Exercises for loosening/opening the shoulders and lengthening foreleg stride

Tr0uble

Tr0uble

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The boy is doing well now, I think, his balance is coming along lovely in trot, and canter is following at a pace I think is normal for such a big horse....

he has a lovely active back end, nice hind leg action and CAN stride out nicely in front...but he IS a draught horse, and does have a more upright shoulder than, say, a WB or TB might typically have....

We have only done 4 comps now, two successful, one a disaster and one half and half...so I'm starting to feel that within the next I'll be able to genuinely say he is established at Prelim. (remember he's not yet 5, but has the mileage of a 4 year old as he was turned away for most of 2011 due to my smashed kneecap and subsequent surgery)

So...the point of the post, I would like to START my action plan for moving up to Novice, with a view to doing so later this summer...I think the one thing that will consistently nobble us is that in a comp situation, i.e. Higher stress than at home, the tension creeps in and hos shoulders are where the tension manifests itself...and we end up with nice back end stride but slightly choppy front end stride.

I'm working on spirals in and out on a circle, shoulder in, leg yield in walk and trot, "throwing" him out of a shoulder then evening up the contact again, transitions up and down, giving him a good blast in canter to warm up....and all of these things do work...and after 20 mins or so, at home, I get a stride that would do us proud at Novice....but at comps I'm limited on space for warm up, and also I have the extra tension to battle.

So, any other exercises I can try? Any tips for a solid warm up at shows?

I'm having regular lessons (twice a month approx) with a couple of diff instructors...one is the owner of one of the comp venues so gets to see how he goes differently in Lessons to comps. But I'm sure there are some pearls of wisdom on here that I can benefit from!

To illustrate what I mean...in this pic he is not quite at the full stride, and I know the back leg will step through more, but that foreleg will go down where is is in the pic

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At home he loosens up much better

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I'm well aware he is no WB, and will never have the chin kicking action of a WB! But I a.so know that the stride length is there....I'm just not consistently unlocking it!
 
Oh, and one other point, I've not really played much with actual lengthening, as in medium strides, because so far he's not had enough sit so sort of tips on to his head!

He probably is strong enough to start trying that now though.
 
poles in a fan on a circle so you can leg yeild out to a longer stride but also collect him up again on the smaller circle to help his balance.
 
Tr0uble said:
The boy is doing well now, I think, his balance is coming along lovely in trot, and canter is following at a pace I think is normal for such a big horse....

he has a lovely active back end, nice hind leg action and CAN stride out nicely in front...but he IS a draught horse, and does have a more upright shoulder than, say, a WB or TB might typically have....

I'm working on spirals in and out on a circle, shoulder in, leg yield in walk and trot, "throwing" him out of a shoulder then evening up the contact again, transitions up and down, giving him a good blast in canter to warm up....and all of these things do work...and after 20 mins or so, at home, I get a stride that would do us proud at Novice....but at comps I'm limited on space for warm up, and also I have the extra tension to battle.

QUOTE]

Great news that he is coming along so well. We also do the exercises above with Pig which are really beneficial, but like you struggle in a tight warm up such as Tweseldown this weekend. In the school last week R's trainer was having them leg yielding in and out on a circle with the aim of getting Pig to come out of her frame as she carries herself quite high and feels safe there. I was surprised when the trainer added in going large in between and doing some canter loops and then counter canter loops, in addition they were doing of shoulder fore on both reins , anything that was encouraging flexion and then release. Oddly the transformation in her was amazing and she really stretched down and released her neck which ordinarily is something she does not do.
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pointing out the chuffing obvious first (apologies), make sure saddle is back far enough and not impinging.
umm, contra-shoulder-in in walk (i've explained it elsewhere on here, really should get it video'd cos it's a great exercise but a nightmare to explain!) until horse is really stepping across, then change bend and pop up to trot or canter, and you get WOW strides from the start.
lots of lateral work obv.
really not sure what you mean by '"throwing" him out of a shoulder then evening up the contact again' but that sounds a bit drastic...?!
the more weight he takes behind the more he should feel confident and have the time to take a bigger step in front. if the rein-back is good then i'd play with rein-back to trot...
 
Sorry "throwing" is poss a bad description! What I mean is letting the outside, or inside, go completely and strong flex to either the inside or outside (so if he's leaning in, flex strongly to the inside using inside leg amd rein) then when he "gives" and goes out through that shoulder, pick up the outside rein again....that's not a great explanation but it works so well on him....

Saddle fits and is well behind his shoulders....though he does have MASSIVE shoulders!

Rein back is in early stages...sometimes he does it very well...other times he seems to lose his understanding of I'm asking....fully possible that's my fault, it's something I'm planning to bring up in my next lesson (have two clinics on 28th amd 29th so can tacle lots then)
 
Just tried doing a search on your contra shoulder in explaination amd can't find anything....I'm intrigued!
 
I have a PRE who is learning to lengthen we first started it with JLC & she decided that Shoulder in or the lesser Shoulder fore would help best to open the shoulders.

Im not sure what you mean by flexing & more on the rein his leaning in on?

What i would do is flex to the inside but NOT let go of the outside rein. Why would you want to let him run through the outside shoulder?? Letting him out through the shoulder could cause him to start evading the outside contact which will then make SI troublesome in the future it also means he has a place to escape actually bending because he can run through the unguarded shoulder.

What you need to do is work on keeping the shoulder & varying the bend of the shoulder fore or shoulder in. This would help him to not lean & start moving the ribs over.
 
Get a good ESMA or EBW sports massage therapist to show you how to apply massage and do stretches to maximise the range of movement of the shoulder. You can then incorporate those into your warm up routine when away from home.

Ditto the comment about checking that your saddle isn't impinging on the scapula.......evented one horse for years in an Albion XC saddle which I loved. A pro rider who shared the ride hated it and one day he made me have a lesson in one of his saddles; the difference was phenomenal.
 
NR99 said:
Tr0uble said:
QUOTE]

Great news that he is coming along so well. We also do the exercises above with Pig which are really beneficial, but like you struggle in a tight warm up such as Tweseldown this weekend. In the school last week R's trainer was having them leg yielding in and out on a circle with the aim of getting Pig to come out of her frame as she carries herself quite high and feels safe there. I was surprised when the trainer added in going large in between and doing some canter loops and then counter canter loops, in addition they were doing of shoulder fore on both reins , anything that was encouraging flexion and then release. Oddly the transformation in her was amazing and she really stretched down and released her neck which ordinarily is something she does not do.
Click to expand...

Totally agree with this.....
And as an extra, why not, in between exercise, allow horse to stretch down on a loose rein for a few minutes. Then take up the rein again.
Very nice horse by the way.
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Dirtymare said:
NR99 said:
Totally agree with this.....
And as an extra, why not, in between exercise, allow horse to stretch down on a loose rein for a few minutes. Then take up the rein again.
Very nice horse by the way.
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Oh, yeah he gets walk and stretch breaks very frequently throughout a session. Only a bubby still so I don't like to push him for a long period....not at the size he is! Lol!

Thanks Kerilli, I'll have a read of those links now!

The letting go of the outside thing is a correction to his favourite evasion. Keeping hold of the outside rein doesnt work, letting him run out through it for just a few strides, then rebalancing really really does work...is a trick that instructor yaught me in my last lesson and since then his responsiveness laterally has come on in leaps and bounds, and I now rarely find him over loading his inside shoulder...and if he does I just give the outside rein, flex to the inside, and then rode forward on an even contact again and he's centred again....it's an exaggerated spiral outwards essentially!

As NR99 mentions...the flex and release, it's an exaggerated way of doing that. Before my last lesson I was trying the same principle, but keeping control of the outside, and it was helping a bit, but not quite getting is there....letting go of the outside pushes him out lf a comfort zone and gives me back the control, as well as making him balance and soften laterally.

Schooled him tonight amd concentrated on rein back to trot and insisting on a real forward move from the rein back to trot....seemed to do some good (we got a rein back to canter transition at one point!) and also shoulder in to trot, spirals in trot then canter on the first straight stride. We definitely got some nice loose strides, bit I also reckon that tonight was e most 'up' in his frame I've had him, he was lovely and light (and I have to say his response forwards to my leg and seat is really coming on!)

Def need help with actual stride lengthening FLR medium strides, I did try tonight but he broke to canter each time....sure it's me not asking right though!
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Ah...reading that second link, Kerilli, I reckon what I'm doing is very similar, bit on a circle! You mention leaving an "open door" which is what I meant by giving away the outside rein and pushing them on to the outside shoulder...I think, anyway!

Because the aim of my exercise is not only to increase hos suppleness/flexion...it's to push him off his inside shoulder (favourite evasion is to overload his inside shoulder and use his size and gravity to motor round instead of using himself to get round!) it seems to ne more effective to give away the outside completely, rather than just the open door theory (which is what I was doing previously, and the aim is to bet back to that)
 
that sounds fine. i give away the outside completely, i have been taught that it is the inside rein contact that should be elastic and continuous (but, once totally established, able to be given away too of course) and my horses don't escape through their outside shoulder if i give away the outside rein... i think that's what i meant by 'open door', yes. in any exercise you have to make it really clear to the horse which way you want him to go and how he can keep you happy and avoid pressure, and this is how i do it in this exercise... if you don't, they can get a bit confused and jibby.
 
Another exercise you could play with is counter bend. So in other words bend towards the outside of your circle/direction. I have seen this exercise work wonders for opening up the shoulders and increasing suppleness.Try in walk to begin with then proceed into trot once he has got the idea.
 
If you open up the angle of the shoulder in so that it becomes nearer to four track then it has a greater influence on the suppleness of the shoulders, works well as a counter shoulder in towards the fence, with one of mine who is quite tight through the shoulders I make the angle as deep as I can without losing the 1/4's. If you can 'guard' the outside shoulder throughout the exercise it will lighten the inside shoulder too.
 
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