Post by Elaine on Dec 26, 2008 10:38:22 GMT
Question
A pony that i sometimes ride has been off most work for a few months as she was getting sick of jumping (well there are other reasons but i wont go into them) so is now mainly being used for hacking for which she is great, and is one of the safest ponies ive met to ride on a hack.
But we now want to bring her back to work gradually-lunging, flatwork etc and a long time in the future gradually introduce her to abit of jumping and see how she reacts to it, but generally keeping it very low key.
we were lunging her for the first time the other day and she was fine until it came to going on the right rein, she flatly refused to go on it at first, then she decided she would but only at an almost gallop
towards the end she managed abit of trot and a better canter on that rein but sometimes she would just switch reins mid trot and go onto the left rein.
she almost seemed scared of going on the right rein. She has never had any bad experience of lunging at ours but i couldnt guarentee she hasnt in the previous home.
the only other thing i could think of was that she was very stiff on that right rein and she couldnt balance herself properly (hence trying to take off abit)
she hasnt really had any form of flatwork training tbh, and that is what im trying to work on.
i think im going to try lots of flexion and maybe build up her lateral abit, and also mayber try somebody leading her at first whilst on the right rein to see if shes any better with that.
any suggestions would be greatly appreciated ;D
Answer
I met a horse with the same issue. Good on the left rein (when the person is standing in her near eye) didnt like doing on the right rein (person in her far eye) so either tried to keep going on left rein or went too quick on right rein.
So did a bit of handling & groundwork like this.........
my horse's issues.......
1. I patted and rubbed the horse all over.. what I found is that the horse was about 70% comfortable with me rubbing her near side while she stood on a loose rein, but she was only I'd say 10% comfortable while I rubbed and patted all over her far side on a loose rein. At a guess I'd just say she was never handled as much from her off side so just wasn't used to it. So that was the first piece of homework I gave her owner - handle her far side - rub, pat, build it up slowly for a minutes or two as many times a day as you can so she will start to get used to it. Depending on the horse, you could have to do this lots of times for a week first before horse is ready for the next step. Its about confidence and relaxation, so you'll know when you see these start to improve.
2. Flexion & softness.... Did lateral flexion, HQ yield & FQ yield with this horse to check she could bend softly both ways. My horse could do this, but it sounds like you'r horse might find this hard to start off with, so after all the rubbing and patting above, I'd do little bits of lateral flexion both sides (stand at shoulder and turn head towards you) .. once you get this good, then go both Hq and FQ yields on the ground to supple up the rest of the body and again its more good work for that off side
3. The actual lunging... do all the above first for at least a week until you see some improvement. When I asked my horse to lunge, she tried to go teh opposite way, then tried to tear off on right rein quickly (neither of which I wanted).
So what I did was......
1. Have horse facing me on loose rope.
2. Rope in right hand, long stick in left hand.
3. Raise up my left hand with the stick and put it up like a pretend wall on beside the far side of her body.
4. Horse still standing still calmly as I havent asked her to go anywhere yet.
5. With my right hand and the lead rope, while your 'wall' is in place' VERY gently point out to the right as far as your hands will go as its like your pointing to where you want your horse to go. have nearly NO pressure on the lead rope.
6. Wait.
7. If needs be, apply a TINY amount of pressure (you want to use the least amount possible as you dont want to get her suddenly going very quick around you)
8. When you get ONE STEP to your right from the horse (so one step going on the 'right rein', put all yoru hands down again, give horse a rest. Think LITERALLY one step at a time. Then stop & reward.
REPEAT as often as needed, always trying to do the bare minimum to get that one step. if you repeat this, along with doing the desensitistaion work, you should build confidence with your horse, get them used to being handled on their off side and be softer and more confident on the right rein. I'd do the 'one step' moving onto 'walk' for another week.
There's a few 'how to's for the yields here if they're any good:
irishnhsociety.proboards41.com/index.cgi?board=usefulinformation
Other obvious thing to check would be eyesight. It is good in both eyes?
Good luck ;D
A pony that i sometimes ride has been off most work for a few months as she was getting sick of jumping (well there are other reasons but i wont go into them) so is now mainly being used for hacking for which she is great, and is one of the safest ponies ive met to ride on a hack.
But we now want to bring her back to work gradually-lunging, flatwork etc and a long time in the future gradually introduce her to abit of jumping and see how she reacts to it, but generally keeping it very low key.
we were lunging her for the first time the other day and she was fine until it came to going on the right rein, she flatly refused to go on it at first, then she decided she would but only at an almost gallop
towards the end she managed abit of trot and a better canter on that rein but sometimes she would just switch reins mid trot and go onto the left rein.
she almost seemed scared of going on the right rein. She has never had any bad experience of lunging at ours but i couldnt guarentee she hasnt in the previous home.
the only other thing i could think of was that she was very stiff on that right rein and she couldnt balance herself properly (hence trying to take off abit)
she hasnt really had any form of flatwork training tbh, and that is what im trying to work on.
i think im going to try lots of flexion and maybe build up her lateral abit, and also mayber try somebody leading her at first whilst on the right rein to see if shes any better with that.
any suggestions would be greatly appreciated ;D
Answer
I met a horse with the same issue. Good on the left rein (when the person is standing in her near eye) didnt like doing on the right rein (person in her far eye) so either tried to keep going on left rein or went too quick on right rein.
So did a bit of handling & groundwork like this.........
my horse's issues.......
1. I patted and rubbed the horse all over.. what I found is that the horse was about 70% comfortable with me rubbing her near side while she stood on a loose rein, but she was only I'd say 10% comfortable while I rubbed and patted all over her far side on a loose rein. At a guess I'd just say she was never handled as much from her off side so just wasn't used to it. So that was the first piece of homework I gave her owner - handle her far side - rub, pat, build it up slowly for a minutes or two as many times a day as you can so she will start to get used to it. Depending on the horse, you could have to do this lots of times for a week first before horse is ready for the next step. Its about confidence and relaxation, so you'll know when you see these start to improve.
2. Flexion & softness.... Did lateral flexion, HQ yield & FQ yield with this horse to check she could bend softly both ways. My horse could do this, but it sounds like you'r horse might find this hard to start off with, so after all the rubbing and patting above, I'd do little bits of lateral flexion both sides (stand at shoulder and turn head towards you) .. once you get this good, then go both Hq and FQ yields on the ground to supple up the rest of the body and again its more good work for that off side
3. The actual lunging... do all the above first for at least a week until you see some improvement. When I asked my horse to lunge, she tried to go teh opposite way, then tried to tear off on right rein quickly (neither of which I wanted).
So what I did was......
1. Have horse facing me on loose rope.
2. Rope in right hand, long stick in left hand.
3. Raise up my left hand with the stick and put it up like a pretend wall on beside the far side of her body.
4. Horse still standing still calmly as I havent asked her to go anywhere yet.
5. With my right hand and the lead rope, while your 'wall' is in place' VERY gently point out to the right as far as your hands will go as its like your pointing to where you want your horse to go. have nearly NO pressure on the lead rope.
6. Wait.
7. If needs be, apply a TINY amount of pressure (you want to use the least amount possible as you dont want to get her suddenly going very quick around you)
8. When you get ONE STEP to your right from the horse (so one step going on the 'right rein', put all yoru hands down again, give horse a rest. Think LITERALLY one step at a time. Then stop & reward.
REPEAT as often as needed, always trying to do the bare minimum to get that one step. if you repeat this, along with doing the desensitistaion work, you should build confidence with your horse, get them used to being handled on their off side and be softer and more confident on the right rein. I'd do the 'one step' moving onto 'walk' for another week.
There's a few 'how to's for the yields here if they're any good:
irishnhsociety.proboards41.com/index.cgi?board=usefulinformation
Other obvious thing to check would be eyesight. It is good in both eyes?
Good luck ;D