Help to get a horse to move forward of the leg?

[happyhorse]

My friend has a 5yr old cob who is lovely in all ways except when it comes to schooling, she is ok on hacks when behind and when jumping but when you school she just switches off and goes "dead " to any leg or stick aids. She really needs schooling as she is very on her forehand and really needs to start working her hind quaters. This would also help improve her jumping and everything else as i believe schooling is a must of all disciplines. I was wondering if anyone has had this probelm and how the have overcome it?

[galadriel]

If she's fine outside of the arena, you could just do all of her schooling outside the arena. There's no reason you have to be inside in order to work on balance and engagement.

[julietcw]

Transitions, transitions, transitions! Whenever I have lessons and I'm struggling with impulsion and need to engage the hindquarters more, my instructor insists on plenty of transitions. It's pretty exhausting but it really does do the trick ie it encourages the horse to use his hindquarters and use his hocks more efficiently and in doing so will come off the forehand.

I also do this when I hack out and funnily enough when I was out hacking by myself today I was doing lots of this to keep Duei's attention and make him concentrate. He looked like a little dressage pony by the end of it!

[happyhorse]

We could school outside of the arena but at the moment there isn't any where else we can go to school apart from the arena.

[maverick927]

Are you sure you friend hasn't got a copy of Maverick. He is identical in that way to your friends cob.

Lets just say, i have been battling for 4 years in the field. Without spurs I'm lucky if we get a trot, but show him a jump and he couldn't go faster, with ears pricked the whole time.

The first thing I recommend is lessons, these really helped me and it made me realise the part of Mavy's problem was me.
After that try some direct transistions (walk to canter, halt to trot). I find that these really wind Mavy up and he goes a bit nutty.
Check the feed. Mavy is not worked that hard. but he needs oats to give him a bit of spark
If you friend wears rubber long boots, encourage her to think about getting jodpur boots and chaps. These really helped me as they give my ankle more freedom, which stopped my legs flappng.
Try spurs. I never wear mine more than twice a week, and they just help to reinforce my aids. However don't let your friend wear them unless she is having lessons, becuase they can make the horse more thran if not used properly (been there too).

Good luck and I hope you can solve the problem

[ros]

There's absolutely no reason why you can't do a bit of schooling on the roads - that's where I have to do most of mine :rolleyes: .

You can do transitions till the cows come home (not canter, obviously, but walk-trot-halt combinations) and you can also do leg-yielding, shoulder in, travers and so on - just use your imagination. It's amazing what lots of quick transitions will do for a horse, as Juliet says. It's important not to hang around, though - some trot, then back to walk, then almost immediately back up into trot, that sort of thing. You're aiming for the horse to hold himself up together in readiness for whatever you're going to ask for next, so if you give him *too* much time to prepare he doesn't have to make much effort and you lose the effect: that said, you must still give him enough time for his brain to engage ;) .

[Sarah B]

I was told by a friend the other day that I should aim to do at least 200 transitions in a schooling session!! Hard work and a little frustrating for the monster - but he was certainly listening to me by the end!:D :p

We have problems with just a bit too much 'go' after a jump and the excessive number of transitions is intended to get the big chestnut lunatic to listen to me after the jump - not there yet but the longest journey starts with a single step - or transition!:p