Dressage and tense horse.....Help Please..........

Heidi1

Heidi1

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What exercises can I do to help my girl, she is lovely in a dressage test until you have the first canter and then she goes all tense and gets rather upset, any help would be much appreciated.....
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I would practice at home lots of picks up to canter then down thru trot and down to free walk. My mare gets a lil tense so im in the same boat.
Also i have found that i anticipate her tenseness and tense myself, remember to keep a soft frame and loose thru your shoulders
 
What does she do if you let everything go in canter? just sitting alightly off her back, and very little contact? Does she eventually "soften"?
 
HAve u got anyone who could film you? I didnt realise i was doing it till i watchedd back a video of a test-my instructor has been telling me but i thought it was only a lil bit. Was shocked at the video!!!
Good luck!
 
I agree with Dianchi: make sure you do lots of canter and back to trot/walk at home. Also don't wait until the end of a schooling session to try it (like I did!): I had a similar problem with my girl but she'd get over excited and get faster and faster! I used to have to look for tests with all the trot first as I knew after she'd had a canter the marks would plummet! Don't worry, it will come, it just takes time!
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lots and lots of transitions, one very good one to work towards is:
on a 20m circle, trot 1/2 a circle, canter 1/2 a circle, trot 1/2 a circle, canter 1/2 a circle. easier said than done!
making sure that you stay relaxed, control your breathing, keep your body soft, really helps. don't tense up because you're expecting her to, basically. it can be a vicious circle.
i'd teach her voice commands too... it's amazing what you can get away with in a test as long as you keep your voice low and don't move your lips too obviously! singing "steaaaadddddyyyyyyyyy girllllll" again and again as you canter will keep your breathing low and calm, stop you from holding your breath (which happens subconsicously!) and will calm her down. i also use "settle petal" and "easy tiger" both as drawn out as possible! it can help take their minds off everything else... there was a top showjumper ages ago with a very tense mare who used to sing to her all the way around a course!
good luck
 
She goes really fast and then when you ask for downward transition she throws herself around and then is like a rubber ball...........Rode a test last night and she was a monkey, lovely first half, but then canter came and she was like devil horse. All I could do was laugh..........
 
Hmm.....repitition until she gets bored with transitions, trot canter trot transitons around a 20m circle, so half in canter, half in trot....
 
Henry is the same - he also anticipates where I will ask for canter and launches into it before I'm ready (even after practicing a test just the once! Clever chap
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). When schooling, if he tenses and tries to canter, my instructor has me turn him into a 10m circle in trot until he softens again, then repeat the ask for canter. It just takes his overactive mind off the canter and focusses him back to me and the trot - seems to work fairly well in the school, although of course you can't do this in a real test! I also do it out hacking if I am on my own and have the space for it. It's good to keep the mind busy!
 
my youngester used to panic when it came to the canter (invevitably my fault due to me riding differently!). I solved it by trotting all round the school doing random shapes to keep her guessing and only cantering when it felt right. I'd keep them short and sweet and then go back to trot and do a loop or something. Also threw in random halts, particularly at corners where she expected to canter and would rush. Worked wonders.
 
Mine used to get very tense and hollow in canter, but we seem to have got over the problem. He's 11, competing at Elementary at the moment.

I did it with the following:

1) being quite firm - he is NOT allowed to throw his head up, shoot off, and go hollow in the canter. If he tries to do that, then he's made to go back into trot and do it again. (He was 10 though at the time, I wouldn't necessarily do this with a youngster)

2) Really softening the neck in trot before the transition, almost made him overbent before asking for canter, then doing something with my hands through the transition to keep his head and neck down (obviously backing this up with the leg)

3) Once in canter, I would try very hard to relax my seat down and not grip with my legs.

4) and I was also quite firm once he was in canter - he's not allowed to go hollow, swing his quarters in, tilt his head etc.

5) I use shoulder fore a lot down the straight sides to stop him swinging his quarters in.

I think you have to really ride them through it and not just sit their softly and expect it to happen. You can be soft once you've got them where you want them, that's their reward. As my instructor often shouts, 'don't just sit there, MAKE him bend!'

Not that I'm suggesting you just sit there, I don't know you from Adam, I was just making the point that sometimes one has to be firmer than one would ideally like in order to correct a horse, and once it's going the 'right' way, then one can be soft and lovely!
 
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