unbalanced racehorse

[curiou_mare]

I recently purchased an ex-racehorse. She is a thoroughbred and is well trained to gallop when we are at a canter. I have gotten her to have a vey slow trot and she will stop on command but she is a speed demon when we are cantering. I belive her being unbalanced adds to her being so fast, so she beleives by going faster she can outrun this problem. I would very much appreciate any suggestions on how to teach her how to become balanced.
thanx
curious_mare

[Skyhuntress]

The problem with racehorses is that they are trained to run the more you pull back on the reins; so for the time being, half halts and trying to halt through the reins are ineffective.

That being said, you really want to get the horse really responsive to your seat, s that if you shift your weight, she responds. Also, working her on the longe is a great way to get her used to voice commands-so that if you do run into a problem while riding her, she understands what "whoa" and "trot" means.

The most important thing I've learned is not to give them big amounts of space where they CAN gallop-so no open fields...instead, do circles, work on bending, serpentines, so you are constantly keeping her pace checked and her mind interested.

Good luck!

[curiou_mare]

thank-you for your reply but i have already don those things. I need advice specifically for balance.

[momofsix]

Thanks--that explains why half halts in the canter don't work on my Abby, circles it is then. She also has a slow trott-finally- but still acts likes she is on the track in the canter. Also her right lead is much rougher than the left. I wonder if that is because on the track she ran counterclockwise?

[Styric]

A trick I figured out with my gelding worked pretty good as he had somewhat of the same problem. He wasn't trained against the rein, he just thought all trot was extended trot as he's at least half standardbred.

What I did was teach him the voice command 'slow' on the lunge line and using weight and half halts while riding. It's super handy when you can tell your horse to slow down, literally :) When he's spooking or just getting excited and speedy, I just tell him 'slow' and he slows right down.