Behind the Vertical

[GoneBust]

Hello

My horse is recovering from Kissing spines at the mo. He has been worked in a pessoa for the past 5 weeks to bring his back up and using it again and get his muscle back as advised by the vet.

I actually got to ride him him for the first time last night and the pessoa has done wonders for his back. But the only problem is that now in walk he is way behind the vertical - his nose is pratically sitting on his chest - he never used to do this. How can i correct him to stretch his neck out and bring his nose away from his chest?

Any ideas?

 

[coss]

does he put his nose near his chest on a loose rein? what is the transition from trot to walk like? if you can go long and low in trot and bring that back to walk using your seat and very little rein it should help keep the walk mving forwards with the nose still "out"

 

[GoneBust]

If i give him a loose rein he stretches through his back and neck and walks with his head low to the floor - a brilliant free walk. But as soon as i start to gather the reins, his head is straight back to his chest.

The transition from walk to trot is the same as normal, once in trot he stretches himself out again and works as he did before.

do i maybe need to push him forward a bit more in the walk to get him working more from behind and to stretch his neck out?

 

[coss]

that could work although i have known horses to go rounder when you push them on, i would do a lot of long and low work in trot and then got to walk trying to keep the length but you'll still have a contact, it will probably take time due to the recent back problem. he has to realise that it won't hurt to walk with his head out- i have ridden a horse that went behind the vertical when his back was slightly sore from having worked hard the previous day, if i ignored it (it only happened in trot) and let him get on with it he came up when he was ready.

 

[Rips]

Funny this post is here - I've just dug out my pessoa this morning to get mare back into shape and she was going behind the vertical even though there was loads of slack in the lines which she never did before.

Is he behind the vertical in the pessoa also?

I was long-lining her so, I put the lead lines up through the top rings of the roller as if they were coming from the position of contact and that seemed to sort out the problem as soon as I took up the reins (the pessoa was still set at the 'long and low' setting )
Had me baffled for a while though - I used to just lunge with one rein and it was fine!