round the bend!

[Nhi]

Hi

I have a 4 year old Clydesdale X who I started last Autumn. He is very willing and so far has really been quite easy. However, we have a big problem with straightness. He is terribly stiff left / hollow right. He CAN go straight and he CAN flex left after some suppling work (loops, circles, transitions etc.) but it takes us a while to get there. I had him in an open field this morning and actually had to pull on the left rein to keep him straight. I dropped the left rein to see what would happen - we circled right. I dropped the right rein - we circled right again! As I said it does start to come eventually but after 20 minutes in that field (with nothing for him to 'lean on') my left arm was aching and that is definately not a good sign! How must his neck and mouth have felt? I collapse my right hip. I try hard not to but if I'm concentrating on something else I slip back into that posture. Does anyone have any tips or advice that might straighten us out.

His sadlle was professionally fitted only a few weeks ago and his teeth are fine.

TIA

[tasha]

Maybe some lunge work woud help to get him to bend to the inside of the circle. And he wouldn't be able to lean on you as much!

It could also be he has a sore back..have you had it checked?

[virtuallyhorses]

If he's really that stiff, I'd be very tempted to get a physio out to check him over before trying any more 'suppling' work, esp since he's so young. Check him for suppleness from the ground - get him to do some 'carrot stretches' to both sides. Have you done a physical check to see that his hips and shoulders are even?

Its also worth getting someone to check your riding - it may be a chicken-and-egg thing - who starts the problem? your dropped hip ie he's actually being very responsive and going with your weight aid, or his stiffness? See if he does the same thing with someone else up. If he's responding to your weight aids, then he's not being stiff at all, he's simply confused at the different messages the rein and seat are giving him. (Lucky you to have such a nice youngster)

Be careful to make sure that you don't spend long periods of time working on the 'stiff' side - the stiff side is often the strong side and you can be making it even stronger\stiffer. Instead work for short periods of time on both reins and particularly use frequent changes to help him 'straighten' (serpentines and figure eights) sounds like you're doing this already :) .

[angel]

i had the same prob with my mare and i tried everything i had my saddle professionally fitted ect a yr later she was still stiff and hollow, and i sent a video off to shorten the story her saddle that had been fitted did not fit and never had it damaged her back she has now another saddle fitted with flair and after rest and being brought on slowly she is fine, please have her checked again, my horse was in a lot of pain and no one believed me thinking i was making excuses but in the end i was right.
also do a lot of warm up and i do massage and stretching exercises with her
she has a supplent for joints and magnetic boots!! and at last i can see the light at the end of the tunnel good luck

[ros]

I agree it would be a good idea to get him checked over. There could be all sorts of reasons for stiffness, but if it's bad enough for you to be hanging on one rein to stay in a straight line it does sound like a problem.

My Clydesdale X was more Clydesdale than X, and like all draught horses he was built on his forehand. His back legs were definitely not his strongest feature, and he was weaker in his near hind, which was slightly cow-hocked. He was always worse on the left rein than the right, probably because it was more difficult for him to engage his near hind; and I guess part of his stiffness problems were because he was compensating for that quirk in his conformation. Nevertheless he had a great attitude to his work and was capable of some lovely trot work, so I just had to live with the fact that he was at times downright dangerous in canter. (He never did fathom the footfall sequence -he could go left lead, disunited, right lead in the time it took you to blink - legs everywhere!)

And it might be worth re-checking your saddle too, just in case there's something obvious that someone has missed, like one stirrup bar being further forward than the other, or a twisted tree.