Falling in on right rein - experiences please!

[Barklands]

Young horse is just being ridden away but is rather a wonky donkey and falls in through the inside shoulder on the right rein. Unusually for being newly backed she is very sharp off the leg so this is making it slightly tricky in that when I ask for inside bend with inside leg she pops up a gear.

I have a few schooling exercises in mind to play with over the next few weeks but if anyone has any clever ideas please send them my way! Also, if anyone has had the same issue how long did it take for your youngsters to grasp?

I have the back lady coming out anyway in a few weeks so she will get a once over to check no stiffness or soreness is exasperating.

 

[abbijay]

I had this with the shire I had on loan.
He was 7 but had only been backed and hacked for about 3 months when he came to me and had never seen the inside of an arena. He was also sharp!
I can't recall the exact journey but i know teaching shoulder fore was when we really started to crack it, ie. we got some control over the shoulders. I'm pretty sure we did quite a few squares in walk too - starting with turn on the forehand then progressing to proper corners/quarter piris. Once i had the basic idea established I discovered that, for this horse, spurs were transformational. He could be a big opinionated brute and I found using spurs meant he couldn't take over - if he started to push through his shoulder a little nudge with the spur regained his balance when he didn't respect a leg aid. He'd try it a few times when warming up and then realise he couldn't and would work correctly. Although it remained his default evasion for as long as he was with me - if you didn't get him straight in the first five minutes you may as well give up on the whole ride!
If it gives you confidence he was out at BD prelim with me 5 months after arriving so we must've got some level of control of the shoulders by then.
He had served as a stallion in his youth, more than one person suggested that this could have played a part in his lop-sidedness.

 

[Barklands]

Some great suggestions and very reassuring - thank you!

This mare had a foal prior to being broken so I wonder if that is a contributing factor in her lop-sidedness!

 

[TheMule]

Falls in through right shoulder? Don’t try to bend inside! It’s almost impossible from the position and won’t correct the problem. You need to gain control of the shoulders through shoulder fore in walk on both reins, then shoulder out on both reins, then renvers on both reins, until you can put the shoulder wherever you want it and the horse has the strength to hold that positioning. Once established, ride renvers on the right rein so the horse has to bend to the inside but keep sitting on the outside shoulder. Once you can do that, then you can start to reintroduce the concept of bending right but keeping the shoulders in line with the body

 

[maya2008]

I fix this by riding very much leg to hand. So first, practise getting them to bend around your inside leg until that is nicely sorted (1/2 sessions) then lots of bending with circles and squares and random any kind of shapes to engage that rear hind leg and get it to come under and support them. Horses are like us in that they come right handed or left handed. As adults you cannot tell because schooling makes them even, but newly backed there is always one rein better than another (unless fixed on the lunge or by groundwork first). Until the hind leg comes forward and under to support, they will continue to fall in.