Canter on the left rein

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FelixPatches

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My 7yr old welsh cob cross gelding falls out through his shoulder (and it feels like his hindquarters too) on the left rein (and conversely on the right rein his quarters tend to come in, as you'd expect). I also have a problem with my left hip and have a tendency to twist my shoulders to the inside on the left rein which I know won't help him and I am working on that. Both of us get physio regularly. In canter, especially in the field where there is no fence line, I find it very hard to turn him, he just drifts out, not in a nasty way, just in a non balanced way. In the school, I feel like I can't ride corners on him. I end up with far too much in my inside rein, and his poor neck ends up curled to the inside. In walk and trot it is still an issue but not so much. I try to use my outside leg and keep my right rein against his shoulder but it's not really working. I've tried taking outside bend in canter but he is very resistant, so I am working on that in walk and trot in the hope we can get to the stage where I can move his neck around in canter too. Any tips for how to work on this (I know it will take time and we need to work on balance and suppleness etc overall)? I had problems getting him to take right canter in the past, but now he canters really nicely on the right rein, where before he was better on his left.
 
This sounds a bit like my welsh cob mare, so I was reading your post trying to think about what I do. I've found that the slightly different issues I have on each rein are kind of fixed by the same approach though - you are working on straightness.


This morning I've been paying attention to the rein where she really wants to go quarters-in. (she is also falling on the outside shoulder). There are 2 problems that I've got that are causing this - 1. she sits against my inside leg not wanting to engage the inside hind and 2. she is slightly against the outside hand. both of those mean she turns into a banana and it's hard to get her straight and properly connected.

To help with this I've started in walk and trot, getting her properly soft and accepting the outside contact , not necessarily actual counter bend as some find that a bit unbalancing. I want the *feeling* that I could counter flex if I wanted to, and she would release that side to me instantly, and in the meantime she is confident and polite to the contact. Don't ask for too much bend one way or the other at this point, you want to feel that just a tiny wiggle of your finger would be enough for the horse to just soften towards you a tiny bit without resistance. you'll use that response down the outside rein to straighten and control the shoulder as you progress.

We also do a lot of leg yield away from the inside leg, and then shoulder-in on that rein, so I have a response and yielding to my inside leg. The S-In also helps get that inside hind underneath her, where I want it, and helps to reinforce the *acceptance* of the energy into the outside hand.

Because mine has progressed a fair way along this road, we also ride these exercises in canter, but by riding them in walk and trot and then popping into canter for a short period you should still feel the benefit of him being set up correctly.

You've mentioned that you get too much bend and this won't be helping either issue. I try not to use the inside rein much for steering - for me, her straightness is pretty much dependent on acceptance of the outside contact, and my inside leg. To start with, try thinking of always using your hands as a pair - you can't pull on your inside rein then - keep an even contact on both reins when you want to turn a corner, say, and think of riding the whole of the front around as one unit, rather than pulling the head around and hoping the body will follow. Your 2 reins together need to be a corridor for the horse to travel along. Some people find it helpful to carry the whip across the top of their hands under their thumbs to get this feeling for a bit, it helps you to notice if you are using one hand more than the other.

Try to notice the quality of your strike off as well. Because she is such a little wiggler I ride mine almost always on an inner track (our school is 30x40m so this is very easy but even just a few feet off the track will help). I noticed that in her canter transitions, mine was deviating off our line towards the outside, so correcting this in the transition helps to start them off in the manner you intend to continue. I wouldn't have noticed this so easily had we been riding on the track.

Quite normal for them to improve more on one rein than the other, and then to swap round - just keep plugging away :)
When you get used to using the outside rein to make a turn etc then it becomes so easy because you have control of all of the corners of the horse - you would do the same thing in a field or any open space.
 
I had a revelation tonight - mainly due to Milliepops and Spacefaer from on here! My 'sports cob' is a very unbalanced 6 year old who tends to lean heavily on the right rein, he finds left bend very difficult and since I have had him (end of May) he finds it difficult to strike off on the left canter lead. Tonight I found myself almost 'ignoring' that negative aspect of his way of going, and instead concentrating on him being forward/balanced/responsive as an overall picture - and he stopped leaning on the right rein! He is an absolute poppet and once he realises what you want he is very willing to oblige, so tonight we got our first relatively well-balanced 20m canter circle with correct bend, and he actually stretched down to seek the contact :) :)

Sorry to waffle on about my feeling of 'yay!' but what I'm trying to say is that after a very many years of riding I think I might have learned to not focus on the thing that is going wrong, but to focus on the whole picture? I don't mean this to be negative towards you in any way, but what I am trying to say is don't focus on the problem focus on the whole picture and the problem resolves itself? I do hope that helps a little and my 'yay!' moment can help others :)
 
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