Getting my horse back in shape and balanced ?

[Chestnoot]

Hello !

I bought a lovely mare about 5 weeks ago, Ive had issues with the saddle she came with not fitting, but saddle fitter and back lady has been out to see her. New saddle should be here in 2 weeks and other than some tenseness in her shoulders and neck she has no issues from the previous saddle. Shes currently having a few weeks off until her saddle gets here .

Shes very unbalanced in her shoulders due to compensating for a slipping saddle, how do I go about getting her balanced ? I also want to build her fitness back up and work on getting her nice and supple.

We currently only have hacking until the rain calms the heck down enough for us to be able to ride in the fields and finish building the arena at the yard.

TIA !

 

[wkiwi]

hacking is best for what you want to start with anyway. Lots of active walking in straight lines, idealy with some gradual hills (making sure she goes up and down straight and doesn't swing her quarters). Depending on how unfit she is, introduce short periods of trot making sure she goes forward actively. Avoid lunging/small circles etc. until you have a reasonable level of fitness.

. You can work on manners, contact, teaching stretch, activity, tempo changes at walk, walk-halt transitions, flexion, maybe a little lateral work (much better done on a hack than in the school), leg responses etc. etc.
Too many people want to rush in and try to fix tenseness/imbalances by working in a school and starting trot and canter circles etc. but this puts greater strain on the body to start with, and then people wonder why their horses get grumpy when they know they have to go into the arena and/or have terrible walks in dressage.
Of course you will get lots of different versions of what to do though, showing that most horses improve with any sort of regular work, but i find that lots of active walking early on (e.g. 2-3 weeks up to 1 - 1 1/2 hours each day) works for any horse (unless recommended otherwise by vet etc) and helps you build up a good partnership too without the pressure of going 'into the gym'.

 

[Pearlsasinger]

hacking is best for what you want to start with anyway. Lots of active walking in straight lines, idealy with some gradual hills (making sure she goes up and down straight and doesn't swing her quarters). Depending on how unfit she is, introduce short periods of trot making sure she goes forward actively. Avoid lunging/small circles etc. until you have a reasonable level of fitness.

. You can work on manners, contact, teaching stretch, activity, tempo changes at walk, walk-halt transitions, flexion, maybe a little lateral work (much better done on a hack than in the school), leg responses etc. etc.
Too many people want to rush in and try to fix tenseness/imbalances by working in a school and starting trot and canter circles etc. but this puts greater strain on the body to start with, and then people wonder why their horses get grumpy when they know they have to go into the arena and/or have terrible walks in dressage.
Of course you will get lots of different versions of what to do though, showing that most horses improve with any sort of regular work, but i find that lots of active walking early on (e.g. 2-3 weeks up to 1 - 1 1/2 hours each day) works for any horse (unless recommended otherwise by vet etc) and helps you build up a good partnership too without the pressure of going 'into the gym'.

Exactly what I was going to write.

 

[wkiwi]

Exactly what I was going to write.

 

[Chestnoot]

Thank you for the response this is very helpful ! We have a lot of hills where we are so ill start working her on the gentler ones and work our way up to the steeper ones ��

Fitness wise shes alright doing a 40 minute hack - mostly walking with a varied amount of trotting and a tiny canter. Gets her nicely out of breath without compeltely wearing her out. Anymore than that and shes shattered bless her XD ive been trying to make sure shes slightly out of puff eberytime shes ridden.

Of shess more unbalanced on one side shpuld i be focusing on flexing her more to that side ? She knows how to.leg yeild so i was thinking of doing a bit of that while were oit hacking to improve her balance. Or shpuld i just be focusing on her fitness first ?

 

[ester]

If she has been compensating I would be making sure she is working evenly and straightly as much as possible.
I really enjoyed doing straightness training with my lad and it might be something you would like to look at? No need for a school but good at 1) learning to spot when they are working evenly and correctly, 2) training good muscle development.

 

[wkiwi]

I would do a bit of flexion while out hacking, but personally i skip leg-yielding in favour of shoulder-in (personal preference for various reasons). If you can make sure she is going in straight lines with a nice contact into both reins then she will start to develop more even muscles anyway though. Sounds like you have ideal hacking though if you have easily accessible hills available (jealous!).
You don't need to make her a bit puffed every time she's ridden; you can give give her a slightly harder work out every 4-7 days but the most important things are gradual increase but not causing any muscles to be sore (so she doesn't resent the work).
I'm sure you're already doing it, but make sure you are rising on both diagonals at trot with a bit of extra time on the stiffer diagonal (building up distance).

 

[Chestnoot]

She definitely would benefit from some straightness training, shes taken to drifting to the right. Is there anything specifically i should be looking at for straightness training ?

Thank you

 

[ester]

http://straightnesstraining.com/


start with the free ebook.

I did start with a standard cavesson but found things easier with a cheap covered linked noseband (bit like this one https://www.kramer.co.uk/Cavesson.htm?websale8=kraemer-pferdesport.47-GB&pi=540101&ci=263159) so I could be more specific with my instructions. I was doing it with an older pony 23/24 with a hock spavin, it really helped keep him supple and his muscles uptogether and enabled me to really learn how to look at posture and will be a tool when I use in future.