Let me start with a little background. I have been riding for 18 years, but usually with very well trained horses. After college, I decided to quit showing competitively and start riding for the pleasure of riding. I ended up selling my high strung show horses and purchased a very inexperienced 4 year old quarter horse gelding for trail riding.
I absolutely adore this horse and we have a great relationship for trail riding. Essentially all of his training has come from me, but he has trusted me since day one. If ever a situation arose that made him uncomfortable, he simply stops and waits for me to reassure him and then he moves on. Since I only used him for hacking, I never put any pressure on him to be "correct." Canter leads were unimportant as was bending. As long as I returned safely to the trail head, I was happy.
So here we are 6 years later and I have decided that I would like to reenter the show ring, but I don't want to get a new horse so Cisco is having to be started over. After 6 weeks of constant working, I have him comfortable under a hunter saddle (it's always been western until now) and he is accepting the noseband on the bridle (not something he appreciated right off). My problem is that I can't seem to convince him to bend AT ALL. We spend hours working on serpentines and weaving around cones and barrels and never before have my legs been this sore from trying to control his back end, but it all seems to not be working. At every opportunity, Cisco's backend swings around the corner rather than bending through it. I am at a loss.
I say that I am making no progress, except that we have now correctly picked up both canter leads without bucking. (Until very recently, he has never picked up his right lead under saddle and always bucked into his left lead). This tells me that I am obviously getting through on some of the bending as he is able to now balance well enough for a correct strike off. At our current level, to get him into a canter, I am letting him go through a trot rather than pushing for the strike off from a walk as I want to let him canter rather than force it right now ( I am treating like a very young horse through this process).
How do I progress from here? How do I help him understand how to bend and balance more? How do I help make the aids a little clearer to him not only as to what they are, but also as to what they mean?
Any suggestions and/or advice would be greatly appreciated. I know I can always wimp out and send him off to a trainer, but I pride myself on him being a selfmade horse and am really enjoying the challenge of figuring this out as we go.
I absolutely adore this horse and we have a great relationship for trail riding. Essentially all of his training has come from me, but he has trusted me since day one. If ever a situation arose that made him uncomfortable, he simply stops and waits for me to reassure him and then he moves on. Since I only used him for hacking, I never put any pressure on him to be "correct." Canter leads were unimportant as was bending. As long as I returned safely to the trail head, I was happy.
So here we are 6 years later and I have decided that I would like to reenter the show ring, but I don't want to get a new horse so Cisco is having to be started over. After 6 weeks of constant working, I have him comfortable under a hunter saddle (it's always been western until now) and he is accepting the noseband on the bridle (not something he appreciated right off). My problem is that I can't seem to convince him to bend AT ALL. We spend hours working on serpentines and weaving around cones and barrels and never before have my legs been this sore from trying to control his back end, but it all seems to not be working. At every opportunity, Cisco's backend swings around the corner rather than bending through it. I am at a loss.
I say that I am making no progress, except that we have now correctly picked up both canter leads without bucking. (Until very recently, he has never picked up his right lead under saddle and always bucked into his left lead). This tells me that I am obviously getting through on some of the bending as he is able to now balance well enough for a correct strike off. At our current level, to get him into a canter, I am letting him go through a trot rather than pushing for the strike off from a walk as I want to let him canter rather than force it right now ( I am treating like a very young horse through this process).
How do I progress from here? How do I help him understand how to bend and balance more? How do I help make the aids a little clearer to him not only as to what they are, but also as to what they mean?
Any suggestions and/or advice would be greatly appreciated. I know I can always wimp out and send him off to a trainer, but I pride myself on him being a selfmade horse and am really enjoying the challenge of figuring this out as we go.