Laterl work help

[ponymadgal]

How can i teach my young mare some lateral work properly?

[Bay Mare]

You could start with stuff like turn on the forehand and leg yielding to get her used to moving away from your leg rather than just going forwards from it. You can also do similar exercises from the ground.

To be honest, though, if you want to do lateral work seriously you'd be better getting your instructor to help you with it so that you do it correctly from the start :)

Good luck

[ponymadgal]

Thank you, before i get a lesson is their anything i can do to prepare her. or do you think she wont be ready to do it all yet?

[Tangle]

How young is young?

Lateral work done properly requires the horse to shift weight back onto their quarters - if she's very young (< 5) she'll probably find this really REALLY hard, to the point that she'll be overfaced and not manage it.

If you want to make a start, I'd do it from the ground and just make sure she understands the concept of moving away from pressure. Horse's tend to be into-pressure animals, so moving away from pressure is not intuitive to most of them. Just asking them to move their quarters over in the stable will start introducing the concept in a fairly low stress- environment :)

[Eli_Jay]

I agree, wait until you're certain she's got the concept of keeping weight in the hind quarters and then begin with lateral work.
I wouldn't go straight into half passes and turn on the haunches, I'd start by shoulder in/shoulder fore to soften and teach her how to move away from the pressure.
Then I'd work on turn on the forehand and possibly circular leg yeilding.

[ponymadgal]

she is over 5. i dont understand what you mean about the quarters, im sorry im thick. i am not aiming for perfect fancy things only just a few wee things to help her along.

[Tangle]

You're only thick if you don't ask when you don't understand - so you're not thick :D

Are you asking about Eli-Jay's comment about weight in the hind quarters? Horse's naturally carry most of their weight on their forehand. By sitting on their backs behind their shoulders, we're shifting the centre of gravity backwards. If we want the horse to be able to carry the load (us ;)) more easily, we need to encourage them to lift their backs to form an arch, rather than carrying them hollow.

A part of getting the horse to lift his back is to get him to use his hindquarters more effectively. A fair amount of dressage training envolves getting the horse to transfer his weight back, to come of his forehand and carry himself better.

The most visually obvious impression of a horse taking his weight back is when you get to extreme collection - piaffe done well should see a lowering of the hindquarters as the horse brings his hocks further under his back, which allows him to lift his forehand. This is what gives horses the appearance of being "uphill". Draw a line back from this horse's withers, or look at the horizon, and you'll see it's well above the height of his quarters (from http://www.lepaseo.com/lahaye.htm) :
http://www.lepaseo.com/img/lahaye1.jpg

Back to your mare... :). As she's over 5 she ought to be physicaly mature enough to handle the work. However, if she's never been asked for lateral work before she might still get confused :p. Have a look at the following questions:

To be able to do lateral, a horse needs to be supple. Can she bend well on a circle?
The horse also needs to understand the concept of moving away from pressure. If you prod/touch her side/quarters in the stable, will she move over (sideways, rather than forewards/backwards)?

If the answer to both of these is a big yes, you're in a good place to start on lateral work. If you're unsure, I'd work on these areas first - it'll make life MUCH easier :D

[ponymadgal]

Luckily she is quite good with pressure and her circles are very good if even pressure on both sides. All i want to do is get to be able to do these things and maybe do some more dressage at higher levels. i done my first dressage and got 49.1% in prelim 10. I was so proud but i never did as wel as everyone else - which also caused the whole i shouldnt have a 5 year old mare cos im 14 thing again!!!!!!! We still need work on canter as she always goes on the wrong leg and if she is on the right leg she wont keep it going. Any hints?