heavy on the forehand

[Allie]

My 1/2 Quarter Horse mare Champagne has a serious problem with leaning on the forehand when we canter. She is built downhill to begin with (point of croup higher than point of withers), and if she does not have the worst canter in the world because of it, I don't know who does. She naturally carries her head fairly low - just a smidge above level from poll to withers. She does pretty well at trot, keeps her head where it should be, trots slowly, it is super comfortable. When I ask her to canter she lowers her head and becomes very heavy on the forehand, kind of lurching forward. Just doing trot to canter transitions doesn't really help as I have certainly tried tons of those. I don't have access to either a round pen or an arena, and I can't afford a trainer, so my question is are there any exercises I can try to teach her to keep off her front end, or I am I just stuck with this bumpy canter? Any help appreciated!!

Allie

[Maria]

Allie

Being the owner of a croup high heavy weight cob who was bred to pull a cart I can understand your problems. All I can say is that I've learnt from experience that it is possible to improve the quality of the canter but it isn't easy and it does take time. And it does sometimes seem that you go one step forward and three back. Carrie hasn't been worked that regularly recently and her canter has deteriorated -but I'm confident that it won't take long to get back to where we were.

I've found that a combination of the following have helped with Carrie:

* concentrating on improving the quality of the walk and trot
* regular lungeing (mainly walk and trot)to help her develop her own balance and work in a regular rhythm
* cantering out on a hack on straight lines so that you concentrate on going forward rather than having to make sure the horse is balanced for the corners of the school
* polework and gridwork to improve the quality of the canter and to encourage her to lift up through her shoulders
* and yes I'm afraid frequent transitions up to canter and back down to trot before she starts to get heavy in my hand and lean down on my hands.

I know from personal experience that it is very easy for the rider to conspire with the horse and almost try to carry the weight of their head and neck rather than sit and ask the horse to carry himself and you. My girl does find it hard to balance herself - but she is improving.

Maria

[Jess]

I have a 7 year old TB that had that problem about a year ago. I still have to pay attention to it nonstop. He would not only put too much weight in the forehand and carry his head low, he would pull on my hands. I don't mean just pressure, but he would be leaning on my hands. My solution was to sit back and sit deep, creating a chute with my legs. Even pressure from both legs and a deep seat, along with lifting your hands higher (not a good idea for the show ring, but for training purposes, it helps), in turn lifting the base for the bit, lifts the head and generally helps to transfer the center farther back. Eventually, you can lift the base of the bit without raising your hands.

[Maria]

For various reasons I haven't ridden Carrie for a few weeks but a friend has been keeping her ticking over by lunging her once a week. When I rode Carrie on Saturday I was amazed at how much better she was going. She worked in a fairly consistent outline, in a regular rhythm and most importantly wasn't towing herself along on the forehand.

In canter I was pleasantly surprised at how balanced she was and pleased that she was beginning to lift up at the front.

[Allie]

thanks everyone for your advice. I'm like you Maria in that I haven't been able to ride much lately, because of the weatehr we've been having (snow and more snow), and when I do get out it is too muddy to do anything other than walk and a little trotting in the open fields that are drier. We can't even lunge as we are not allowed to use the area I normally use when it is muddy as the ground gets very torn up. Can't do much on the lunge in the mud anyway though. I will try your suggestions once I can finally ride normally again. Thanks again.

Allie