Exercises to improve balance?

[bambar]

Hi All

I've recently purchased a very lovely 5 year old mare, very quiet by nature.

Over the past few days shes been asleep when i ride her. She has started hopping into trot on both reins. She also throws in a little buck when asking to canter (which according to previous owners has always done) but she seems as if shes really working from the front and not from behind and seems to be quite unbalanced.

She has also started pulling at the reins as if shes uncomfortable but doesnt do it when she is actually workign only when she is in lazy plod mode!

She has gone like more of a plod lately than when i first got her 2 weeks ago. She will do a circle in trot then stop dead like ive had enough now and can literally fall asleep on the spot!

I am trying to find an instructor to come out but the only freelance ones i can find in my area are ignoring all messages so seems to be impossible!

Any ideas for exercises I can do to improve her balance?

 

[bambar]

anyone please??

 

[apachediamond]

Transitions, transitions, transitions. My youngster used to hop up into trot when i brought him back into work. We worked through it by coming back to walk every time he hopped into the gait and trying again, good bend, leg on and eventually he stopped doing it. Circles, spirals and serpentine's, anything to help build her strength up. I did pole and hill work too to encourage him to use his back end more.

Youngsters can buck when going into canter due to being unbalanced. I didn't have the bucking issue but have worked through striking on the wrong lead on his stiff rein. Exaggerated bend to the inside, so we would work on a 10m circle in trot, a good active, working trot, inside leg on to encourage the bend and bring his inside hind under and off he would go perfectly. Anything less and he would be on the wrong leg and go off like a motorbike. Cantering out on a hack is another good way to establish the gait without the constraints of arena walls/fences.

I've found with J that consistency is key, ignore the mistakes and reward the good.

Was she in work when you got her? I spent a lot of time (probably 8-10 weeks) just working in walk and trot to build him up and work on his straightness, suppleness and bend, then we moved on to canter and a few weeks later introduced jumps.

 

[chestnut cob]

Another whose horse did the hopping into trot thing. He did it because he wasn't pushing through properly so didn't have the power to go forwards into trot - he went "up" instead and hollowed. As above, make sure you've got bend, a good balanced walk (in the case of my horse, not too fast) and keep the softness in the transition. Mine (he is 8 now) will still occasionally do it if he's trying to avoid working properly. I do as above; bring him back to walk, bend and soften, and ask again. He can be a bit over-excitable at times and it's something he does if he is tense, ie not working through properly.

RE the stopping dead thing... how fit is she? If she's really unfit then that needs working on with plenty of hacking. If she's being rude and lazy then you need to make sure she's going off your leg and listening to you. She should be expected to maintain the gait you put her in until you ask her to change something. That said, if she's unfit and not very balanced or strong then she won't be able to do loads of schooling anyway. You will need to build it up slowly. If I think back to when mine first started "proper" schooling as a 6yo (he'd only hunted and hacked up until then really), he struggled to maintain a proper canter for more than a circle. Just had to build it up gradually.