Exercises for a horse that leans? And a stressage question

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blood_magik

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Beau's flatwork is starting to come along nicely. He's working in a consistent outline 95% of the time now and we're starting basic lateral work (baby LY, little bit of SI) to give him something to think about other than jumping, jumping, jumping all of the time.

I have noticed that he leans on me rather than carrying himself - I don't blame him, his head is heavy. :tongue3: That said, it would be nice to keep my arms in their sockets. I was previously taught that I should give the reins and let the horse 'drop' but a recent instructor has said to get after him and send a little nudge down the rein with my ring fingers (bad description - can't think of how else to describe it) every time he tries to lean. I don't want to be constantly nagging him though - he gets a bit upset if he thinks he's done something wrong. :redface3:

One exercise I've been doing with him is canter circles - 20m then a 10m every time we pass a certain point to really get his hocks underneath him and get him off his forehand.
Are there any other exercises I can try?

A quick aside - there is UA dressage on at the yard next month and I was wondering if there was any point in entering Beau. He's in a pelham so obviously not dressage legal - I do have a snaffle for him but I have almost no control in it.
If I was to go HC, would I be ok to ride in the pelham? Or should I just forget it until we're able to stay inside the boards in a snaffle? I don't really mind if we get marked down as long as Beau goes nicely and behaves himself. :)
 
Check out Philippe Karl - he has a whole thing about teaching a horse to carry his head and not use it as a fifth leg. Chicken and egg - leaning = going on the forehand. Going on the forehand = leaning.
 
Thanks - I'll have a look. :smile3:
His flatwork is still pretty basic so the plan is to work on that for a bit while he has a break from jumping. He has no excuse now that his front end is the same height as his bum. :tongue3:
 
I've had this with a horse I've been riding, the best thing I've found is when he leans not to think about his head but think about his hind end. If he's leaning on me it's because he's not active, balanced and pushing through properly from behind and therefore he leans on me to try and make it easier for him by towing himself around on the forehand.

He's really big (17.2) and I'm shortish (5'4) and Ive found it really helps if I really concentrate on getting the canter rhythm I want rather than letting him run on and become strung out and then lean on me. If I use my back muscles and make sure I'm dictating the rhythm I find it a lot easier to get the power going upwards rather than flat, running and on the forehand. Obviously he doesn't find this easy and I find if I ride with a schooling whip and just give him a little tickle (ie rest the whip on his hip) when he starts leaning it makes him jump through better with his hind end and lighten in the front as he's then more uphill. Have done this on spiralling circles whilst keeping my inside fingers light and feely without letting him sit on my outside rein with success so far.

Anyway, I'm pretty pants at this and by no means any good but maybe concebtrating on the back end when your horse starts getting heavy in the hand rather than the front will help you too. Good luck, I know how much your shoulders hurt after a leaner!!!
 
ah yes, the yielding on a circle exercise - we're rather familiar with that one. :p

We sound very similar to you and your boy - beau is 17.2,
pushing 17.3, and I'm short.
The hardest thing for me at the moment is keeping the rhythm. he rushes and then it all goes to
pot - I need to work on getting him to work more from behind without him rushing off and reverting to sticking his ears up my nose.

He'll never be Valegro but it will help his jumping no end so we shall soldier on :biggrin3:
 
TBH, if he's leaning, he's NOT working in an outline. As others have said, I would drop the contact so that he has to carry himself and concentrate on the hind end. I find that transitions and polework are very helpful in getting the horse off the forehand. When I say transition I mean eg 10 strides walk/10 strides trot/10 strides walk/ etc, this really lifts the front end.
 
Another vote for transitions, transitions, transitions, both between paces and within the pace - doesn't need to be perfect, but little walk/big walk, little trot/big trot, etc, all on shapes especially serpentines should get him sitting up and thinking about you a little more and waiting for the next instruction rather than just towing you about...
 
thanks guys.
must say that I only really noticed the leaning yesterday so I'm wondering if switching between bits could be something to do with it?
He was away at Blair last week and my trainer jumped him in a nelson gag whereas I have him in a Pelham for everything except hacking.
Or maybe I'm just too soft with him and he's been getting away with too much?
 
I found my big lad leaned more in a Pelham than anything else. Loose ring is not so easy to lean on as something solid

When he started leaning in trot I would slow the trot but push for more engagement, then send him forward, repeat repeat. This helped the canter enormously. Then repeated in canter. Along with spiralling circles in both paces did the trick
 
interesting..
I had him in a copper roller with cheek pieces earlier this year and he leaned so much I couldn't lift my arms by the end of one lesson.
Maybe I need to change back to a snaffle for flatwork and keep the Pelham for jumping
 
blood_magik said:
interesting..
I had him in a copper roller with cheek pieces earlier this year and he leaned so much I couldn't lift my arms by the end of one lesson.
Maybe I need to change back to a snaffle for flatwork and keep the Pelham for jumping
Click to expand...

Yep. Anything with straight sides gives them more to lean on, same as a straight mouthpiece
 
JillA said:
Check out Philippe Karl - he has a whole thing about teaching a horse to carry his head and not use it as a fifth leg. Chicken and egg - leaning = going on the forehand. Going on the forehand = leaning.
Click to expand...

Hey JillA, Can you please send me a link to this? I don't know where to start looking. Cheers x
 
Search on Youtube - "Philippe Karl", or "Legerite", there are a few extracts on there - I have the DVDs on loan. I am reluctant to précis it because in the wrong hands and done unsympathetically it can be seen as quite harsh - if you can find an extract, look closely at how gentle his hands are while he is doing the exercises.
 
quick update.
we've been doing flatwork flatwork flatwork this week and there's been an improvement - he's not leaning on me as much.
I'm working on a plan with my instructor so we have something to work to with both flatwork and jumping.

thanks for all of your words of advice :smile3:
 
laterals, laterasl, laterals... the spiral circle too.
Working on getting his inside hind leg stepping forward and across so he starts to engage his bum.
And not worry about the outline just make sure you are not giving him anything ridged to lean on. He cant lean on your arms if they are elastic. Not throwing the contact away though make sure it is consitant and light...
Good luck
 
annaelizabeth said:
laterals, laterasl, laterals... the spiral circle too.
Working on getting his inside hind leg stepping forward and across so he starts to engage his bum.
And not worry about the outline just make sure you are not giving him anything ridged to lean on. He cant lean on your arms if they are elastic. Not throwing the contact away though make sure it is consitant and light...
Good luck
Click to expand...

Yes, we've been introducing some lateral work - I'm not sure how much he's done, if any (he was very green when we bought him as a 6yo) so we're taking it slow and there's someone on the ground to give us a nudge in the right direction if its needed.
Contact is something I'm still working on, especially when we're jumping. I think we're heading in the right direction though - it's a lot easier to keep him between my hand and my leg without fiddling with him, which is my biggest bad habit. :redface3:

He's certainly taught me how to ride over the last 8 months, that's for sure... :tongue3:

ETA: we had a fun session today. We warmed up over some trot poles (Beau likes to try to roll them with his nose as he goes over them) and did the ly on a circle exercise in trot and canter to get him working before doing a course of ground poles. He didn't lean on me once and we even managed a few flying changes (first time I've managed to get him to change). It'll be back to flatwork tomorrow though.
 
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