Exercises for a horse 'shortening & curling in the neck' please.

[Eventer96]

Well after our BE placing at the weekend I am back to the dressage and hoping to improve on our dissapointing 35 at Rackham. The main comments were about him shortening and curling in the neck and not taking the contact forwards. So could somebody please give me some helpful/useful tips or exercises to help me improve this (I have got a exercise from instructor, however just wanted a few extra ideas).

Also could you maybe give me some exercises to help improve our free walk. He doesn't stretch enough and work over his back (in the free walk), what can I be doing to help him with this movement, we need to get this mark up as it is currently a 6 and at worst a 5!!

Any help would be much appreciated, will be interested to hear responses.


Thank you.

 

[MegaBeast]

The free walk will come when he's working over his back consistently. My mare does a similar thing with ducking behind the contact. The curling the neck is a symptom of not working from behind adequately and can be put down to tension some of the time. I've recently started doing a lot of raised trotting poles and this helping her tuck her pelvis under her and lift up in front - she is now reaching forward for the contact and taking more weight behind. Lots of transitions will help, the moment he curls his neck in trot, walk, then pick up trot and repeat over and over. Make sure you carry your hands as this will help.

No tips for the walk I'm afraid over than it will follow once he works over his back. I'm lucky with my mare as free walk on a long rein is our banker movement and we invariably get 7s for it, although 6s and a smattering of 5s are more normal for the rest of the test!

 

[MrsMozart]

Poles - gets Dizz looking forward and down instead of doing her Rollkur impression!

Poles with raised ends - helps lift the tummy muscles and makes the backend more active.

Transitions - lots of them

Hills - gets that motor powering forwards. Dizz tries to get out of it by cantering up hills, so I have to pick the right ones to trot up, i.e. not too steep; I think the steep ones might twinge her pelvis, either that or she's just being a lazy oik, or just needs more muscle (chicken and egg lol).

 

[Eventer96]

Thank you both your responses.

Poles seem to be favoured so I shall have a play around with Titan tomorrow.

MB- I aspire to get a 7 in the free walk!! Our test will usually include mostly 7's with about 3/4 8's and a few 5/6's. The free walk being the 5/6.

Thanks again

 

[ester]

what seems to work for frank (who def has that tendency to curl up!) was a very simple exercise given to be my a diff instructor to normal one, though it has taken about 6 months to crack it! He is very happy up where he normally is, but its nice to be able to adjust his frame a bit. It has come in useful for a few different things.

so basically I have been trotting on a 20m circle, having him swing through as much as possible but (importantly for me with nagging tendecys) not pushing him out of his rhythm. Make a transition to walk for about 1/4-1/3 of the circle.... asking for a sligtly longer frame... ask for trot (and for me expect it immediately!) . and repeat ad finitum.

Now I do find that I need to sit softer, than normal, almost breathing out as I sit... and widen my hands slightly... its easier to have someone to tell you what to do when.

I do think his current improvement is because he has become stronger over his back... regular instructor has said how lovely it is that he will work a bit longer now need to go back to other one for a lesson if poss though just to tune us up again as it worked really well last time.

poles would be counter productive for us welsh cob+ poles= over excitement and tenseness