Sudden difficulties

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Anne

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Feb 17, 1999
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Hello Heather ... I posted a question elsewhere about sudden difficulties I am experiencing keeping my loan horse on the track, but there were no takers ...

I'm not sure if you are away but would appreciate your help whenever you can manage to reply.

After riding my mare for a few months I've finally built up a trust between us and although she can be a bit moody and lazy sometimes, she is normally pretty co-operative, so I'm not sure why she has suddenly become reluctant to stay on the track, particularly on the right rein.

I thought initially that she was afraid of a small, narrow loop of stripey pink rope looped around a post (maybe she thought it wasa snake!?) but I managed to persuade her to pass it without spooking. However, I now still have difficulty pushing her over to the track in the normal way, but can get her over just by holding up the reins loosely, and pushing them over to the right, so that the inside rein is resting on her neck ... I hardly need any pressure from my inside leg .... am I being dumb here, because I don't understand this?

I've always ridden in this way when I have problems communicating what I want with a horse ... even turning circles it seems to work. It's so contradictory to the established BHS way which insists that you have some sort of contact with the bit.

Can you explain what is happening here? Incidentally, she is being ridden by young staff members at the yard in school lessons who are probably much better riders than me, so what's gone wrong? Incidentally, I don't ride with the loose rein unless I'm having a problem, and this is the first time really I've started to have the staying on track difficulty.

Hope all this makes sense, and look forward to hearing your comments ... please be as blunt as possible ...I'm anxious to solve the problem?

Many thanks

Anne
 
Hi Anne,

I don't think Heather has answered too many questions lately as she has been very busy. Half of Newrider can vouch for that! :)

I've been thinking about your problem, as it isn't that easy to answer. There could be any number of reasons why a horse doesn't go on the track. Personally, I hardly ever ride on the track, as I'm doing circles, loops, lateral work... etc!

Still, always the place to begin is with the rider. Physical problems with the horse have always to be ruled out, but they are unlikely in a problem of this kind, so rule that out first, but once you have, if you still have the problem you'll have to look to yourself. Pushing your horse out with your inside rein (by that I presume you're either having the problem on your left rein, moving your reins to the right, or on your right rein moving your reins to the left, but I get confused with lefts and rights too, so I could be misinterpreting your mail, if I haven't you've not described it well?) Check that you are sat perfectly straight. Most horses will hang to the rail, so if that's the problem, putting a horse into a vague shoulder-fore can help that. If your horse is falling in, then you will make matters worse by trying to push her out with your rein. Instead, advance your inside hip and *slightly* raise your inside hand. Use your inside leg at the girth as her inside hind steps under her body, to discourage her from stepping in off the track and encourage her to keep her hindquarters straight and on the track. Use the leg with each step to begin with, not with a continuous pressure. Keep a contact on your outside rein, so that you are riding her from your inside leg with each step, into your outside rein. Your inside rein should not be used into her neck at the moment, as this would cause a breakover in her neck and encourage her to fall out through her shoulder, which would have the opposite effect from that which you want. You don't want to just keep her out on the track, you want her straight and 'between hand and leg' wherever she is. It is better to think of your problem as being a problem of straightness rather than a problem of keeping a horse on the track. Many riding school horses will trundle along happily on the track, which is where they're used to being regardless of their rider, but you don't want that really, you want your horse to be responsive to you and going where you ask, the outside track being pretty much irrelevent. :) We do use the fenceline etc., to help us in training, both ourselves and our horses, but we shouldn't really rely on it once we've learned what we want. I hope this helps. Let me know if you're still stuck and maybe Heather can help too when she gets back. I try not to butt in here too often and I'm not always watching. :)

Sue
sue@eclipse.co.uk
 
Thanks Sue ... I appreciate your comments ...

I do a lot of circles, loops, serpentines etc but this leg-yielding problem has only started to be a problem in the last couple of weeks ... in the pre-novice dressage test I practice in the school, keeping to the track after circles was not a problem, but now it is, and since there is quite a lot of road work to get to our bridleways, I need to improve the leg-yielding because she has a tendency to move away from the outside ... our roads are quite narrow and winding, and it's important for me to solve this for obvious reasons

Anyway, I think you are right that it is probably my riding at fault, and I'll just have to keep trying to improve in the school. Maybe she's just taking advantage of me, as I tend to be a little too soft sometimes ... her owner, who is also my instructor rode her for me yesterday, and was much tougher, riding her forward, not allowing her to be lazy, and I then took her out for a hack. As usual, she tried to move off the track, and it was quite hard work to push her back, but eventually she complied and we both relaxed. So ... I have to concede that it is my fault and work much harder to get the leg-yielding back to where it was before ... will it ever get to the point where I'm achieving 5 steps forward and 1 back, rather than the other way around? ! :)

Thanks again Sue ...

Anne
 
Thanks again Sue for a very good reply and sorry Anne- must have missed your question. Sometimes I have to admit, I only reply to ones that can be answered fairly swiftly. I get on average between 100 and 200 emails a week privately, and that isn't counting the lettters and phone calls. I don't have a day off each week, and have no secretarial help, and have very little time to ride for myself, perhaps twice a week if I am lucky. Virtually every evening when I am not out having to feed students at the pub, is spent at the computer, after teaching all day. Sorry if this sounds as though I am having a whinge, but I do this stuff voluntarily, at the expense of any real social life. My choice, but sometimes it does all get a bit much.


Heather
 
Hello Heather :) I don't think you are whingeing ... I understand how tight your schedule must be ... so not to worry ...

Take Care

Anne
 
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