Getting a horse to go forward

kirstyfk

kirstyfk

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My new horse is coming on really nicely and has improved so much since I got her, however, I have 1 major problem. I can't get her to go forward when trotting. She is fairly active but really slow and I can't get her working through from behind. Kicking does nothing and when I smack her she kicks out and goes slower. At the moment medium trot is a no go! Any ideas, please help!

Also her canter is really weak/flat any exercises to help that.

Here is a video to show how she is going. This is probably the most active she has been. Maybe she just doesn't like being schooled at home!

http://s65.photobucket.com/albums/h221/kirstyfk/Gigha/?action=view&current=78261f0f.flv
 
I learnt a really good trick last night. From halt, prepare to trot but only ask very lightly and if the horse doesn't go straight away, give a massive pony club kick and throw the reins forward, so the horse goes staight off your leg and into canter. try again and after a couple of times you should find the horse is moving away from your leg much better -make sure you give with your hands though, or you will confuse her.

Just looking at your vid - she appears to be going plenty fast enough, but needs to engage her quarters more and dont fall into the trap of nagging her to go forwards. Ive been having the same problems with my horse, so I know what you're up against!
 
I forgot to ask how old she is? My horse is 8 and has been well schooled so he should know better and just needs to be reminded that he's supposed to be working, but if she is very young you might need to take a different approach...
 
She's 14 but she hasn't done much lately. But her owner did some dressage on her and I know she has won some RC prelim dressage. I know I need some lessons badly but it is so frustrating!
 
same problems as I have with Ryu, hes gradually going more forward with a lighter aid but you have to be really disiplined, I rode with two whips for a little while, give a light aid if the horse doesn't go then tap tap, as soon as they drop behind the leg again, little squeeze no response then tap tap, TBH there was lots of bucking until he accepted the schooling whips but it paid off, I've now replaced them with spurs, and hes engaing his back end loads more and I'm finding I can keep my legs still (finally!!) I had a fancy lesson with a GP rider and she had me going from trot slamming on the breaks then trot off again using the whips if the reaction wasn't instant this got him listening too.
 
It looks like you need to take up more of a contact on her as well and push her into your hands a bit more. Lots of transitions will help, direct and indirect. Shoulder in will also help her bring her qu under her. Don't worry about the speed, either. If she is engaging her qu but going really slow, thats fine, she will speed up a little as she builds up strength.
 
Hi Kirsty. I had a quick look at the vid which wasn't that easy to watch with my slow internet connection here, but the horse looks super to me - are you sure you're not just used to a smaller/faster moving animal? It could just be that you have to get used to her movement - it would be ideal to have a lesson soon to see what your instructor thinks from the ground.

You obviously want to build on the lengthening thing so you do have to find a way of being able to build the energy so that you can just 'let her go' into a longer trot (should I say more elevated?), so lots of exercises to get her working from behind, plenty of transitions so she's hanging on your every word, so to speak. Use anticipation to your advantage - after several repeat requests for trot-canter-trot-canter she'll be anticipating the upward transition - use that anticipation to build the trot.

You can try to 'cheat' by sharpening her up with some spurs, but I'm not convinced that this is a laziness thing - she may just fall flat on her face & run downhill... You need to be thinking of creating energy, not speed.

Don't be tempted to drop the front end - you are not aiming to increase the SPEED, just the elevation, impulsion, energy, activity - all of these things mean you need to STOP the energy from going out the front door. Try to think of building it UP rather than OUT.

As I say though - I think you both look super!
 
I had the same problem with my youngster, although this was more a confidence issue, he still can go a bit "backward" but on the whole a lot better.

I found flapping the reins over his neck from side to side to encourage forward movement (like the old pony club days) and a couple of longer bits of rope tied onto the end of your schooling whip, about 6 inches in length, just the fine cord stuff is great, then waft this up and down, they will go forward to get away from it, obviously it does not touch the body, just waves around in the air!!

The real key was hacking out, where he learned to enjoy going forward without going round the school getting bored!!

~Good luck, sure you'll get there, if we can, anyone can!!
 
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