Looking to the outside

ems_12

Hi all

I'm busy working an ex-racehorse, and have been making great progress with her. As with most ex-racehorses she is very "one-sided", much more balanced and rounded on the left rein.

My problem is on the right rein, I have been working on her looking to the inside on circles etc, and using a lot of inside leg to keep her backside in on the track on straights :rolleyes: However being fairly forward going (:eek:) she takes any pressure from the inside leg as a 'canter' command.......cue a horse careering around circles, falling in, and me using the outside rein partly as speed control hence she starts looking to the outside and ruins all our hard work! :mad:

Any tips or advice? I have once or twice lunged her before work, or hacked out, to waste some energy but I don't want to have to do this every time I ride; I know the easy answer is push her out with the inside leg and this in theory works except she gets faster and faster! Open to experiences/suggestions, she is a very clever horse and needs a few various schooling movements as she will end up 'cheating' if she already knows what's going to happen :P

Ave Sodalis

Ex racers are terrible for onesidedness, speed, rein contact and really most things that make a riding horse :P
How does she respond to your body position? For example, when you rise slower in trot, does she slow? Maybe work on this, getting her slow down response working before anything else. Do halfhalts cause her to speed up? How's her mouth in general? Have you eliminated any pain or stiffness on one side that could cause it?
I wouldn't try to get rid of her leg sensitivity unless it's causing an explosion or you plan on putting inexperienced/leggy riders on her.
How much of a warm up do you give her? Serpentines? Figure 8s? How much do you change rein?

ems_12

Thanks for the reply!

She is turning into a lovely riding horse; we have entered some ex-racehorse showing classes and the judges (who ride the horses as part of the class) have complimented her, one saying that she was the nicest ride of all entrants.

She doesn't respond very well to my changing my rising, I do this a lot out on hacks to slow her down and it doesn't make much difference. :rolleyes: That said, she recognises a shift in my weight for leg yielding (another movement where we go faster & faster, but only on right rein).

Halfhalts seem to be a command for "hold back and get ready to go!" as she listens to the halfhalt and comes back to me, but any touch of a leg after that and she is explosive as you put it. Maybe I am too heavy with the halfhalt?

She has quite a soft mouth and comes down nicely; sometimes a bit of resistance in transitions which we are working on.

I have thought that maybe it's just much harder for her on the right rein as she's not built to go on this rein yet. How do I build her up CORRECTLY considering it's a bit of a battle between us to do simple circles etc correctly on this side?

Esroh

Ems-12

The way I go about this is forget about bend altogether.
For example.
On a 20m (or Bigger at the moment)circle you only need to just be able to see her eye so by riding it thinking of her neck and head being straight on both reins will be the best place to start
The muscles on her right side can bend to much and on the left side they are very tight. By working on straightness you will be stretching her left side and in time she will flex to the right.

Do this in walk and trot. In Canter only do so in as big a circle as you possibly can.

The other thing to remember is that when asking for Flexion or even the Straightness is 'Lower and open your inside rein, ie Bring you hand out Beyond your knee if necessary and lower than the withers but keep your outside contact . Again with time she will allow you to return your hands to the standard position.

You can also help the process in the stable by. Starting with her Tight side. Getting her to stand with her left side against the wall and then getting her to bring her head around to to her shoulder/ girth(Again with a bit of work you will get both sides to the same level . You have seen her scratch so she can do it. This can be done mounted as well by asking her to bring her nose to your foot. Important to remember to prevent her from stepping back or swinging her quaters.

Hope this helps

ems_12

Thanks Esroh

Yes - I know the flexion movement you are talking about. I must do that with her on the ground, getting her to flex right around to girth area. Thanks.

The straightness on a circle is challenging; I still have to put leg on, otherwise she falls in and looks to outside. The difficult bit here is that while she listens to these aids, the leg (I have tried varying pressures!) just makes her go faster; do I try a "straight" circle without leg?? I reckoned this might be counter productive as everything is through the reins but could be wrong?

I've tried the 'lower and bring out the rein'. She often blocks her head, sometimes turning it a little sideways if you understand, against the bend. In response to this, I would usually put on leg, leading to us going faster. Or I open 'out' the rein more and she falls in totally, doing 10m circles at times (my answer to this would be put on the inside leg again, argh!).

I will keep trying the 20m 'straight' circles without too much 'directional?' rein OR leg, and hope that she will naturally look in with an open inside rein

(Wow sorry this is turning into a novel! I've tried to attach a photo. Aside from yelling 'shoulders back' at me, this is quite a nice right bend for her, this is what I would like without speed all the time, and a bit more 'uphill'!)

Esroh

Ems
When i say straight its more you "Thinking Straight" rather than 'Asking for Flexion' as this just makes sure you ask for less than what you might want. Its also a way of developing a equal rein contact from you. Its very hard to keep an even contact when they are leaning on 1 side and your trying to get flexion to the other but thinking straight will have you thinking even contact. So much of riding is having the mind getting the multi -tasks of the body right in the subconscious.

The photo looks good and thats where you looking to go consistantly and it really is small steps at a time (Could say a little more than shoulders back )

Re using your leg. If she so sensitive you have to find the happy medium where she answers rather than runs. Again you are on the way there but again time is the thing. So dont ride without leg just ride with what is needed and again this will teach her.

You may be frothing at the mouth reading this but I've been there and done this many times. The worst phase is when you start to get good bits and people are telling you she's lovely but you know its not consistant and want it to be.
As I said . From the Photo you are on the way so just take your time and it will fall into place often without you really realising as you will be looking for more

ems_12

Thanks Esroh,

I understand what you mean; I think I am guilty of not being even on the reins with her; either too much outside for speed control, or too much inside trying to get her to look inside.....so if I try for even handed circles in the way that you describe, with less emphasis on bend, I'll hopefully go from there and find her relaxing and slightly looking in

(haha - I realise there's a lot more to fix other than my positioning We're both progressing together )

Yes, that's the thing, I know she's a great horse, I just would like to make sure I'm dealing with the more 'not-so-nice' bits in the correct way

shellbean

ems_12 wrote: »

Hi all

I'm busy working an ex-racehorse, and have been making great progress with her. As with most ex-racehorses she is very "one-sided", much more balanced and rounded on the left rein.

My problem is on the right rein, I have been working on her looking to the inside on circles etc, and using a lot of inside leg to keep her backside in on the track on straights :rolleyes: However being fairly forward going (:eek:) she takes any pressure from the inside leg as a 'canter' command.......cue a horse careering around circles, falling in, and me using the outside rein partly as speed control hence she starts looking to the outside and ruins all our hard work! :mad:

Any tips or advice? I have once or twice lunged her before work, or hacked out, to waste some energy but I don't want to have to do this every time I ride; I know the easy answer is push her out with the inside leg and this in theory works except she gets faster and faster! Open to experiences/suggestions, she is a very clever horse and needs a few various schooling movements as she will end up 'cheating' if she already knows what's going to happen :P

Ems I am going through the same thing except its on the left rein! I'm getting an osteopath up to look at her next week. She`s going really well on the right rein and then when we go on the left rein its a different horse, she falls in on the circle and speeds up when I use my inside leg or trys to break into a canter (on the wrong leg), from her movements I think she is sore so hopefully the osteopath will help. :-) Ill let you know how she goes after.