Falling in

[TheCurlyPony]

I could really do with some advice please. My ponio is 5 and falls in quiet badly on the left rein. Im askin for a bend with my left rein and openin up my right rein and keepin my left leg on and try pushing him over. What am i doin wrong as he doesnt seem to be improving. All suggestions and ideas welcome. Thank you.

 

[Rooji]

I find carrying a whip in your hand on the side they mainly fall in on helps a lot - when you fee them falling in just rest it down their shoulder - it just makes my boy think about it rather than falling in .

 

[BFG]

Try to straighten his neck so he is not carrying too much to the inside. Asking for too much bend will be very difficult for a 5 year old because he won’t have the strength needed to carry his weight on his inside hind.

Make sure his is listening to your inside leg buy riding a small circle (in walk) and asking him to move off your inside leg increasing the size of the circle.

You are not doing anything wrong you just have a young unbalanced horse and it will take time to teach him to balance himself and have confidence and strength to carry himself from behind.

 

[AddyKan]

My new lad ( 4 yr old) was falling in really badly on the left rein. In fact if I was going down the right hand long side of the arena and I left him to it he went diagonally across the arena and ended up in the left hand corner!!!!

I found that instead of doing cirlces ( as I was getting no where on them) I've started doing squares so was concentrating on keeping him straight with no falling in. I also exagarated(sp?) putting my weight down in to the outside leg. Then as post above says I moved on to circles where I leg yielded in and out slowly. ( making cirlces smaller and then bigger) as I thought this would re enforce what my leg meant. I did it on the right rein first as he found this rein easier then did it on the left. As he's got stronger, and understands my aids more he has def been falling in less. Slow and steady work but you'll get there in the end.

 

[TheCurlyPony]

Thanks everyone for your replies. Ill give these ideas a try.

 

[Kenzo]

Just another point to add, not to do with your riding but sometimes this can be over looked, making sure your surface is level in your school and that you are not creating a track forming either along side your school or around the corners, otherwise its harder to improve what you are trying to do with your riding.