in walk (woot!) but she is virtually (or pretends to as she does sometimes) incapable of bending to the inside in trot or canter, on BOTH reins.

My instructor says to open my inside rein but she falls in and doesn't respect my inside leg enough so go back to the outside, so she ends up bending to the inside but then doing like 5m circles. She moves away from my legs in walk and she's very responsive to go up a gear.

She leg yeilds (sort of needs work) on a circle in trot but needs work in a straight line.

Anyone got any ideas?

[Joyscarer]

I had this problem with Joy and it was a combination of her not being able to do it and not understandig what I wanted her to do.

The first thing I did was to get her to understand and practice what moving away from the leg means.

The second was that I lift my inside rein a tad and that seems to help. :)

[Bozzy]

Give me a shout when you're on the yard (I'm there every night at 6 and any time Friday or Saturday) and I can show you a few exercises to work on if you like?

[bitsnpieces]

It may be an idea to break it down in real back to basics terms for her to gain the respect of your leg and therefore her bending and suppleness etc will improve. Do you lunge her much?

[coss]

this is the problem i have battled with on my mare. she has improved (thank goodness) but it has taken a lot. as with your mare walk was fine but trot and canter- no.
i would work in walk on spirals and lots of as that helps suppleness and balance.
how is your turn about the forehand and turn on the haunches? shoulder in/out?
things like that in walk really help to get the horse supple and listening to the leg rather than shooting off at high speed at every oppertunity.
i often found that doing turn about the forehand and spirals at the beginning of the ride would settle and warm up my mare so that when i asked for trot she didn't revert to the no bend.
don't do much trotting and asking for bend for a while, walk just before the corners of your school so that you make sure you get the bend. you should then be able to leave it later and later before you need to walk to get the bend and then you will be able to trot it. you need to be able to pick up when your horse is going to fall through the shoulder (which can come from lack of inside hind engagement) and walk before it happens.
as Joyscarer said, lifting the inside rein rather than just opening it will help, opening the rein invites her to fall in, you want to prop the shoulder up.
as she leg yields in trot on a circle you could also spiral in trot so that you leg yield onto a bigger circle then reduce the size which needs more bend then leg yield out again.

does your mare get faster as you ask for more bend?

another exercise that may help (although sounds a bit backwards) is counter flexion. on a circle in walk ask for the head (and head only) to slightly look out of the circle but continue on your path. only ask it for about quarter of a circle then straighten on your circle, then ask for counter flexion again. hopefully your horse will then want to bend more correctly as the counter flexion is harder. you can progress from counter flexion to shoulder out but do some inside flexion too (you need the head mobility, my mare can be supple behind the saddle but she fixes the front end). from inside flexion, when it softens allow it for a quarter of a circle then straighten for a quarter, then outside flexions for a quarter, straighten etc. once the flexions are softer you can ask for shoulder in for quarter, straighten, shoulder out, straighten etc. it should help to loosen the front end. if all goes well you could try some haunches in and out but if your mare doesn't know about moving haunches in and out it might be best to stick with the shoulders for a while. it involves some collection and should help if you try it in trot.

hope that helps, your mare sounds very similar to mine!

[Gothika]

I'll probably school her on Thursday (but have to leave yard by 3 so you won't be around) and at 1 point on Friday, if you let me know when you're around that'd be great as you can actually see what she does?

Coss and everyone else - thanks ever so much, given me lots and lots of things to try and work on. Yeah she does get faster as I ask for more bend..She goes faster whenever I do just about anything which is the irritating thing :D But she is getting better. Her turns on the forehand are awful, she just doesn't get the whole moving without forwards thing, but I'll work on them.

Thanks a lot everyone, I'll try those things, it's really starting to irritate me now xD

[Bay Mare]

We've worked Saff from the ground (in hand and also long reining) to help with bend. It's worked a treat as it's easier to actually see what she's doing and she's not having to cope with a rider on her back. You use your fingers/hand instead of your leg which makes the aids transferable for when you ride.

[Gothika]

How do you mean you do that BayMare? I understand how you use your hands as like leg aids but to do what, and do you have like 1 hand on the reins or 2 people or what? xD -is thick-

[coss]

I'll probably school her on Thursday (but have to leave yard by 3 so you won't be around) and at 1 point on Friday, if you let me know when you're around that'd be great as you can actually see what she does?

Coss and everyone else - thanks ever so much, given me lots and lots of things to try and work on. Yeah she does get faster as I ask for more bend..She goes faster whenever I do just about anything which is the irritating thing :D But she is getting better. Her turns on the forehand are awful, she just doesn't get the whole moving without forwards thing, but I'll work on them.

Thanks a lot everyone, I'll try those things, it's really starting to irritate me now xD

as your turn about the forehands are awful i would really concentrate on them :p as i said before (and i'm convinced now) your mare is really like mine, everything means go faster (when i was a lot younger i thought it was great :o:rolleyes::D) but i've had to find ways of slowing her down. my mare usually does rein back instead of doing turn about the forehand as i won't let her walk in a little circle or go faster so rein back happens... it is worth doing it on the ground and also worth asking for one step rather than a quarter turn and as soon as you get that step ask her to walk forwards. i'm sure she'll soon get the idea once she realises leg does not equal "go". another thing is that horses go faster when they struggle with something, every time you ask her to do something make sure your aids are very clear and make everything really simple and basic, it might feel really basic and boring to begin with but you need to chill your horse out. don't blow the brain. thats why i said start with simple head flexions so that she gets the idea that slight rein pressure isn't a big thing, ask and wait for her to settle.

when your instructor said open the rein it is worth doing it briefly (sometimes) in a "show her the way" but you take up a normal hand position quite quickly so that you don't encourage the falling in.

hope that helps.

[Joyscarer]

Sounds like my mare too. Although she was on working livery for a riding school her owner was very much a bomb around the place sort. I started off staying in walk and trott and kept at that until only this week when I cantered her for the first time in the school :D Have been happy to canter on hacks as it was in straight lines!