Why has she started leaning on me?

[kryspyg]

Have been enjoying bringing my loan mare back into schooling as prior to my taking her on she'd been in the field for months and before that just used for hacking for a couple of years.
She's been going really well and remembering her dressage days, but suddenly this week has seemed to be really on the forehand - is there any obvious reason for this does anyone think?

I have got an exercise from ArtofRiding website called 'long and low' and am going to try this out tonight so she will stretch and balance herself without having the reins to lean on. When I rode at uni in Leeds this was a warm-up technique we used before gathering the horse and its energy up. Any opinions on it?

k
x

[coss]

just watch with long and low that it doesn't PUT the horse on the forehand, this is a common fault with this exercise. you have to get a really steady trot going and just get the back end to work so that the horse will take the rein forward without leaning on the bit, the more the horse leans and goes on the forehand the more impulsion you need to get the hind quarters to carry the weight. Do lots of transitions to get the back end engaged and don't concentrate on the head position too much as this can make them fall on the forehand, the head position must come from the back end :)