Falling in and falling out

[PercyBrown]

Hi Guys can you give me some suggestions for exercises to help with falling in on right rein and falling out on left rein, horse also finds it difficult to bend the correct way i.e. bends to out side on turns if she can, have been doing leg yield on a circle and she can do it a little and is gradually beginning to accept inside rein to outside hand but still very stiff .....so any other ideas

 

[j1ffy]

Falling in on the right and falling out on the left suggests that she is stronger on her right shoulder and therefore putting more weight down her right (off) foreleg - all horses are right / left legged in the same way as we are right / left-handed. In addition, they will bend to the right of left more easily and may have an opposite bias on their hindlegs to their forelegs - who said dressage is easy?!

You need to encourage her to carry her weight more evenly across both shoulders. Try doing some counter-flexion on the left rein on a 20m circle until she learns to balance correctly (you should be able to feel the shift in weight) and keep on an inner track on the left, as she's like to drift out on that rein through the right shoulder.

On the right rein, make sure you have correct bend and good flexion to the inside. You can use the "indirect" rein aid with the inside rein (move your hands to the outside so your right rein pushes against the horse's neck, but make sure you don't pull back) to encourage her to shift more weight onto the left shoulder and also to maintain the flexion.

Work on all this in walk to start with until she learns to balance, then in a steady trot - make sure you don't rush her. I found that after a few schooling sessions working on this, my horse began to correct his own balance.

If she's a bit stiff, try doing some carrot stretches with her on the ground. If you go on youtube and search for carrot stretches you should find some good videos on how to do these

 

[PercyBrown]

Thankyou will have a go at these