Why does she pull on her neck

[LUCY007]

Sometimes when I ride the horse pulls her neck down to the ground as if she wants to eat grass. My instructor tells me to pull hard on her reins if she does that so that she can look up. Is it something that I am doing wrong, or maybe she's just hungry ?

[JOJOBA]

I would imagine she's either stretching her neck out or trying to evade you. Of course she could just be wanting to eat but I agree with your instructor that you shouldnt let her - if she spooked you'd have no rein contact and might drop off! I dont think you should pull her hard, esp not enough to hurt her mouth - but try and stop her getting down there in the first place.
A lot of riding school horses lean on your hands to unbalance you and make you less effective.

xxx

[Wally]

Most horses if they feel you have an inconsistent contact will evade you like this.

Don't yankher head up, she'll be even stronger and want to evade you even more, ONce you are in full control and have a good quality, consistent contact she'll not do it so much.

I tell folk who pull the horse's head up not to, the horse is 100 times stronger than you are, don't start that kind of argument, the horse will win every time. Drive her head up with your leg then take up the contact gently again. Hauling her head up will make her worse.

[LUCY007]

Hope I dont sound dumb but how do I drive her head up with my leg?

[horse mad nat]

are you talking abot when you are in the menage ? i have ridden loads of horses liek that. is it as if she is trying to pull the reins out of your hands awe bit ? hole your reins with your elbows at a 90' angle and have the sliighty up.

at the start just ride around and show the hrse whos boss.use your leg and carry your hands . omg im finding it hard to explain lol !! mail me if you want you seem nice xx

[notpoodle]

my pony did that for a while!!! wally etc are right, trying to physically pull the head up wont work, youll just end up having a tug of war that is going nowhere.

make horse move forwards with legs (tap with stick if necessary), then they have to pick their head up :)

julia
x

[galadriel]

hole your reins with your elbows at a 90' angle and have the sliighty up.

You should have a straight line going from your elbow to the bit; you should never have your elbow at an angle like that.

The straight line from the elbow to the bit should be maintained as the horse moves his head, so the arm may need to give and take slightly. It shouldn't be a fixed, tight contact. If the rein contact is consistent and follows the horse, the horse will be much happier to have it (and less likely to try to evade contact, or to try to get away from the bit),

[TBs N QHs]

In all honesty, no offence. But it truely sounds like our not at a good place.

I don't know what your sitaution is, if your taking lessons, leasing, own.. But after reading your other posts you sound like you have a not so good horse and horrible, very un-knowledgable teachers.

I'd suggest finding somewhere else.

[entreat]

It sounds to me like s/he's a beginner!

We all have an aweful time starting out. We are usually put on the horses with quirks similar to what Lucy has described - stubborn little things that always wanna eat. And we are usually given the least talented & experienced instructors, but we persevere. But I agree that a 'slap on the butt' is NOT how you get a horse to trot, and that you might do better finding an instructor with a little more knowlege.

Are you getting private lessons at a school or at your own place? Can you get a different instructor?

[notpoodle]

i think the reality is that riding school horses often have certain habits ... mind you, i'd rather the horse just did that than tank off with me :D

@ LUCY007: you will get the hang of it eventually, just remember to keep the horse moving forward (that helped with my pony) because then he'll be busy and have less chance to think of things to do :D

julia
x

[LUCY007]

I am a beginner. I started learning in January. My instructor is an ex NAtional showjumping champion and was ranked quite highly in the world before he broke his shoulder in an accident and now he doesnt ride anymore.
I work during the day so my lessons are in the evening and it overlaps with her feeding time. Could it be that she's hungry, as well as my rein contact is not perfect.

[notpoodle]

i can't imagine her being hungry.if she is a school horse/pony, she will be fed enough etc. (you should hope, anyway!). my pony did it because (presumably ... i cant see into her head, after all!) she fancied not having a contact and effectively do as she pleased and just wasn't taking much notice of me.

she got better after i tweaked what was happening and did something about it (ie. make her GO) and i think it might have been to do with her teeth as well (which has been fixed now ... she was 12 and STILL had uncomfortable wolfteeth ...)

julia
x

[Wally]

Try to concentrate on keeping the contact with the horse's mouth as light, consistent and forgiving as possible.


Don't worry, soon you'll have the balance and stability to maintain and independent hand. It takes a while.

[laura jeanne]

Lucy007, My school horse does this too. Little by little, she pulls the reins out of my hands until her head is way down. And sometimes she just tries to jerk them out of my hands. Now I am making an effort to get the reins the right length and keep them there.

I think (?) that Wally means that you should urge her forward with your legs as you shorten the reins to the correct length (rather than just pulling her head up). Then once you have her head where it should be keep a firm grip on the reins with your thumb and forefinger so they don't slip through your hands as she keeps trying to lower her head. The firm grip part is just to hold the reins in your hands but then your hands are supposed to move with the horse's motion as Galadriel described.

Keep your hands in the right position, just gently giving to her motion in walk say, and then if she tries to pull her head down, keep your hands steady (don't pull back) and she will feel the resistance. She will pull herself in the mouth, but she has done it herself, you have not pulled on her. You have to keep your body position firm also and not let yourself get pulled forward.

My horse keeps doing this during my lessons but I am getting so much better at being consistent with my rein contact. This also means that when going from trot to walk, you do not have to relax the reins a lot and let her get her head down. Maybe it's okay to do that a couple of times during the lesson to let her stretch but most of the time, it's better to keep the reins the same length so there is not that constant adjustment to make which is irritating to the horse and distracting to the rider.

I hope this helps you along with the other comments- I have bee working on this with my instructor and this is all her advice as well as things I remember from reading previous posts.

[Bell]

I had a similar problem to you a couple of weeks ago. Every two minutes he would yank his head down and I would lose my reins.
I only had this problem on one of the school ponies. I think he knew how much of a beginner I was ;)
One of the instructors said "he's always doing that" so I don't think they knew how to stop him either.
I think in this case it was 1-0 to the horse. Would have liked to have sorted it out though.

[NoviceNic]

Captain does this and he is an ex riding school pony. I used to think it was because at first I was nervous so had reins too tight. But I have noticed he does it all the time on hacks mostly. After 10 mins he is always pulling me forward out of saddle. I always try to wake him up with my legs and keep him interested more in hack.

[roxycutie]

Dragging you to the barn, moving when trying to mount, not listening to aids, tugging on the reins, and so on, are just some of the tricks that school horses have. The best thing to do about this is to keep a good, firm, consistent, grip on the reins. Let the horse know who's in charge, just don't abuse it. If the horse does tug on the reins, collect yourself, and take a firmer grip. Having a firm grib doesn't mean pulling on the bit, it just means keeping your hands steady. A student of my moms had come from a different riding stable, and one day she was riding a school pony. Taylor (the pony) starting tugging, and immediately the student tugged on the bit and jerked her hands side to side and started beating the poor thing with the crop. :mad: My mother told the student to dismount, and leave. I couldn't believe what she did to poor old Taylor, the pony just kept on walking. :D Hope I helped.

[Grace O'Malley]

I've ridden lesson horses that did this too. What works best is if you can learn to *anticipate* when they'll yank that head down, and urge them on with your legs just *before* they do it. Easier said than done, I know. I rode one lesson horse for a while who like to do this just at the transition into canter. Yank. She'd pull me forward, and voila! She got out of having to canter until I pulled myself together enough to try again. So I was directed to keep her trotting properly, so at least she wasn't getting out of work. But I think what worked even better in the long run was changing the format of lessons. So rather than cantering at the end after lots of circles and spirals at the trot, we'd warm up in big trot, *then* canter, then try for some bending and collection. I think the poor horse was just bored and fed up with being asked to do dressage moves she really didn't care for :rolleyes: I really came to love that horse...(even though I wanted to do the dressage moves and she prefers team penning :p ).

Grace