cross-firing

[Shelly_D]

This might seem a bit vague, but is there any way to help your horse to not cross-fire when in the canter and to take the correct lead? Today the horse I was riding took the incorrect lead 99% of the time and was cross-firing 99.9%. I rode her last week and she took the incorrect lead only twice and didn't cross fire at all. I can't think that I was doing anything different. She was also throwing her head around alot in the canter. She seemed overly peppy. She was given some bute (sp?)last night. My instructor said she never really had a lot of training and isn't a good school horse because you never know what to expect. This is the same horse I was saying had laminitis. Today I was told it was navicular. What is the difference?
Anyway, any ideas on the cantering problem? I couldn't believe how awful she was to ride today compared to last week. She was like a totally different horse. So now I've ridden her twice and she has been wonderful 50% of the time. Maybe I should just chalk it up to her having a bad day. I don't know. We'll see how she does next week I suppose.

[Sarah]

hello!

Is cross firing when the horse is doing canter on one lead with his back legs and on the other lead with his front feet? In my reply I am going to assume it is!

There can be many reasons why a horse starts to canter on the wrong lead or goes disunited. This can be because you aids aren't clear, your horse is bent to the outside instead of the inside or because it hurts him to canter on one particular lead.

Seeing as your horse is one bute and has lkmainitis or navicular, i would strongly suspect that pain could be the reason. If she does have laminitis or navicular, both of which are foot problems, then the extra force through her feet when cantering can't be that pleasant for her.

I can't remember if this horse is at a riding school or whether it is a horse you are loaning privately. I would seriously think about whether the horse's interests are being put first here, I would suspect that they are not.

Sorry to be so negative, hopefully I have got the wrong end of the stick, lets see what everyone else reckons!

bye!

[DavidH]

I'm afraid I have to agree with Sarah. With either of the two conditions a horse should not be cantered.

[Shelly_D]

Thank you both. The horse is one that I pay $10 to ride whenever I want. And I think you are right about possibly pain causing the problem. The poor sweetheart. Just a week ago she cantered beautifully. But then a few days later she was limping a bit at the trot so I didn't even try to canter her. Then yesterday she trotted without any problems but the canter was bad. I think it was pain because of the way she kept tossing her head around. She is normally very docile. I will talk to her owner about it. I don't want to ride her if it is hurting her. She is great to practice with at the trot though, that is if she isn't limping. My problem is that the horse I take lessons on is used 6 days a week so I was trying to find a horse that I could ride in between for experience. I guess this one isn't going to work out. There aren't really any others at the stable. I would just buy my own but my husband and I are thinking about maybe having another baby in the next year. So I would be out of commission for 9 months and my horse would just sit there and cost me money to board. This is quite frustrating. I just started riding a month ago and have already started jumping and I can't get enough of it. I need a horse!